The former Church of St. John the Baptist in Saint John will soon become home to creative entrepreneurs and organizations following yet another sale.
Earlier this week, Seth Asimakos, the General Manager and Co-founder of Kaleidoscope, confirmed that the social impact and development organization had acquired the nearly 140-year-old structure located at 58 Broad Street in the city’s south end.
Described to Huddle as “a multi-year project” by Asimakos, the former church will undergo continued renovation to the main cathedral and its nearby rectory.
“We were planning to purchase a similar kind of building, and it just fell through,” said Asimakos.
He reached out to the previous owner David Alston on May 10, the same day Alston had posted on social media that he would be listing the building after his vision for Climb 1884, a project that would have transformed the space into an indoor climbing gym, wouldn’t be moving forward there.
“I just followed up right away, and we got into a discussion that day,” said Asimakos. “He also put me on to the owner of the rectory property next door, and I started discussions with both.”
Climb 1884, named after the year the church was built, would have put climbers closer to the amazing gothic architecture under a ceiling 42 feet high. Image: Climb 1884
With Kaleidoscope having already forged plans of creating another space for creative entrepreneurs, Asimakos says he had already been in touch with a few organizations on acquiring such a space like the former church for mixed-use opportunities.
Alston stated this week on social media that he was glad to see Asimakos and Kaleidoscope’s team taking over the space he had previously tried to re-imagine, and ultimately fell in love with, despite not continuing at the site with Climb 1884.
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“In the coming months and years, we look forward to seeing their team bring their vision to reality with the church becoming a space for entrepreneurs, artists, and enterprising non-profits and the property behind the church transforming into much-needed housing here in the city, including affordable housing options,” Alston wrote.
Asimakos says the area made sense, adding the rectory property alone is suitable for future residential development.
“We like creating mixed-use spaces and believe that those are really good developments,” said Asimakos, who says operating a social enterprise has indeed helped to leverage other spin-offs when it comes to finding spaces to put innovative people together.
As for the right space to call home, Asimakos says there wasn’t anything on the market like the structure to build on, much less have a surrounding property that could accommodate further development.
He says plans for the former church will see it go through a three-to-four-year development but adds that the timeline is parallel to other real estate initiatives that Kaleidoscope is actively building and renovating.
Good bones, endless possibilities
If Alston’s Climb 1884 endeavour for the site did anything, it was alleviating much of the critical renovation work for Asimakos, with plenty of work already having been completed to the shell of the cathedral section itself.
“They put on a new roof which is great, and some brickwork, so the shell is in good shape,” remarked Asimakos. “It’s basically a blank page to be able to do what we want to do,” he continued.
“The gutting that they’ve already done, they’ve put some money into it.”
With so much of the grunt work already out of the way, Asimakos says he hopes some of the first partners will be able to start calling the space home by the end of next fall, though more work is necessary.
“I imagine that we will build it out over 12-to-18 months and be finished with the cathedral at that point.” Asimakos shared, before adding development plans for the rectory site would soon follow.
He feels the cathedral itself would be a good fit for anywhere from three-to-six potential units suitable for an enterprise or nonprofit operation.
He also said Brilliant Labs is a group that’s working with Kaleidoscope specifically for space possibilities, in addition to the IDEA Centre in Saint John, with others showing interest since the building’s announced sale.
Asimakos confirmed they’ll be working with the same architect who helped Alston at the site, calling it “an easy transition” for any projects that will be considered for the building going forward.
With so much no possible for future tenants, Asimakos says he feels right at home already with such an original structure that will house the types of entrepreneurs and organizations that already help make up the entrepreneurial fabric of the city’s uptown in particular.
“It’s like Kaleidoscope — this whole idea of diversity, diversity of impact and, and the mixed uses,” said Asimakos, who adds the former Saint John Community Loan Fund’s rebrand to its current namesake is symbolic of exactly that.
“You pick up a kaleidoscope and depending on how you turn it, you see something differently,” he explained. “For us looking at a place like this, we do see real opportunities and different impacts that can be created from such a property.”
Tyler Mclean is a reporter for Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
