Another Montreal shopping center could change vocation in the coming years. After Place Versailles and Place Angrignon, it is the turn of Place Vertu, in the borough of Saint-Laurent, to want to add residences and offices to existing businesses.
To make this project a reality, the owner of the shopping center, the Westcliff Group, will first have to change the zoning of the place where this establishment, built in 1975, is located, which houses a hundred brands, including Les Ailes de la mode, Sports experts, Reitmans and Winners. This will have to change from “commercial” to “mixed residential and commercial”.
“We are in discussion with the borough of Saint-Laurent to establish the density of what we could build in terms of the residential component, depending on the businesses as well. Nothing is finalized yet. We should know more at the beginning of next year”, confirms to the To have to Marc Montpetit, Regional Director, Business Operations.
As with other shopping centres, the future of Place Vertu requires a major transformation of its activities, adds Marc Montpetit. “It is clear that the old format [des centres commerciaux], which dates from the 1970s and 1980s, focused on the abusive use of parking lots. This space can now be used to erect residential buildings, while creating underground parking lots, he adds.
Place Vertu’s change of vocation is just one example among others of the steps that many promoters are taking to give a second wind — even a second life — to facilities built more or less fifty years ago.
The end of shopping malls?
Two weeks ago, the Quebec company DMA acquired 50% of the shares of the Laurier Quebec shopping center, which belongs to Ivanhoé Cambridge, the real estate arm of the Caisse de depot et placement. When announcing this transaction valued at 309 million dollars, DMA said it wanted to triple the area of the center to include, among other things, housing.
In Montreal, Place Versailles began discussions with Montreal in October 2021 to transform the shopping center into “a mixed real estate project” where businesses would coexist, of course, but also office spaces and housing.
Last November, The duty reported that the Westcliff Group intended to transform Place Angrignon into a “mixed residential project” where 1,600 housing units – including “condos and rental apartments” – would coexist with local businesses.
Is this the end of shopping centers as we have known them for decades? “With rare exceptions, yes,” says Jacques Nantel, professor at HEC Montreal. The retail specialist advances three elements to explain the decline of centers and their desire to convert: online commerce, supra-regional centers and local commerce.
“In the case of e-commerce, it offers more choices at lower prices without having to travel, especially for basic products, functional products,” he says. He adds: “Supra-regional centres, such as DIX30, as well as convenience stores, when well developed, offer a hedonistic experience. »
The great transformation
Pierre Moffet is one of the promoters who want to breathe new life into shopping centres. President of Douville, Moffet & Associés (DMA), it is he who has held half of the shares of Laurier Québec for two weeks.
“Traditionally, it was simple: you put a department store like Sears at one end and another like The Bay at the other end. Then, the owner of the center lowered the rent as much as possible for these large brands [qui attiraient des consommateurs]money he was recovering with the rising rents of businesses that were in between, where people stopped on their way to the two big brands, “he says, adding that it has been so for decades. .
This era is over, according to him: “We are betting on development that revolves around the neighborhood of the centers. In other words, we have to say to ourselves: “Look who your neighbor is and develop according to who he is.” »
And what is around the Laurier Quebec center? First of all, there is the Laval University Hospital Center (CHUL), answers Mr. Moffet. “There are around 4,500 employees at the CHUL, but also a Soleil mother-child center [qui offre des soins spécialisés aux enfants]. There is also Laval University, with its campus of 43,000 students, which is 900 meters away. »
The commercial and residential offer of the project will be articulated according to the particularities of this neighborhood. “We want residences and housing, but also offices and hotels,” he says, adding that demographic trends, such as the aging of the population, must be taken into account. “That’s why we want to install a residence for the elderly, but also intermediate resources and a CHSLD,” he says.
Pierre Moffet maintains that, to ensure their survival, shopping centers will have to return to the DNA of the idea developed by the American commercial architect Victor David Gruen, considered by some to be the father of shopping centres: “He said that shopping centers commercial spaces had to be living environments, with residences, businesses, parks, and even swimming pools. »