Massive condo tower construction begins
Most media are reporting on the city’s latest huge luxury condo tower whose construction has just begun on the east side of Phillips Square. Metro buys in totally to the PR angle that this project will reinvigorate downtown. The project will include no social housing units because the project began before the city passed its bylaw requiring them.



Patrick 15:21 on 2020-07-17 Permalink
Will there be parking spaces underneath the building? What do city bylaws currently require/allow in that regard? Traffic can get pretty heavy in front of the site as it is, with drivers waiting to dogleg up Aylmer. Assuming there’s a garage entrance, will it be in the back of the building?
Kate 19:11 on 2020-07-17 Permalink
I don’t know who can answer your questions, Patrick.
Ephraim 20:42 on 2020-07-17 Permalink
If I remember correctly, it’s .5 parking per apartment. Which is stupid. There should be at least 1 car space per apartment and space for maybe 2 bicycles. If they don’t need the space for a car, then they should be able to close it and use it for more storage. If the city increased the number of spaces required, they could limit street parking… streets really shouldn’t be giant parking lots and/or consider a street parking permit as a request for a second space with the higher rate.
But there are other changes that we need. All new houses and buildings should have requirements for more green space, optical cables, and fire suppression systems. And heating/cooling should be geothermal and maybe a requirement on tall buildings to be LEED certified.
DeWolf 20:57 on 2020-07-17 Permalink
There are no minimum parking requirements in Ville-Marie borough, so it’s entirely up to the developer.
Chris 09:26 on 2020-07-18 Permalink
>There should be at least 1 car space per apartment
No, there shouldn’t. Minimun parking requirements have been done in many cities over many decades and there are tomes of data showing they are a bad idea. Mandating space allocated to cars results in more cars. Units that have no car spot subsitize those that do. Car space could otherwise be people space. Fortunately, most of central Montreal removed minimum requirements in the last decade or so.