A major meeting place for players in the Montreal technology scene for ten years, financial setbacks forced the Notman heritage house to be put up for sale. This major building in Montreal has just been put up for sale for $5.5 million. Over the years, the magnificently preserved old bourgeois residence had become a leading technological incubator.
It is the OSMO Foundation, a non-profit organization created in 2009, which until now owned the Notman House. OSMO intended to manage Maison Notman as best as possible in order to accommodate young companies from a booming technology sector. She failed to reach an agreement with her creditors, the Business Development Bank of Canada and Investissement Québec. It was impossible to reach an agreement to preserve the current ownership structure.
The sale and the change of vocation that could result from it risk putting a nail in the coffin of several start-ups. Many of them were worried last November, when the difficulties came to light in the news. “It’s the whole community start-upand Montreal itself” which are threatened, went so far as to write Gabriel Lspérance, co-founder of Trampoline.ai and Wavo.me.
More than 300 young people have passed through the walls of this building, now closely associated with the world of technological innovations. Rooms were rented for various events. More than 2,500 have been held here since OSMO owned it.
This building, located rue Sherbrooke very close to boulevard Saint-Laurent, is one of the rare witnesses of the luxurious bourgeois residences in neoclassical style which still lined this artery in the first half of the 20th century.e century. This stone building, which benefits from numerous glass openings, was built in 1844-1845.
According to Sylvain Carle, former member of the board of directors, the delays in payments reached “a few months”. It is the effects of the pandemic on room rentals that would have caused this collective project to stall, he believes. One thing led to another and the payment delays could not be overcome.
“We asked the business community to buy the building,” explains Sylvain Carle to Duty. Through a collective real estate purchasing platform called Ouiker, investors could revive the activities of the place, believes Sylvain Carle. “We have commitments for some of the necessary funding. It would be a shame if a place like this became a law office or something. »
This highly heritage commercial property is made up of three mixed-use buildings. It is located at the corner of Sherbrooke Street and Saint-Laurent Boulevard. Since this is a commercial property, federal and provincial taxes must be added to the sale price.
The Notman House has been classified as a heritage building since 1979, both for its exterior and its interior. This, in principle, means that a new owner would not be able to transform the premises as he wishes.
It owes its name to the immense photographic enterprise of William Notman. This baron of the photography industry occupied the premises from 1876. Several spaces in the current building, decorated here and there with photographs by Notman, bear witness to the cultural contribution of this leading photographer.
In addition to William Notman, the opulent residence was occupied by William Collis Meredith, a lawyer and soldier involved in the repression of the Patriots of 1837-1838. These walls also housed Thomas Blackwell, the boss of the Grand Trunk Railway. Alexander Molson, a wealthy magnate linked to the beer industry, banking, and maritime trade, was also an occupant. The building will also be occupied by nuns, before becoming a residence for the elderly until 1991.