A truce between the City of Fredericton and the Fredericton Exhibition has been called after the two sides butted heads for decades over the relocation and renovation of the historic event site.
Now that a white flag has been waved, plans to refurbish the site are underway. That means the EX will stay on the 31-acre downtown property, where’s it’s been leased since 1948.
Fredericton Exhibition staff say they were only against the city’s plan for development if it meant the exhibition had to move.
“A lot of the people that come to the events here, they walk here. We want to be in walking distance for the people from downtown,” said Mike Vokey, executive director of Fredericton Exhibition Ltd.
The partnership to develop the 192-year-old exhibition grounds comes after the Fredericton Exhibition filed and dropped a lawsuit claiming the City of Fredericton violated sections of the Landlord and Tenant Act back in November 2018.
“We wanted to do some repair work and some improvements to the facility, and the city signed off on what was required to do both without it going to court so it was dropped,” says Vokey.
“And that was a turning point to say, ‘OK look, we’ve been arguing about this for a long time and a potential lawsuit that was dropped to the benefit of everybody, and let’s move forward and find a new way to develop that land,'” said Fredericton Mayor Mike O’Brien.
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City council voted to support a letter of intent between the two sides.
“It’s a big first step,” said Vokey. “It’s not everything, but it’s basically makes a commitment on both sides so we’re going to work together and find the solution.”
The letter is an assurance that NBEX and the city will work side by side to refurbish the site while daily operations continue. This new plan will be overseen by a new land development committee.
“There will be two members from city council, two members from the NBEX board, and then a senior staff person from the NBEX and from the city, and then each board gets to appoint two community members,” says O’Brien
The mayor says they don’t have a plan for the site yet and the city would like to see an engineer, a land developer, a financial expert and an architect in the new committee.