et si l’on remplaçait ce Dairy Queen par des condos et un Starbucks . . . ?
au coin du Parc et Bérubé au Mile-End
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Permalink for Photo du jour : Quel patrimoine ?
Posted by Émile Thomas
Categories Development / Développement, Headlines / À la une, Mile End, Photo du jour, Plateau Mont-Royal
At the end of March, the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) plans to release it’s report and recommendations from the Quartier Bonaventure consultation meetings in January. During this public consultation process, citizens voiced concern over the proposal to build a bus corridor on Rue Dalhousie in Griffintown.
In this video I speak with Sami Hakim, an engineer and Griffintown property owner, as well as David Hanna, an urban planning professor at UQAM, who has studied this project extensively.
I contacted the Société du Havre de Montréal (SHM) and requested an interview with Isabelle Hudon, but I received a response from Andre Bouthillier saying: “Unfortunately, she will wait the Office de consultation publique de Montréal report before giving other interviews.” Quite a change since Hudon spoke freely to media during the consultation process. But I hope to speak with her or someone at the SHM after the report is released. To be continued…
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Permalink for Bonaventure Project (update)
Posted by Adam Bemma
Categories Bridges and Spans, City Hall / Hôtel de Ville, Development / Développement, Environment / Environnement, Griffintown, Spacing Montréal
Spacing Montreal has been following plans to revitalize Lower Saint-Laurent within the Quartier des Spectacles. Here’s an overview of the story’s development over the past 2 years:
January 2008 – First stirrings of changes in store for the Lower Main
http://spacingmontreal.ca/2008/01/29/big-changes-in-store-for-the-lower-main/
January 2008 – Cultural space to be built on Saint-Laurent metro
http://spacingmontreal.ca/2008/01/27/cultural-space-to-be-built-on-saint-laurent-metro/
May 2009 – Lower Main may be razed…again (history of the street and buildings facing redevelopment)
http://spacingmontreal.ca/2009/05/07/lower-main-may-be-razedagain/
May 2009 – 2-22 Sainte-Catherine: a look at the plans for the QDS’ “vitrine culturelle”
http://spacingmontreal.ca/2009/05/27/2-22-ste-catherine-a-whole-new-street/
May 2009 – SDA’s plans for the Quadrilatère Saint-Laurent
http://spacingmontreal.ca/2009/05/29/the-latest-on-the-lower-main/
August 2009 – Public Consultation Office recommends that the Quadrilatère Saint-Laurent project “slow down”
http://spacingmontreal.ca/2009/08/09/slow-down-quadrilatere-saint-laurent/
December 2009 – Video interview with Eric Paradis, organizer of Save the Main artists’ coalition
http://spacingmontreal.ca/2009/12/12/save-the-main/
January 2010 – The Lower Main’s last stand – City orders expropriation of Café Cleopatra after the SDA acquires most of the properties for the Quadrilatère Saint-Laurent.
http://spacingmontreal.ca/2010/01/30/the-lower-mains-last-stand/
January 2010 – Interview with Café Cleopatra’s owner John Zoumboulakis
http://spacingmontreal.ca/2010/02/01/addendum-cafe-cleos-john-zoumboulakis/
February 2010 – SDA Backpedals on Lower Main Redevelopment – the 3 projects are delayed and diminished in scale.
http://spacingmontreal.ca/2010/02/14/SDA-backpedals-on-Lower-Main
This post will be updated with new links as we continue to follow this unfolding story.
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Permalink for Lower Main
Posted by Spacing
Categories Development / Développement, Quartier des spectacles, The Main
Breaking News: The three new buildings proposed by Société Dévelopment Angus on Boulevard Saint-Laurent will be smaller and longer in coming than originally planned, Le Devoir reported yesterday.
2-22 Sainte-Catherine, the anchor building for arts organizations in the Quartier des Spectacles has shrunk from a 12-story flashy glass-fronted design, to a 5-story brick structure which promises to be more in harmony with the local architecture. Unsurprisingly, the artists for whom this project was conceived would not have been able to afford space in the building. Since this redesign actually fits within the area’s urban plan, no further public consultations will be required.
The controversial Quadrilatère Saint-Laurent has also seen its budget cut by more than half. I have heard rumors from 2 sources that Hydro Quebec has withdrawn from the project. However in an interview with Le Devoir, SDA president Christian Yaccarini said that Hydro Quebec will remain the main tenant in the shrunken Quadrilatère. Rather, he blames Café Cleopatra for retarding the project by refusing to leave the location. The pared-back design will not surpass the Monument National.
The last, and probably best of the SDA’s developments, a cultural centre on the empty lot around metro Saint-Laurent station, is also on hold for “at least a year” (read: indefinitely). The developer has only able to find tenants for a quarter of the space. Once again, few cultural groups are able shell out for the brand new digs, despite municipal subsidies.
Lessons learned?
For people who were involved in the public consultation process, the temptation is to shout out a great big “I told you so.” Architect and author Louis Rastelli, who is involved with the Save the Main recently wrote to me:
“In short, everything everyone warned about these 3 projects has come to pass — rushed forward too soon without confirmed tenants, Hydro not likely willing to wait forever, no plan B from the developer, premature expropriation, questionable idea of putting offices in a concert district etc.”
But money talks and, perhaps ironically, lack of money has ground this project to a halt after citizen opposition was categorically ignored.
There is one contradiction that I hope does not go unnoticed here: during public consultations, we were told that the only way that these projects could be financially viable was through renting many stories of office space. Now, the cash-strapped developer is cutting back the project to something that is actually cohesive with the urban plan in terms of building height. Why was this kind of design initially portrayed as impossible when it is, in fact, not only possible but apparently cheaper? (Keeping in mind that SDA purports to be a non-profit organization).
Unless, of course, this pared-back version of the project actually is impossible, is nothing but a smoke screen to cover a a more complete retreat. Remember when, barely over a year ago, Projet Griffintown’s finances went down the tubes and developer Devimco promised a pared-back project? And then we never heard from them again? A recent writeup in Métro Montréal concludes the project is “practically dead”
We can say good riddance to Projet Griffintown because the developer actually owned very little of the property that they hoped to build upon. That’s not the case with the SDA on the Lower Main: over the past year, they snapped up all the properties they could and crushed the little life that was left on the block below Sainte-Catherine. You can bet that, with the exception of Café Cleopatra and perhaps the Montreal Pool room who have not yet finalized the sale of their property, the strip will be neglected for years to come as this gets sorted out, or doesn’t.
Now, more than ever before, it is time to get a bit more creative and “Save the Main.”
Have we finally learned that confiding a neighbourhood’s revitalization to a single developer (and without even a public bidding process) is too great a risk?
I know that, when they rubberstamp projects of this scale, city officials are not trying to win my vote. Perhaps they are seeking the support from business people, or catering to an older generation wistful for the golden years of bulldoze-and-build-it-better, Expo-style development.
If nothing else, I hope the City be burned enough to learn that bending over backwards to push through a high-profile project is, politically speaking, only a good move if you can actually deliver.
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Permalink for SDA Backpedals on Lower Main Redevelopments
Posted by Alanah Heffez
Categories Art & Culture, Development / Développement, Griffintown, Quartier des spectacles, The Main
On Saturday I wrote about Café Cleopatra’s last stand on the lower Main. After refusing to sell his property to the Société de Développement Angus, the owner, John Zoumboulakis, is being threatened with expropriation to make way for the Quadrilatère Saint-Laurent.
I was finally able to reach the showbusiness-man past midnight on Sunday in order to get his perspective of the story.
For Zoumboulakis, Café Cleopatra is the last vestige of a long tradition of wild nights on the Main. ”This is a historic part of our city. It should be restored, revitalized, not just bulldozed. History, once you break it down, you don’t bring it back with an office tower. What we have now is the real thing. Its our heritage, it’s part of our history,” he says. “I hope there is a way to preserve it.”
Over the phone, he spoke nostalgically of a time when the lower Main was lively and diverse. “It was the first entertainment centre of our city. It was the nightlife and the downtown of Montreal,” he says “…every building, it was owned by a different people with different ideas. And each operator or owner, they used to have their own types.”
“The objective is to continue to offer what I’ve been offering and what this location has been offering to Montreal for a hundred or so years,” Zoumboulakis says.
When I mentioned the possibility of relocating, he only said that he hadn’t put any energy into thinking about that but he did quote that old adage, the show must go on.
Zoumboulakis says that he never got involved in negotiations with the SDA. “No offer was put on the table. The reality is that they never put anything on paper. Maybe because they are of the opinion that if the city can throw you out, why make you an offer,” he says.
In this case, is legal for the city to expropriate because the property is within the Quartier des Spectacles, defined by a Plan Particulier d’Urbanisme.
Yet Zoumboulakis is skeptical of the QDS, an entertainment district, putting office towers and retail space – all owned by a single developer – where independent venues once stood.
“What the city’s doing, what they’re trying to do, it’s not the right thing for the Main,” he says.
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Permalink for Addendum: Café Cleo’s John Zoumboulakis
Posted by Alanah Heffez
Categories Development / Développement, Historical / Historique, Quartier des spectacles, The Main
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