After years of uncertainty and sometimes difficult negotiations, Les Forges de Montréal will become the owners of the former Riverside pumping station, a building they have occupied since 2000. The Canada Lands Company (CLC) and the City of Montreal have agreed with the non-profit organization to transfer ownership of the heritage building to it, learned The duty.
Founding blacksmith of the Forges de Montréal, Mathieu Collette is relieved by this outcome, which will ensure the sustainability of the organization dedicated to transmitting this age-old art to apprentice blacksmiths and to raising public awareness of this forgotten trade. “It’s a very important step. We have been working for a long time to obtain a stable situation that will allow our project to move forward. We have found the winning recipe to perpetuate the activities of Les Forges. »
After months of talks, CLC, the City and Les Forges have reached an agreement under which the building on Riverside Street and the land on which it sits will be transferred to the NPO for one dollar. The agreement was approved by the executive committee during a closed meeting on Wednesday, and the transaction should be formalized in the coming months.
The organization is particularly committed to investing three million dollars within five years for the heritage restoration of the building. For its part, the City will carry out work to move Riverside Street further north to allow the expansion of the Forges building and the construction of a museum and premises for an educational project.
Tangle of titles
The conclusion of this agreement was far from simple, since the land belonged to the CLC while the building, a former pumping station, was municipal property. In addition, underground pipes, some of which are closed, will have to be the subject of work that the Forges will assume.
“It was complex and difficult, but the will was there,” says Benoit Dorais, head of housing and real estate strategy on the city’s executive committee. “We wanted to make sure that the Forges project works, and that allows us to keep an exceptional building alive. »
The elected official also recalls that in 2019, the City had established that the traditional forge was an element of Montreal’s intangible cultural heritage.
For the SIC, which owns large lots in this area, this is a happy ending. “We absolutely wanted to preserve the work that Mathieu Collette and the Forges were doing as well as the building,” underlines Pierre-Marc Mongeau, vice-president real estate at the SIC. “There was a tangle of titles. We decided to cede all these titles — and the City is doing the same — rather than start figuring out which square inch belonged to whom. All this so that the Forges can finally feel completely at home. »
Les Forges can now relegate to the past all the hassles that marked the last few years. Recall that in 2016, the City of Montreal wanted to evict the organization, accusing it of not having respected its lease which required that it devote at least one million dollars to the renovation of the building. The administration of Denis Coderre finally lifted the eviction notice a year later. Coming to power, the administration of Valérie Plante had modified the lease in 2019 to allow the organization to continue its activities. Then, in 2021, the SIC had agreed to transfer the land to the City, but this agreement could not materialize and new discussions had to be initiated.
Other steps remain to be taken, including the sale by CLC of Mills and Riverside streets to the City of Montreal next month. The City will pay for the weir, this system which allows the water level of the Lachine Canal to be modulated and which is used by Parks Canada.
With this agreement, the Forges will be able to apply for permits and launch calls for tenders to develop the interpretation center on three floors and build a footbridge that will cross the building. Ultimately, the Forges plan to make investments of 6.5 million. Mathieu Collette hopes to be able to proceed with the inauguration of the new spaces at the end of 2026. “We have been maintaining the building for 22 years. We put more than two million into it,” he said. “Becoming an owner allows us to sit on a significant real estate asset. This is the guarantee that backers wanted the most. There are no more financial issues. »
According to him, the agreement reached with Les Forges paves the way for the type of projects that could be carried out in the Quartier des artisans that the City wishes to develop in the Mills Street sector.