It’s done! After years of construction, and despite the opposition of many detractors (including Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante), the Royalmount has opened its doors. Should we be happy about this new commercial offering in the city? Our columnists debate it.
Marie-Eve Fournier
Philippe, have you seen the photos of the Royalmount? Does it make you want to walk across the footbridge that overlooks Décarie, have a drink on its terrace, and do some shopping in the boutiques?
Philippe Mercure
I saw the photos, Marie-Eve. And all the media hype surrounding this opening. How can I tell you that I have no desire to go have a beer at the corner of Décarie and Métropolitaine? I never understood the enthusiasm for this shopping centre installed precisely at the most congested intersection in the province, which will cannibalize our commercial arteries, a bit like what Les Colocs said in their famous song The main street. Besides, the Plante administration did not want this project (is it normal that it is so powerless to control development in its urban area?). A hotel, a cinema and even an aquarium at the corner of these two highways? I have already written it, it sounds like a player of SimCity who has lost control of his city. But you know retail better than I do, dear colleague. Explain to me.
Marie-Eve Fournier
Phew! Where to start… Let’s go with beer to lighten the mood. If you ever order yourself a glass, I assure you that you will quickly forget that two highways pass by very close by, because you can’t even hear the cars. More seriously, I want to tell you that this is not a perfect project and I am aware of that, but no project is unanimous. Will it harm the downtown core? That is a fear that I share. But I will tell you that many people already avoid Sainte-Catherine Street because it is too complicated to get there by car, because it is under construction, and because there is no parking. People who live in Mont-Royal, in the Bois-Franc neighbourhood (in Saint-Laurent) or in Hampstead do their shopping at Carrefour Laval or Fairview Pointe-Claire because it is more accessible.
Philippe Mercure
But that’s exactly it! There are already plenty of shopping centres in the area. You mentioned Carrefour Laval and Fairview Pointe-Claire. I’ll add Marché Central, Place Vertu and Centre Rockland. I’ll never be mistaken for a prophet, Marie-Eve, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the arrival of Royalmount is the final blow for Centre Rockland. What will we do next with these huge empty infrastructures? Living in the city is about “displacement” rather than economic development. That’s exactly it. Existing merchants already have to deal with the rise in popularity of online shopping; they had no need for this new competitor. Do you want new stores? OK. But let’s insert them into the already woven (and amply sufficient) commercial fabric.
Marie-Eve Fournier
Sorry, but you’re comparing apples to… duck confit. The Royalmount is a shopping centre, but in its modern version. Today, you can’t build a big box full of stores and hope that customers will flock there. Everything can be bought online. To convince someone to go there, you have to give them good reasons to do so. What works, as much in Canada as anywhere else in the world, is food and entertainment. We see it with the DIX30, in Brossard. It has two always packed concert halls, about forty restaurants, an amusement centre for children with butterflies and even a pool for surfing. On the other hand, to convince retailers to invest a lot of money in a store, they have to be convinced of a certain amount of traffic, and the environment has to be consistent with their target clientele. Rolex, Marie Saint Pierre or Browns would never set up shop at Place Vertu and the customers of Place Vertu are not looking for these brands.
Philippe Mercure
On that, I trust your expertise (even if apples and duck confit together seem tempting to me). Let me raise some questions about this race for the most beautiful, the biggest, the most luxurious. I fear that what seems to us to be the ultimate today will be out of fashion in 15 years. Now, it’s butterflies and surfing to attract customers. What will it be tomorrow? Dolphins and bungee jumping? Will we let our commercial premises close one after the other as others, more fashionable, open? It seems to me to be a curious urban planning and ecological strategy. I would have liked to see Rolex and company on rue Sainte-Catherine. But I wanted to hear your thoughts on traffic. Aren’t you worried about seeing even more cars converging at the intersection of highways 15 and 40, which are already perpetually blocked?
Marie-Eve Fournier
We’re not going to stop ourselves from developing projects for fear that fashions will pass. Otherwise, we won’t create anything anymore! In real estate, there is always a way to adapt, to renovate. We can even convert churches into condos. Needs and tastes change, that’s normal. What we need is to “follow the parade”, and it’s done. Carrefour Laval has just celebrated its 50the anniversary and it is the most successful shopping center in Quebec. If the architecture of the Royalmount was bling blingI would be worried, but what I saw inside was mainly quality materials and a concern for classic aesthetics. It seems to me to be a good approach to get through the decades. We often have the impression in Quebec, in a lot of projects, that we simply chose the lowest bidder, that only the costs count. Then, we look at the projects in Scandinavia and we are jealous. A shopping centre is a place for gathering, socializing, entertainment. We can include medical clinics, museums. The definition is evolving and that’s a good thing. The Royalmount will also change, because only one phase out of 20 has been built. For this reason, judging it now seems risky to me. We will be better placed in a few years to assess its impact on Montreal in general and traffic in particular.
Philippe Mercure
You’re right, we won’t stop ourselves from developing new projects for fear that fashions will fade. I would simply like commercial to remain in commercial zones. The Royalmount slipped through despite opposition from Montreal’s elected officials because the urban development plan for the agglomeration contained an imprecision: the definition of an “industrial” zone was too vague. In the end, it was the Town of Mount Royal, a city of barely 21,000 inhabitants, that dictated the fate of a project that affects the entire metropolis. That makes no sense. As for waiting to measure the impacts on traffic, wouldn’t it have been better to anticipate them? You probably understood this when you ran into me at the office, Marie-Eve: I am not part of the target clientele of luxury boutiques. That doesn’t mean that I am opposed to their arrival. It’s just that this particular project seems full of flaws to me.
Marie-Eve Fournier
There are no more luxury brands in my wardrobe than yours! I write about personal finance while I consume very little, and the opening of the Royalmount will not change my habits. But everything related to consumption fascinates me. Everyone has their own paradoxes…
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