Posted at 4:00 p.m.
What happens to the Hélène de Champlain after the millions of dollars spent on renovations?
J. Savard
At one time, the Hélène de Champlain restaurant hosted proms, weddings and all kinds of family celebrations or corporate events. With its magnificent rose garden, this majestic heritage residence, which dates from the late 1930s, was undoubtedly one of Montreal’s jewels. The restaurant, opened in 1955, belonged for a long time to animator Pierre Marcotte. It closed its doors permanently in 2010.
Since then, the Société du parc Jean-Drapeau (SPJD) has invested $16 million to partially renovate the Hélène-de-Champlain pavilion. But there is still a lot of work to do before we can set foot there again.
You have to read the SPJD Master Plan to find out more. We learn that the former restaurant will become a pavilion of a possible campus devoted to energy transition, which will also include the environment museum of the Biosphere. This whole area will therefore become an innovation hub, and the former restaurant could well become the headquarters of an NPO specializing in research and experimentation with concrete solutions applied to the energy transition. Other NPOs could join it over time and occupy offices. Remember that Île Sainte-Hélène is a protected heritage site under the Cultural Heritage Law.
The development work for this sector of Île Sainte-Hélène, valued at approximately $67 million, is scheduled for 2023 to 2026. Note that once this work is completed, the public will still be able to walk through the doors of the old restaurant, even if the vocation of the building will never be the same again.