The City of Pointe-Claire, which is experiencing a boom in residential construction with the arrival of the Metropolitan Express Network (REM), is putting the brakes on.
Posted at 9:00 a.m.
Its municipal council, led by Tim Thomas, elected last November in place of outgoing mayor John Belvedere, is freezing the issuance of building permits in certain areas of the city, including that of the Fairview Pointe-Claire shopping center. The freeze will last while the City draws up a new urban plan after consultation with its residents.
“No permit may be issued for the construction or transformation of a building for multi-residential use in the downtown area,” reads a press release issued by the City. “Furthermore, no permit can be issued for the construction of a new main building on the site of the shopping centers identified. »
The owner of the fashionable Cadillac Fairview center is furious.
We are truly shocked, appalled and surprised. This gesture is unnecessary and contrary to our expectations of the City.
Brian Salpeter, Senior Vice President of Eastern Canada Development, Cadillac Fairview
Cadillac wants to build a mixed-use project, partly residential, on a section of the shopping center parking lot along Highway 40 and the future REM. Mr. Salpeter did not specify the details of the project or its scope, but promises to reveal the details next week.
ILLUSTRATION PROVIDED BY CADILLAC FAIRVIEW
Part of the parking lot to be the subject of a multi-purpose project
This is the first phase of what has been described in the past as the creation of the new downtown Pointe-Claire.
The project as a whole also includes the subdivision of a wooded lot immediately west of the shopping centre. The vacant 170,000 square meter lot once belonged to John Abbott College. The group of citizens Sauvons la forêt Fairview campaigns for the preservation of green space.
Mr. Salpeter affirms that the first phase of his project is in accordance with the particular urban plan of the sector adopted in 2018 and adds that the plans were submitted to the City last summer.
With the about-face of the municipal administration, Cadillac Fairview maintains that its investment project is in danger and that it will be forced to leave in place a large parking lot constituting a heat island.
The real estate company built Fairview Pointe-Claire in 1965 and has owned it ever since. Over the past three years, it claims to have invested 100 million in its shopping center, in particular to accommodate a Simons store.
“We have always demonstrated our desire to work together with the City and the community, notwithstanding the administrations, in a climate of openness and collaboration, and that is what we want [pour l’avenir] says Mr. Salpeter.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, ARCHIVES LA PRESSE
Brian Salpeter, Senior Vice President of Eastern Canada Development, Cadillac Fairview
“We love businesses, but not condo towers”
For its new mayor Tim Thomas, Pointe-Claire has seen too many construction projects in recent years for the taste of its residents. The time has come to reassess the future of the city.
He recalls that the last election campaign was played out between a “Pointe-Claire, garden city” vision and a “Pointe-Claire, downtown” vision. “The garden city won,” he says.
The elected official says he is open to industrial and commercial construction projects, but wants to put an end to the residential towers which have multiplied in Pointe-Claire and which, according to him, have worsened traffic problems.
“We love businesses and commercial projects, but not condo towers. Traffic on Saint-Jean Boulevard is already hellish,” says Mr. Thomas, who also wants to preserve the Fairview Forest as a natural space for future generations.