In The News
Significant awards for CenterBeam Place
Receiving national recognition for a project is humbling, but for John Irving the most gratifying part of Commercial Properties Limited's work on CenterBeam Place is seeing the lights on.
The president of Commercial Properties Limited, Irving was in Toronto Thursday for the Canadian Urban Institute's (CUI) Brownie awards. CenterBeam Place took home a pair of awards including Excellence in Project Development and Best Medium-Scale Project in Canada.
"To be nominated was great and we were thrilled beyond words to actually receive the awards," Irving said.
However, it's the lights on at night in the building that get to him.
"I think the most gratifying thing is to see the lights on in the upper floors," he said. "For a long time, you looked up and there was nothing there; and now there's lights on at night and to me that's probably the biggest thrill. "
CenterBeam Place is a recently restored historic block of 14 buildings in Uptown Saint John. Irving said he was unaware the project was up for a second award. The Brownie Awards recognize work done on industrial and commercial properties that have been abandoned, but can be redeveloped.
CenterBeam Place was up against some stiff competition in the Excellence in Project Development category including a project from Charlottetown as well as the Corus Building, done by the City of Toronto's Economic Development Corporation.
"We were pleased to be nominated and one would always like to win, but we certainly had no expectations at all," he said.
As for the Best Medium-Scale Project, Irving said didn't know they were up for the award.
"When they called our name I was really, really surprised and humbled," he said.
Winning the awards proves both New Brunswick and Saint John can develop projects just as well as any place in the country, he said.
As for why Commercial Properties took on the large development, Irving said he felt it could be a great asset for the city.
"We felt we could do a good job of making it into something everybody could be proud of," he said.
It was the dream that kept the project going on days when the reality and magnitude of the project set in, Irving said.
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