"Saint John is in Play": How Cardinal Suites Found Momentum in the Saint John Region
When you drive along Loch Lomond Road, it’s hard to miss the progress taking shape. Cardinal Suites, a new 48-unit building, stands complete with tenants moving in, and a second building is nearing completion. What now feels like a natural addition to the east side landscape began as an idea between two long-time business partners and evolved into a multi-phase development responding to both market demand and the momentum building across the Saint John Region.
Toronto natives Michael Goldenberg and Paul Mangion have worked together for more than 15 years in mortgage brokerage and debt consulting. However, about six years ago, rising housing prices in the GTA and quality-of-life priorities led the two to start looking for something different.
“I think both Paul and I were losing interest in living in the big city,” Michael said. “I was spending more time up in cottage country, and Paul was spending more time pulling his hair out. So, Paul said, ‘I’m leaving, I’m moving out east, I’ve got my eyes on Saint John, New Brunswick’.”
What the pair didn’t know was this move for Paul would quickly turn into a business opportunity for them both.
“We were speaking every day, and the things Paul was telling me were remarkable to me. The opportunities, the values of housing… it started getting us talking.”
Neither Michael nor Paul had direct development experience, but their backgrounds helped with an understanding of the fundamentals, and they started searching for their next investment. Initial land explorations brought up a variety of challenges around municipal servicing considerations, infrastructure, and density requirements. Unsure how to navigate the evolving landscape, the two looked to local partners for advice.
Through introductions facilitated by Envision Saint John’s Executive Director of Real Estate & Industrial Development, Jeff Cyr, and Real Estate & Development Manager, Jody Kliffer, Michael and Paul began to see a path forward in understanding zoning pathways, servicing boundaries, available government programs, and the broader development landscape.
“Jeff and Jody were pivotal partners, I would say, in enabling Paul and me to get to where we are, because we just wouldn’t have known how to start or what to do,” Michael shared. “Jeff’s made some really amazing introductions for us… We owe a lot of that success so far to the recommendations and the people we’ve been introduced to.”
The facilitated connections led to local engineers, designers, financial institutions, municipal staff, and even other developers sharing knowledge and guidance. In one instance, a seasoned developer spent an hour walking them through various programs and development realities in the region – insight that would have taken years to gather independently.
“It’s unbelievable that people will talk to you like that,” Michael said. “Because in Ontario, never in a million years do I think someone would get on the phone and talk to you about, you know, potentially being a competitor and telling you what you should know. The people of Saint John have been amazing.”
As the team continued their search for a development site, Jeff brought up a parcel on Loch Lomond Road that was a perfect fit.
“We were in the market for about four or five acres. Jeff found us a 19-acre property, but the four acres on Loch Lomond Road were already cleared of the trees. I think when we bought the land, we really bought the whole 19-acres just for those four acres. Now we’ve learned that we can probably develop most of the land.”
The project required rezoning to accommodate the apartment buildings. Over nine months, the proposal went through multiple presentations to the Planning Advisory Committee and Common Council, and not without some challenges by City Councilors and the community. Throughout the process, Michael and Paul remained committed to aligning the development with long-term growth objectives for the city and meeting the needs of the east side community.
“You know, you do good things, you get a good reputation, and people want to come and live there. That’s what we strive to have.”
The proposal was eventually passed, and development began. And as the building took shape and evolved, so did the perspectives of some of the dissenters on the original project.
“We had a few of the counselors in, a couple who had voted against us, who now voted with us,” Paul described. “After visiting the site and seeing everything we did for the neighbours, they were voting and saying that we went above and beyond what we needed to do. So, that’s amazing to see.”
The Cardinal Suites building is now welcoming tenants, with the second 40-unit building scheduled for completion later this year. Twenty-four townhouses will follow, along with additional stacked townhomes in future phases.
And as long as market demand remains strong, Michael and Paul plan to continue investing in the Saint John Region.
“Quite simply, in my mind, Saint John is in play,” Michael said. “The growth opportunities in developing land, in data centres and all the different industries that are coming in, the population is going to grow. And the biggest opportunity is the Port. You just can’t find a scenario in any other place in Canada that has what the next 10 to 30 years are going to look like in Saint John.”
To learn more about the Cardinal Suites, click here: https://pmgliving.ca/
If you are a developer interested in opportunities in the Saint John Region, connect with our team to learn more about how you can be part of our growth: https://www.envisionsaintjohn.com/real-estate-development
