City of Charlottetown renews push to see housing developed on Queens Wharf

There are renewed calls to develop a prime piece of real estate on Charlottetown’s waterfront into more housing.

Queens Wharf, located at the bottom of Queen Street across from the Prince Edward Island Convention Centre, was decommissioned by the Canadian Coast Guard eight years ago.

The P.E.I. government then took ownership of the wharf with plans to redevelop it.

But the three-acre site is still being used as a leased parking lot operated by the Charlottetown Area Development Corporation (CADC), while the province is using the former Coast Guard building as storage space.

Charlottetown Mayor Philip Brown is now calling on the development corporation — which has members appointed by the province, the capital city and the neighbouring towns of Stratford and Cornwall — to take another look at the site.

“CADC or an NGO [non-governmental organization] or a private developer could look at more market and non-market housing that would go up,” Brown said.

‘The City of Charlottetown is more than willing to sit down with all levels of government and CADC to find a solution’ when it comes to developing Queens Wharf, says Mayor Philip Brown. (Wayne Thibodeau/CBC)

“We need more rentals, we need more housing because of the gap between supply and demand. The City of Charlottetown is more than willing to sit down with all levels of government and CADC to find a solution going forward.”

But the province hasn’t determined whether it will sell the land, let alone how or when.

Adam Clark, director of public works and planning with the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, said the province still needs the space due to the lack of commercial real estate in the city.

A man in a black sweater and glasses stands in front of a building. — Adam Clark, who’s with the P.E.I. Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, says the province still needs the building at Queens Wharf for storage and calls the parking spaces ‘an asset.’ (Wayne Thibodeau/CBC)

“It certainly may not be the highest and best use for it in the long term, but in the short term it is what we need to be doing with the site,” he said. “We do need the storage space and I believe the parking lot is an asset to the residents of Charlottetown.

“At some point, if we do determine it is a surplus property to the province, then we would certainly look to enhance the use of it.”

Couldn’t reach a deal

Back in 2017, P.E.I. developer Tim Banks wanted to put a hotel on the site, in partnership with Courtyard by Marriott, as well as an apartment complex.

The APM Group CEO said he and the development corporation couldn’t reach a deal on the sale of the land — but he said the project is still feasible as long as there are willing partners.

An artist's rendering of a Marriott hotel — APM Group and Killam Properties were interested in building a Marriott hotel on the Queens Wharf property back in 2017. (Submitted)

“The Charlottetown Area Development Corporation, when it was originally started, was the catalyst to help develop our downtown — [but] today it’s an enterprise that just wants to maintain properties that they own. They’re afraid to sell them,” said Banks.

“I think there has to be a come-to-Jesus meeting with CADC … ‘If you are the Charlottetown development corporation, let’s see you supporting development.'”

The development corporation’s CEO, Wade Arsenault, told CBC News that the province would have to signal its intention to develop the site before any work could begin.

Mayor wants to build up, not out

Brown believes the Queens Wharf site should be much more than a parking lot. He wants to see it become part of the solution to Charlottetown’s housing shortage.

The mayor plans to reach out to CADC to ask for this this project to be moved up on its agenda.

“We cannot continue to reach out to our outlying areas to build subdivisions,” he said. “We have to look at more density in our downtown and throughout the whole city.”