Big project proposed for Ville-Marie
Developer Prével has proposed a $750-million development project for Ville-Marie, in the area of the old Molson brewery and Maison Radio-Canada and an area called the îlot des Portes Sainte‑Marie, which is explained in this PDF.
david422 13:00 on 2020-10-30 Permalink
They’ve been trying to get that site active for years now, ever since word came down that Molson was shutting the brewery. Personally, I wouldn’t want to live there – the bridge, bad transit, nothing to do, and the glacial cold sweeping in off the river for 4 months of the year.
Prevel has just completed a massive (I want to say ~2000 units in 5-6 buildings) project in the faubourg des récollets, called 21st Arrondissement. So, they have experience and ability to deliver on something like this, which is critical, obviously. It’s also nice to see that their design game continues to improve.
A 6 year time horizon might seem ambitious, given everything else going up – ahem, the Rad-Can tower projects – but Prevel did 21st Arrondissement as a mix of 2/3 condo and 1/3 rental apartment, and if they do the same, then 6 years seems about right.
Kate 13:16 on 2020-10-30 Permalink
It might be kind of bleak now, but maybe in 20 years (as DeWolf recently remarked here about Griffintown), there will be real neighbourhood there.
david422 13:27 on 2020-10-30 Permalink
Yeah, it’ll improve. But that old area between Viger Square and the water has all been rebuilt now, and it’s pretty uninteresting. That’s sort of what I predict here. Which is fine, we need sleeper suburbs as dense and close to the job centers and city amenities as possible.
Griffintown is much better and will continue to improve – they’ve been dumping in a lot of commercial spaces, and some other spaces still remain. It’ll take decades, but Griffintown will end up like the Concordia ghetto is today – run down towers dating to the same 10 year period, mostly rental units (due to condo to apartment conversions, absentee landlords, etc), and all sorts of shops and restaurants. The ETS ghetto they’ll call it. Will be very cool.
Kate 13:47 on 2020-10-30 Permalink
You’re right about the Faubourg Québec, as it’s called. It has to be ten years ago at least that I walked around there and felt vaguely disturbed that it was totally a dormitory. Not so much as a dépanneur on a corner. It was the image I had in mind when the redevelopment of Griffintown began, and I was afraid the same lack of imagination would happen there: a developer’s desire to park people in small condos, assuming they can drive out to get anything they need, don’t need any social hubs or services nearby.
I wonder whether the conditions of the pandemic may have taught us that it actually is better to have some things within reach – a dep, a fruiterie and/or a bakery, a café, maybe a pharmacy. Places you can get sustenance and basic supplies (and maybe a little human interaction) even if they’re not full-scale grocery stores. The city’s got to zone that kind of thing in, never let a Faubourg Quebec happen again.
DeWolf 11:07 on 2020-10-31 Permalink
This isn’t actually the Molson brewery site, David, this is the big empty lot on Ste-Catherine between de Lorimier and Parthenais. The first phase is already under construction under the name Esplanade Cartier.
Personally I think this particular project looks interesting because it has a mix of different building types and heights. It’s meant to have a lot of small alleys and streets that may create some good pedestrian spaces. And it’s only 150 metres from Papineau metro.
david224 17:12 on 2020-10-31 Permalink
I know exactly where this is. But you’re right that they mention the Molson site in the second part of that article.
DeWolf 11:05 on 2020-11-03 Permalink
I was a bit confused by your quip about “bad transit” and “nothing to do” considering the site is a three-minute walk from Papineau metro and the Village.