Îlot Voyageur | Two purchase offers, 1000 homes on offer

The days of Montreal’s worst urban scourge are (perhaps) numbered.

After two decades of real estate fiascos, things are finally moving on the Voyageur block. Two groups have offered to buy the site from the City of Montreal to build up to 1,000 new housing units, I learned.

The deal is far from over, and you’ll soon see why. But these proposals, filed Tuesday, represent the most concrete progress on this issue in years.

The only one, in fact.

This soap opera has had so many twists and turns that a reminder is necessary.

The old bus station, also called îlot Voyageur, is located in the hypercentre of the metropolis. It is located above the Berri-UQAM metro station, between the Latin Quarter and the Village. A brown and decrepit building, which accentuates the gloomy appearance of the area.

UQAM had planned to build a gigantic real estate project there in the mid-2000s, but cost overruns accumulated to the point that the university almost went bankrupt. The construction site was interrupted midway.

Quebec injected hundreds of millions to pay off UQAM’s debt and buy back the site, the northern portion of which was resold to a private developer. A Revenu Québec office project proposed in 2013 died in the bud. The City of Montreal acquired the site in 2018 for $18 million.

And then… nothing. For almost six years.

Faced with mounting pressure, Valérie Plante’s administration launched a call for projects last March. It committed to selling the site below its market value, at least 20 million, but imposed a series of tough demands in return.

In its 549-page (!) call for tenders document, the City requested, among other things, the inclusion of at least 20% “social” housing and 20% “affordable” units, as well as imposing financial guarantees. This mountain of criteria discouraged many builders from submitting a purchase offer, according to my information.

So there was no rush to buy the Voyageur island.

I attended the “opening of the envelopes” on Tuesday at the end of the call for tenders, in a nearly deserted room at the town hall. The suspense was short-lived: five minutes and it was all over.

It wasn’t a frenzy, but three big players in the real estate industry raised their hands, including two who made a joint proposal.

Who are they?

First, there is Prével, one of Montreal’s largest builders with thousands of homes under its belt. The company offered $20 million for the site, but no details have leaked about its project.

Its president, Laurence Vincent, did not want to comment since the city’s analysis process has only just begun.

The other interested group is made up of the Work Unit for the Implementation of Student Housing (UTILE), a non-profit organization, and Mondev, a private developer very active in the east of the city center. Its offer: 22.5 million.

This unusual consortium has come up with an equally surprising proposal. The two equal partners are proposing to build 1,000 homes on the Voyageur block, much more than the 700 desired by the City.

Of these, there would be about a hundred social housing units, financed by provincial government programs. Also: 430 student housing units, rented cheaper than the thresholds set by the City.

According to the tender, monthly rents, to be considered affordable, will have to be less than $1,054 for a studio and $2,097 for a three-bedroom apartment, all fees included.

Mondev, for its part, would build nearly 500 homes offered at current prices and around a hundred parking spaces.

The $300-million-plus project would be spread across two buildings of varying sizes, the tallest of which would rise to 19 storeys in front of Place Émilie-Gamelin. There would also be commercial space on the ground floor and a space dedicated to a community group – two other requirements of the City.

Laurent Lévesque, CEO of UTILE, and Jordan Owen, partner at Mondev, outlined the broad outlines of their project to me in an interview. They acknowledge that it would require changes to certain urban planning rules. But they also believe that their “private-NPO” alliance, with its complementary expertise, would make it possible to quickly launch a project with a view to welcoming tenants as early as 2029.

The City of Montreal will now have 60 days to analyze the two bids received and select a winner.

Or not.

As is always the case with public tenders, the notion of “compliance” will be the crux of the matter. If the two competing groups do not meet all the criteria set, or if their proposal deviates too much from the guidelines set, it is possible that the entire process will have to be started again from scratch.

This scenario cannot be ruled out. But we are closer than ever to a breakthrough in this interminable saga, and that is already a step forward.