A downtown Montreal hotel with more than 200 rooms will become a rental housing tower this fall, it has been learned The Press.
The repurposing of the 2170 Lincoln Hotel (a former Marriott Residence Inn) comes at a good time in the midst of a housing crisis, but will result in the layoff of more than 30 employees.
“That wasn’t the original intention,” said real estate developer Kevin Hazout, who acquired the 21-story concrete tower in 2022. But given the financial difficulties of the hotel operation, converting it to housing became a necessity, he added. “We’ve been trying it out for 20 months, but it’s not working.”
The hotel will welcome its last tourists on October 18 and its first tenants in the following days. This about-face will be greatly facilitated by the fact that the hotel already consisted of 221 suites equipped with kitchenettes: it was also a residential building before its conversion into a hotel in the 1980s. Conversions of buildings into residential buildings are often much more complex.
“Apart from a few minor things, it’s ready to rent right away. We’ve done a lot of renovations in the last few years as well to try to increase our revenue,” Hazout said in a phone interview. The apartments are “750 square feet on average, mostly one bedroom and two bedrooms.”
Rents will range from $1,500 to $3,200, depending on the size of the apartments, including furniture, electricity, heating and internet connection.
“We hope to attract young families who want to live downtown before buying a house in the coming years, young professionals and of course students,” said Kevin Hazout. The building has a swimming pool and common areas.
36 layoffs
Elected officials from the Plante administration did not want to comment on the news.
In total, “36 union and non-union employees” were told Thursday they would be laid off. A handful of others will stay on to manage the building.
Mr. Hazout’s team specified that the steps with the City had not yet been finalized, but produced an email from a district official assuring that the project “would be permitted as of right.”
Kevin Hazout made headlines earlier this year after announcing the conversion of a 150-unit seniors’ residence into a residential building with no particular purpose. The Plante administration strongly opposed the conversion.
The young thirty-something owns – through several companies – a vast real estate portfolio. In particular, he owns buildings dating from 1875 that had to be demolished last year on Saint-Hubert Street, near Old Montreal, following work “carried out in a thoughtless and incompetent manner,” according to a Superior Court judgment. The City of Montreal had requested the demolition of the buildings, considering that their poor condition threatened public safety.
With information from Isabelle Ducas, The Press