Saint John is on track for a milestone year when it comes to development, members of the city’s growth committee heard this week.
Kevin Molnar, manager of customer service and operations, gave an overview of development numbers from January to July.
“The first seven months of 2025 represent the strongest start to a year we’ve ever recorded in Saint John,” said Molnar.
“The value of construction of projects has reached $254.1 million, over three times our five-year average of $77.9 million.”
Two new schools — one in the north end and one in the south end — account for around $100 million of that total.
But Molnar said even if you take those out of the equation, development activity is still the highest on record for the first seven months of any year.
“This shows our growth is broad-based and diversified, not dependent on any one project or sector. The strong start is being driven by activity across all sectors, institutional, residential, commercial, and industrial,” he added.
In total, the city received 439 building permits during the first seven months of this year, slightly higher than the five-year average of 421 permits.
Molnar said 276 new residential units have come online so far this year, and more than 450 others are either under construction or nearing completion.
“We also have 16 additional developments in the pipeline, which together propose over 1,050 new residential units,” he said.
With several large projects still to be permitted, Molnar said they expect this momentum to continue well into the final few months of the year.
