The York is on schedule for its February 1, 2027, opening and will be bringing a new restaurant with it.
The new 7-storey, mixed-use building by Sackville developer John Lafford and partner Mike Wilson of AIL Group, will have 89 residential units, along with a new Pump House restaurant and the Tantramar Primary Health Care Centre on the ground floor.
Lafford is optimistic that when the building is complete, the residents, as well as the medical centre and restaurant, will help bring even more people downtown, a change he has started noticing over the last 10 years.
 ”I see the improvement in flow of foot traffic, and I’m sure that the local businesses also feel it and see it. It’s not a negative thing. It’s a good thing for people to be able to walk and shop in the downtown area.”
Listen to the audio below:
From the ground up
While CHMA previously reported on the health clinic move back in February, this is the first public confirmation from Lafford or his partner that Pump House is moving in. Lafford also confirmed it will open on the same day as the residential portion early next year.
This will be the third location for the pub-style restaurant and brewery. It first opened in Moncton in 1999 and a second spot was opened in Shediac in 2022.
The health clinic is currently located by the hospital at 2 Main Street, where it serves over 2,200 patients, but is slated to move into a roughly 10,000 square foot space on the ground floor of the York.
Lafford pointed out that having a medical centre on the ground floor of the downtown building will not only benefit residents but will also likely be advantageous for the university.
“ To be able for to have a medical clinic 300 yards away for 2,500 students is a big item. Now we’ve secured that and the university can boast that to their, you know, to the people that wanna come here, to the parents.”
As for the residential side of the build, there will be a blend of apartment sizes and designs. According to the website for the building, units range from 541 square feet with one bedroom and one bath, up to as large as 1,641 square feet, with two bedrooms, two baths and a den.
So far, the building is about 50 per cent full, and Lafford expects the residents to also be a blend of demographics, though they will skew older.
“ (In) Sackville, the population is not monstrous, and you have to be mindful of that, and you have to be realistic of who’s going in. But we do see that, you know, a large portion of the building would be the 55-plus.”
The York has a brick facade on the first two stories, something Lafford said they did to help incorporate the building into the existing look of downtown, as they have done in other builds.
Moving up, the building steps back and the exterior changes to tempio tiles, a kind of ceramic tile designed to cover the exterior of buildings. At the top floor, the building steps back a final time.
Further development
The York sits on the sites of three former historic houses, which were demolished to accommodate the new build. As Sackville still lacks a heritage bylaw after repealing the previous one in 2018, some residents were concerned that the look of downtown was changing.
More changes are also likely coming in the not-too-distant future, as Lafford and Wilson have also purchased the 132-year-old Main Street building that houses Goya’s Pizza and Chirps Bar, along with a few other businesses and apartments in March 2026.
As for how it will change, he’s not prepared to say.
“ It’s really, it wouldn’t be the time now to speak on it, but I’m sure we’ll have (an) opportunity in the future to look at that.”
