Historic Moncton castle up for sale again

Moncton's historic Castle Manor has been listed for $650,000 by a local real estate agent who says there is interest in restoring the building.

The Gothic Revival castle is a landmark along Mountain Road but has been vacant for years.

There has been a flurry of activity at the site lately with a for sale sign now up and a new roof going on, which real estate agent Kathy Guitard says will bump the price up by about $50,000.

The real estate listing says with 19,000 square feet the building has "amazing potential" with "a chapel on site, incredible original mill work [and]stained glass."

Castle Manor was put up for public auction last May after the former owner defaulted on the mortgage, however there were no bids and it has been empty since.

Guitard says it's currently owned by a development company in Toronto and even though it's in disrepair, the bones of the building are still good.

"It's not twisted up," she said. "The floors are all level and everything is in excellent condition that way. It needs surface fixes because it's been left cold."

Guitard is appealing to the public for help to find the original plans for Castle Manor, which she believes may have been found in the building's basement more than ten years ago.

"We've got some people who are interested in restoring this building but we really need the plans in order to help solve where the original walls are and what the potential is."

Guitardestimates it would take between $500,000 and $1.5 million to restore Castle Manor.

"There's no need to take this building down at all and it could be restored into something heritage-related," she said.

"It could be turned into amulti-unit residential or higher end rental most of the ceilings are twelve feet and higher throughout the entire project."

In 2012, Castle Manor was sold to a Moncton home builder who wouldn't say what his plans were for the property. At that time a real estate investor from Toronto said she wanted to turn it into a boutique hotel.