Goya’s Pizza on the left side of the 132-year-old Ford Block on Sackville’s Main St.

The owner of Sackville’s Goya’s Pizza says he expects his restaurant will continue to operate out of its Main Street location for up to two more years before developer John Lafford and his partner Mike Wilson demolish the Ford Block to build a hotel on the site.

“He might change his mind,” Fakher (Dave) Farah told Warktimes today, “but right now  it looks like about two more years.”

He says that once the hotel is built, he’s hoping to re-open his restaurant on its ground floor.

In the meantime, Goya’s will be opening a second location in Moncton around the end of November in Lafford Properties’ newly built Three Sisters complex overlooking the Petitcodiac River.

Goya’s notice on Facebook

Farah was anxious to dispel rumours he would soon be closing in Sackville after the recent sale of the building.

Property records show that AIL CEO Mike Wilson bought the Ford Block through his company Right Coast Realty for $1.4 million on March 31st.

He and Lafford are currently building a seven-storey commercial-residential building on the corner of York Street and Ford Avenue.

It will contain 90 apartments and will also house a Pump House Brewery outlet as well as Horizon Health’s collaborative care clinic now located next to the Sackville hospital.

So far, John Lafford has not responded to a phone message from Warktimes and in April when I first reported on his purchase of the Ford Block, Mike Wilson said through a spokesman that he did not wish to comment on any plans he might have for that building.

To read previous coverage, click here.