Fredericton’s Train Station: Some Numbers
Posted by Lamespotting on 22 Jun 2009 at 04:00 am | Tagged as: Fredericton, landuse
There’s a lot of debate about what to do with the train station. I’ve briefly mentioned it before in a post, but I’ve been curious about why nobody has already fixed it up on their own. To be honest, it doesn’t matter to me whether they tear it down or fix it up. I’m actually going to try to be objective here.
Unfortunately, nobody has actually measured the building. I had to use the ruler tool in Google Earth to make this estimate, which may end up being very wrong. I am roughly guessing that there is 4000 square feet of usable space in the building.
For the moment, we’ll assume that there will be 4000 square feet of total rentable space.
A few years ago, I was told by a real estate agent that buildings cost $100/sqft to build new. I’m not sure that’s 100% accurate, but that’s the figure we’ll use for now.
So to build a building the same size as the train station, it would cost $400,000. The net rent on a building in the same area is about $8 per square foot per year. This means that it will take 12.5 years to recover the building cost. Operating expenses and taxes aren’t included in the net rent. Usually money has to be reinvested into the building for renovations after about 20 years as parts of it get worn out (like the roof).
The formula used to get the years to ROI is:
(cost to acquire / square feet / net rent)
So for a quick summary, we have:
(400,000 / 4000 / 8 ) = 12.5
Now, many sources tell us that the train station will cost up to $2 million to fix. So plugging it into the formula we get:
(2,000,000 / 4000 / 8 ) = 62.5
Yikes. 62.5 years is definitely not commercially viable at all.
Let’s just run another similar sized building through the formula. We’ll take the Electric Motor Service building as a comparison. On June 22nd 2009, the values given were: Cost: $495,000, sqft: 5881
So we’ll plug them into the formula:
(495,000 / 5881 / 8 ) = 10.5
Depending on the current state of the building, 10.5 years is pretty good.
So for the train station repair to be commercially viable, $1.5 million will have to come from somewhere. It will either be J.D. Irving (who refused to pay much less for the basic maintenance that was required for the station to not get into its current state) or taxpayers (who will not be happy at paying for something that J.D. Irving broke).
You do good work. I wish it was good news that you specialized in but it’s truthful and I admire that a lot.
Hope you don’t mind that I linked to you in today’s blog.
Stay well,
Tim
http://tim4nm.blogspot.com/2009/06/lets-do-some-math-shall-we.html
The problem with the train station is threefold.
1. It’s a Heritage Property. This means that no matter how many people are “outraged”, the “eyesore” cannot be torn down. It simply cannot be removed, although it can be altered or restored. The freight shed in the rear of the building is not original to the station and can legally be removed, but only during a renovation or restoration as I understand it (I’m not a lawyer).
2. Although the property cannot be torn down, there is no law that states that the building must be maintained. Municipal laws governing “eyesores” and building appearances do not apply in this scenario because the Heritage properties Act is a federal ruling. The owner of the station, in this case Irving (by virtue of having purchased the New Brunswick Railway, and all improvements and buildings situated on same property, in the 1940s), does not currently feel that the cost of renovations to the station is money well spent.
3. The train station in McAdam was sold to the town for the nominal cost of $1.00 because the real estate market in McAdam is flat. The real estate market in Fredericton is a different story, because the station is sitting on potentially valuable downtown acreage. Look at the Sobeys store on Regent, it’s built on the former railway yard. Problem is – the station can’t be ripped down, so how can you use the land? Let the station fall down due to neglect, that’s how.
We can’t let that happen. Yes, I’m a historical preservationist, and as stated in one of your prior posts, we have been around since the cessation of rail service in this city, and unfortunately we have accomplished very little within the last 15 years. This is because the owning entity wishes not to do anything about the property. Meanwhile, as different levels of government do nothing other than weak posturing – I’m looking at you, Mayor Woodside – the station continues to degrade with no visitors other than vandals, “urban archaeologists” and pigeons.
Fredericton has a rich rail history and this deserves to be acknowledged.
I think that preserving our heritage is important, but this building is probably a lost cause.
We can’t save everything, nor should we. If we keep claiming heritage status for every building that gets old (which is a relative term) then eventually we’d live in a country that’s a monument for the dead.
If the Irvings hadn’t let the building get into disrepair then I might be for saving it, but at this point I’m sure the building would have to be demolished to restore it. A facsimile isn’t the original so it would have no intrinsic value.
If a private group wants to try and save it then I’d support that but I’d rather my tax dollars be spent on other things, including the preservation of buildings that have a chance.
But therein lies the rub – we’re so conditioned to think that “the government will fix it” that it’s not funny. No one said anything about “tax dollars”. When I mentioned different levels of government doing nothing in my previous post, I was referring to Mayor Woodside’s “fix it or I’ll do something about it” posturing that appeared in the Gleaner, but accomplished nothing.
The Irvings (at least, the New Brunswick Railway, or whatever Irving-owned corporate entity it was folded into) have done absolutely nothing to the station, and this is both positive and negative. This is by far not the only Irving-owned building in the province that has been left to rot. It’s just not a revenue-producing building, at least for the moment.
Problem is, the station is not public property, so taxpayer dollars can’t be used unless the station is transferred to the city, the province or federal care. Only Irving can allow any kind of work to be done. Even volunteers must have official permission to sink dollar one into the place. And what makes you think that the building must be demolished before restoration? The walls and roof need some work, so the whole thing comes down? Bueller?
And lastly, this is the kind of heritage that needs protection. Railroads, in most peoples’ eyes, are a quaint relic of a bygone period, but not really in tune with today’s cutting edge of technology. And when was the last time you saw anything in this city related to the once-critical shipping element? Where are the old wharves and warehouses? Gone, replaced, never to be seen again. The station may be a relic, but it’s still here and should be saved.
I’m well aware of who owns the property, and nothing can be done until Irving deals with it. I wasn’t saying that work should be done in spite of Irving’s rights to the land. I understand the principles of private property.
If a private group can convince Irving to sell them the land and undertake the repair costs that’s fine and dandy.
With Lamespotting’s (admittedly) rough numbers I can’t see a commercial interest undertaking the cost.
Modern structures aren’t built to last, and we’re seeing that with the train station. It’s been in disrepair for only a short time and look how completely unsafe it looks.