Olymbec, the real estate developer who owned the Domaine-de-l’Estérel, a classified heritage property demolished without authorization, recently acquired, not far from there, the grounds of the Estérel Golf Club for the sum of 4.7 million dollars, found The duty, as well as at least one other large piece of land, put up for sale for more than 7 million. These spaces have been coveted for years in the perspective of real estate projects planned by various groups.
The Estérel golf course and its outbuildings are located diagonally with the heritage building that has just been destroyed, on the other shore of Lake Masson, in the Laurentians. The Domaine-de-l’Estérel was considered, until its impromptu destruction last Friday, as one of the masterpieces of art deco architecture in North America.
What happens on the banks of this lake is to be placed in a broader real estate portrait, noted The duty. On March 25, 2022, eight lots that make up the golf course were sold to the same company, owned by the Stern family, for 4.7 million.
The Stern brothers also bought another important piece of land in the municipality, put up for sale for more than 7 million. The sale has not yet been concluded at the notary, but the official documents have been consulted by The duty. Other lands bordering the lake are already owned by the same group.
The duty, wishing to learn about the company’s real estate projects at Lac Masson, went to the head office of Olymbec, boulevard Décarie in Montreal. He was not allowed to speak with a company official. Emails sent to the Stern brothers went unanswered.
The mayor of Estérel, Frank Pappas, says he is worried. “The golf course is closed this year. The announcement of the closure is not formalized, but let’s say it is getting late to open, ”he says in an interview.
Regarding possible requests for zoning changes that would target the construction of residential buildings, Mayor Pappas replies: “I say right away that it will not work. We have seen what has just happened with the Domaine-de-l’Estérel, when there were very good projects for this historic space. Everything was demolished, when it shouldn’t be. »
Gilles Boucher, the mayor of the neighboring municipality of Sainte-Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson, tells the To have to that Richard Stern told him, in his office, “to want to reduce the golf course to a 9 hole to build houses there”. Olymbec has also purchased, in its municipality, “about fifty land contiguous to the art deco flagship that we have just lost”.
Concerns
On the subject of brothers Richard and Derek Stern, owners of Olymbec, Mayor Pappas insists that he will not let it go. “I would say that they now own between 30 and 40% of the land in Estérel, including very large land. Me, I have a mandate to protect Estérel, and that’s what I’m going to do. I have been a lawyer since 1984 and I am used to fighting. »
In July 2021, the Olymbec group had acquired the former estate of the Belgian baron Empain, an art deco masterpiece, for the sum of 1.4 million. It was this building that fell last week, after the company obtained a permit to demolish a part of it that did not enjoy state protection.
The previous owner of this rare architectural ensemble, the company HBO Construction, had indicated in 2019 to the To have to that his real estate projects for the site had been stopped. ” It is on hold for the moment, there is nothing happening,” the company had explained. The group eventually sold the whole thing to Olymbec.
Olymbec has 300 sprawling buildings, according to its website. It also says that the company is “reputed to be among the largest private buyers of real estate in North America.” The Stern patriarch, Edward, who died in 2012, built, among other things, some 400 houses in Repentigny. Since the 1970s, the company has acquired industrial and commercial buildings in several cities in Quebec, but also in the United States.
A former residence of Celine Dion
In 2016, Richard Stern bought Celine Dion’s mansion on Île Gagnon from Laval. The following year, Olymbec succeeded in having the site’s zoning category changed from “protection” to “urban”, reported The Journal of Montreal. Celine Dion’s property was acquired for 10 million. The popular song star initially asked for 30 million.
The residence was subsequently occupied by François Duplantie, a financial partner of Olymbec. The group defended on the spot a construction project of several hundred condos which would preserve a strip of trees of a few meters. Mr. Duplantie repeated several times, when he defended this project, that it was “eco-responsible”. This project, estimated at 800 million, raised the ire of residents.
What monitoring?
Was the demolition work on part of the Domaine-de-l’Estérel, which led to its total loss, monitored by the Ministry of Culture and Communications (MCC)? Minister Nathalie Roy’s director of communications explained last Friday that it was not possible to monitor everything.
“We still issue nearly 1,500 work permits per year,” he told AFP. The Press. “We do not, unfortunately, have the resources to have inspectors there all the time,” he added.
The duty asked the MCC if there had been, at least in the previous days, an inspector on site, given the importance of the building and the intervention. At the time of going to press, The dutyhad not received a response from the ministry since May 13.
In 2013, the City of Sainte-Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson sold the baron’s former property to a real estate developer, HBO Construction, rather than giving it to a community project. The decision had caused a lot of discontent in the community, to the point where the police had to be called in to protect the city council.
HBO then planned to partially demolish the art deco building to replace it with a construction project of its own. The City cited the building to provide it with legal protection, as permitted by law. But the municipality had agreed to back down in the face of pressure from the new owner.