Before shovels even broke ground at 140 Carleton St. in Fredericton, the soon-to-be complete curvy, all-glass facade building was the talk of the city.

"It'll be the sexiest building Fredericton seen built in a long time," said Jeff Yerxa, president and CEO of Ross Ventures Ltd. in September 2016 when trying to sell Frederictonians on the concept and design of the building.

The five-storey glass building sparked controversy from bird lovers who were concerned about birds crashing into the glass.

"A regular building with regular windows is one thing, but one that's completely made of glass right beside some trees," said Vanessa Roy-McDougall, executive director of Nature NB, "that was a huge concern for us because there's no way birds are not going to be hitting this building."

The laser-etched dots make the glass 'bird-friendly.' All of the glass on the first three floors of the building has these dots. (Gary Moore/CBC)

Yerxa said the company heard the concerns and consulted with guidelines in Toronto, to deal with the potential threat to birds, and added special laser-etched dots to the glass on the first three floors of the building.

"What those dots do, is they allow the birds to realize that this is not somewhere I can fly," said Yerxa, who added it was a "significant" cost to etch the glass.

"We are a locally owned family run business in Fredericton," Yerxa said "so, when the community raised the concern, we didn't feel it was something we could ignore."

Roy-McDougall said she's pleased with the measures the developer took.

"I'm ecstatic that they listened to concerns, listened to science," she said.

Jeff Yerxa said the building will be finished in July. (Gary Moore/CBC)

Roy-McDougall thinks collisions might still happen on the top two floors that don't have the etchings, but agrees with the developer that most of the bird collisions happen on the lower floors.

"When they rest at night or in the day and go from tree to tree, they see a reflection of a tree and just think they're going to another tree."

Curve appeal

Skeptics wondered if the all-glass, curvy building would jive with Fredericton's downtown, which is mostly made up of brick buildings.

But now that the building is near completion, and standing tall on the corner of Carleton St. and Brunswick St., people walking past the building don't seem to mind its esthetic when asked.

This new building in Fredericton features some curves and an all-glass facade. Here's what people think of it, and how it's looking like inside. 0:57

"Well, they dubbed it the sexiest building in Fredericton, and I like the curvature of the front and it kinda adds a nice little addition to the downtown," said Paul Standing of Fredericton.

"What's a sexy building? It's all subjective," he added.

"I think it's beautiful," said Sydney Shannon, standing across the street from the building.

Ivan Chase of Fredericton said "it looks nice, I like the shape of it."

Ross Ventures purchased the parking garage next to the building for $1.85 million from the City of Fredericton. Each floor is connected to the parking garage.

Yerxa wouldn't say how much the project will end up costing.

The building is expected to be completed by July.