Moncton hosts public 'ideas workshop' for downtown centre

People will have a chance to share their ideas for the proposed Moncton Downtown Centre Wednesday night at a public meeting at city hall that begins at 6:30 p.m.

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City spokesperson Isabelle LeBlanc says public input was included as part of the plan when the $91.5 million contract was awarded to Bird Capital.

"There are certain things in and around the whole property that can have some public input, so we've decided to put together an ideas workshop for the public," LeBlanc said in an interview on Information Morning Moncton.

The public session will focus on plaza design and public art, programming inside and outside of the facility, architecture, transportation and parking

LeBlanc says the plaza will be a large space in front of the building which can be used for "just about anything," including entertainment.

"This is going to be a crowning jewel at the city of Moncton, and so we want to make sure that we can certainly cater to what residents and visitors will want … we want to make sure we hit the mark," she said.

LeBlanc says residents have already shared some thoughts on the architecture of the building, including comments such as, "either it's too colourful, not colourful enough. Will it stand the test of time, is it modern enough?"

Wednesday night's meeting will include a presentation, followed by break-out sessions where citizens can share their ideas.

"People will throw out ideas, we will put all of those ideas together and we will make them public in a few days or a few weeks on our website and through social media," LeBlanc said.

The ideas will be presented to city council in the new year.

Information session for contractors

A separate session is being held Wednesday night at 5:30 for contractors and sub-contractors who are interested in providing goods or services to the project and to learn about the tendering process

LeBlanc says so far more than 80 have registered for the session.

"Bird came up with the idea of perhaps holding an information session, so that instead of answering 15, 20 times they could have everybody in one room, and everybody gets the exact same information and so we supported that," said LeBlanc.

Construction of the Downtown Centre is expected to begin in the spring of 2016 with the grand opening slated for the fall of 2018.