Saint John building owners and contractors are hoping a new kind of elevator made in New Brunswick will help them develop the top floors of heritage buildings, but the province will have to change a law that keeps a Moncton company from installing them here.

Donna Reardon, who owns a heritage building on Prince William Street in Saint John, says the top floor of her building is empty because people don't want to climb the long steep stairs, similar to those in many of the old structures in the city.

"If I could get a reasonably priced elevator and a reasonable size, it would make a huge difference to this building," Reardon said.

Such a device is made by Heritage Elevator in Moncton. The company's product is called a LULA: Limited Use Limited Application, and it costs about half the price of a full-size elevator. 

Samuel Saintonge of Heritage Elevator says the LULAs are manufactured in New Brunswick, but they can't be installed in the province.

"We're working with the province right now for them to establish a code that will permit us to do that, but as it is now all of the LULA's that we sell and manufacture are all going to Nova Scotia," Saintonge said.

Patrick Sohy, a contractor in Saint John who specializes in restoring heritage buildings, says the small elevators would be good for the region.

"All of Prince William Street, you see buildings are occupied on the retail side, the second floors are occupied, third floor quite rare, fourth floor never."

Sohy says these elevators could open up old building stock in the province for development.

Saintonge says Nova Scotia and other provinces have changed the laws to accommodate LULAs and he's confident New Brunswick will too.
 
The province and the elevator manufacturer are currently negotiating an agreement that will allow them to install their elevators provided they meet certain conditions, Saintonge says.