A Guy Laliberté company plans to demolish a building attached to the Maison-Alcan complex, a collection of historic and heritage buildings in downtown Montreal, in order to erect a 40-storey residential tower there as part of a a new project.
Prével, a major Quebec real estate developer, has taken steps in recent weeks with the Ministry of Culture and Heritage to obtain the necessary authorizations for the demolition of a building located in the heart of a space in the center- city of Montreal, renowned for 40 years for its successful integration of architectural heritage within public and private urban development.
This project is presented by Néonacla, the real estate arm of Lune Rouge, spearheading the activities of the former boss of Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberté. The building is part of a quadrilateral composed of several buildings belonging to Mr. Laliberté , which house the offices of various companies, including Sagard Holding, Telus, Electronic Arts and Zù.
The construction project provides for the erection of a 40-storey residential tower, is specified in the Companies Registry.
In a communication with The duty, the company Lune Rouge confirms the existence of the project, while not wishing to make known its partners: “We are therefore working on this file, but are currently bound to other parties by confidentiality agreements. “Ditto for Prével, also stingy with comments: “We confirm, however, that we are indeed analyzing a project on the Maison-Alcan site. »
This is not the first time that real estate projects have been offered on this site.
The building in question is located at 2050 Stanley Street, in downtown Montreal. Right where there is a quadrilateral classified as heritage since 2017. This important heritage complex, set up at the very beginning of the 1980s by the company Alcan with the collaboration of the public authorities, embodied at the time a kind of revenge after the destruction in series that have caused the sector to lose several traces of its former glory.
Maison-Alcan was inaugurated “a decade after the demolition of the much-maligned Van Horne house,” explains Dinu Bumbaru of Heritage Montreal. “Finally, there was a global vision that integrated heritage and urban development,” he summarizes. “The big boss of Alcan could have decided to go elsewhere. His gesture of settling there was strong. It marked a confidence in the city, by integrating historic spaces and collective spaces”, in a collaboration then never seen in Montreal.
“Assess future work”
The location where developers want to erect a new tower, to offer for sale or rental about 250 homes, as indicated by various previous projects, is located in what is called the “Golden Square Mile”. It is more exactly in this classified heritage perimeter, that of the Complexe-de-La-Maison-Alcan. Although adjacent to the heritage space under protection, 2050 Stanley Street escapes state protection.
The company first wanted to have discussions with representatives of the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, “to assess the work to come for the transformation of the Complex […] wishing to ensure its sustainability but also its successful repositioning in the Montreal commercial real estate market”, as indicated by the register of lobbyists.
We find in this set of buildings of a XIXe very Victorian and imperial Montreal century, such as the Donnacona building, which housed the Winter Club, and a church whose entrances overlook Drummond Street. Among them, the former Salvation Army tower, accessible from Stanley Street, is not protected in the same way as the others.
convince the state
Still according to the Business Register, the project intends “to convince the Ministry of Culture and Communications not to exercise its right of pre-emption with regard to listed buildings”, while assuring “decision-makers” that the planned interventions “are minimum standards and respect the heritage character of the site”.
Since 2019, Lune Rouge, Guy Laliberté’s flagship, and its partner Canderel have already presented various high rise construction projects to the City of Montreal on the same site.
There was even talk of erecting two towers connected by a footbridge. Following the withdrawal of Canderel, it is now the scenario of a single tower that is defended by the company of Mr. Laliberté.
The current complex constitutes an island where various networks of green spaces are integrated, connected to the adjacent buildings by galleries. Nearby, there are also the Mount Stephen Club and the Mount Royal Club, long two flagship institutions of the Montreal upper class.