Kelsey Drive offices nearing completion
Suncor and Freedom 55 set to move in within a month
Commuters frequenting Kelsey Drive and wondering about the construction of a pair of buildings with a skywalk between them need wonder no more about who’ll be moving in.
Bristol Development Inc. confirmed that Suncor Energy, currently located in Water Street’s Scotia Centre, would be the major tenant of the buildings on the bend in the road near the Team Gushue Highway on and off ramps, numbered 102 to 130.
Bristol will also move its offices into the combined 95,000-square-foot buildings, as will Freedom 55 Financial.
“We’re in the final throes of it now, people are going to be moving in within a month,” says project manager Phil Ryan, lauding the work of contractors Lindsay Construction.
“Each tenant is building their own suites, so there’s various levels of finish inside the building.”
The decision to add a skywalk, which wasn’t part of the original concept designs, was to accommodate tenants moving between the buildings without having to endure the elements.
“With our wonderful weather that we have in Newfoundland, we wanted to provide a safe and comfortable way to get between the buildings in the winter time, mainly,” Ryan said.
The buildings are the sixth and seventh the company has built in the last five years. The other five are part of Bristol Court, the company’s flagship office park on the odd-numbered side of the road, which houses offices for Sunlife Financial, Stantec, Technip, PWC and MUNN Insurance.
Bristol’s properties on Kelsey Drive will soon grow to eight with the construction of a 20,000-square-foot building just behind the court.
The building is still up for lease.
As for whether or not there was any hesitation on the part of the company to develop large commercial properties in the province’s current economic climate, Ryan says Bristol is not in the business of speculative building.
“We hedge our risk basically by making deals and then executing them rather than executing and hoping there’s going to be a deal,” he says.
“We’re going to respond to the demand as it’s there.”