The acting CEO of Knowledge Park in Fredericton, N.B., has resigned over a disagreement about how the tech hub’s real estate should be developed.

“I can’t lend any support to something I don’t truly believe is the right thing for the company, first and foremost, but also the right thing for the community,” Jeff Thompson told Global News.

Thompson had served as acting CEO since October 2022. He was also a Knowledge Park board member and chaired the board for two terms over the course of almost 10 years.

In the interview with Global and a LinkedIn post in which he announced his resignation, Thompson said a new direction was proposed for Knowledge Park in 2023 and received full support of the board and community. But one board member’s position changed unexpectely.

“I appreciate that people can change their positions, but after nine or 10 months of everybody being in the same boat, oars in the water, heading in the same direction, it was more than a sudden 180,” he told Global.

Thompson declined to go into details with Global on the board member’s about-face. But the former CEO indicated during the interview that he disagreed on how Knowledge Park land should be used in the future, calling for mixed-use projects.

“There’s a general trend in commercial real estate that starts to look at mixed-use development,:” he told Global. “That can be retail. That can be residential. I also mentioned earlier that there are needs in this community … I would suggest that housing is one of those needs,” he said.

“Knowledge Park will continue to be a commercial business park for technology-oriented tenants. That [concept] is established. It’s doing reasonably well. My personal view is that there were far [greater] opportunities to play a larger role in this community, but it’s one that we lost full support of.”

According to Global, Knowledge Park began in 1997 as a 35-acre tech hub, but much of the land remains undeveloped, apart from the original cluster of office buildings and a cybersecurity centre. The city has identified the area as one of four growth nodes that need development.

The other three have seen fairly extensive development, Global reported.

Mayor Kate Rogers told Global that Knowledge Park is not the park that was originally envisioned.

“It was at one time,” she said. “But like everything, it needs to continue to evolve.“

Photo: Knowledge Park