Developer argues for restoring of closed 75-year-old school

MONCTON, N.B. – A property developer says the historic Moncton High School building is an architectural gem that should be saved and restored.

Richard Carpenter said Wednesday the debate over what to do with the closed school is silly.

He said he’s never been in an older building that didn’t have water and mould and structural damage.

Carpenter said the Moncton High situation has become a mess with arguments ranging from tearing it down completely to saving part of it.

The 75-year-old stone school, which resembles a castle, was closed last fall because of mould and structural problems and its students have been shuffled to several other schools.

Carpenter said the estimates of $48 million to fix the building are exaggerated and the bottom line for him is that Moncton has already lost too many historic buildings.

"We’ve been losing this battle for a long time," he said. "I was in Germany in October and they are still rebuilding synagogues and churches there that were damaged in the Second World War. The government pays for it because that’s who they are.

"We have this marvellous building and we’ve torn everything else down."

Carpenter has been involved in many high-profile restoration projects in Moncton over the last 30 years. He converted the old Marvin’s biscuit building and the Eatons warehouse into office spaces for government departments and private businesses.

He converted the old Woolco building on Main Street into what is now the headquarters of Atlantic Lottery and brought new life to old railroad buildings by turning them into specialized shops.

Carpenter said even $10 million can go a long way to fixing up a building. Water leaks can be fixed, mould removed, and structural repaired, replaced or reinforced.