The Saint John Theatre Company is asking for help from the city.
The company has requested a $1-million pledge to help transform the former Saint John County Courthouse on Sydney Street into a performance venue.
The request is based on the needs of the theatre company and the project.
“More than that, we are looking for the city to send a strong and clear simple of its support for this project,” Stephen Tobias, executive director for the Saint John Theatre Company, said during the city’s growth committee meeting on Tuesday.
Paulette Hicks, CEO of Envision Saint John, was also part of the meeting.
Hicks said the transformation of the courthouse would attract and grow businesses across Saint John.
“We’ve looked at the numbers that have been shared from the Saint John Theatre Company team, an additional 1,000 performers, and special events that would come in the first five years, so again that would feed into the data in analyzing why this would be a good project from an investment perspective.”
Envision Saint John estimates the project will result in:
- More than 200 jobs being created (through construction and once operations begin)
- More than $9.5 million of labour income impacts from construction
- More than $1.2 million of annual labour income impacts from operations
- More than $15 million GDP impact from construction
- More than $1.5 million annual GDP impact from operations
In 2021, the project was estimated to cost $17.9 million, however, due to an increase in construction costs, and supply changes over the last year, the estimate has increased by approximately 10 per cent to between $19.5 million and $20 million.
So far, $7 million in funding has been secured from several provincial and federal grants, as well as private donations.
