Market Square in Saint John will not be home to the region’s first French international school after all.

LIFPA Don Bosco Saint John announced Tuesday that it has abandoned the project months before the school’s scheduled opening.

It had planned to use two of the three levels of the former New Brunswick Museum exhibition centre in Market Square.

However, in a social media post, officials said the total amount of work needed exceeds estimates by 50 per cent.

“The administrators of the LIFPA must therefore abandon this project and would like to thank all the local and French partners for their support in this ambitious and meaningful project,” said the post.

“The LIFPA, which still wishes to open a French International school in the Atlantic Provinces, is currently studying all possibilities.”

Announced last January, the Lycée International Français des Provinces Atlantiques (LIFPA) would have been the first of its kind in Atlantic Canada.

It was scheduled to open this September and welcome hundreds of students from locally and abroad.

LIFPA Don Bosco Saint John did not immediately respond to a request for comment.