[Mokita]

A new render for this one. Looking good !


Source: The Gazette

New complex hopes to become the epicentre of downtown Montreal

EVA FRIEDE, MONTREAL GAZETTE
More from Eva Friede, Montreal Gazette
Published on: March 3, 2015
Last Updated: March 3, 2015 5:41 PM EST

A multimillion-dollar luxury project — hotel, retail space, condos and restaurants — rising next to the Ogilvy department store on de la Montagne St. is a “game-changer” and will be like Westmount Square “on steroids,” says a key executive of the development firm.

Details are finally emerging about the 250,000-square-foot mixed used project by Carbonleo, the developer behind the South Shore Dix30 and a proposed T.M.R. mega mall.

“It’s a game changer for Ste-Catherine St.,” said Andrew Lutfy, chairman of Carbonleo and owner of the Dynamite retail chain, adding there has not been any commercial development downtown on this scale in several generations.

“It’s a city block that is getting completely redeveloped, being led by a $400-million investment.”

Carbonleo broke ground on the project this winter. It will have approximately 50,000 square feet of commercial space, 75 luxurious condos and a five-star global luxury brand hotel with a 400-person capacity ballroom. It will be connected at several levels to a reimagined, combined Holt Renfrew-Ogilvy mega luxury store of 220,000 square feet.

Carbonleo has said the development represents an investment of $200 million. The Holt-Ogilvy expansion pricetag was $60 million when Holt Renfrew owner Selfridges Group announced the merger in November 2013. Both projects are slated for completion at the end of 2017. But Lutfy estimates that when all is said and done, including land purchases, the total investment will be in the $400 million range.

Zoning is for 65 metres, or approximately 20 storeys. The condos will start at the 12th floor, have 11 foot ceilings and panoramic views. Restaurants and groceries will be part of the offerings. Lutfy compared it to Westmount Square — “on steroids” — in its luxury and lifestyle bonuses.

“Basically, we’ll have a fully integrated lifestyle project into Holt-Ogilvy,” he said. “Really, when it’s minus 20, there’s no reason to leave.”

The units will be ultra-luxe, with about 3,500 square feet on average at about $1,400 a square foot, for an average price in the $5 million range.

Lutfy said there are plenty of Montrealers with “a fair amount of wealth. Still, Montreal is Montreal. They have to feel if they’re going to spend that kind of money, it will be an investment that will endure, hold its value down the line and that’s really going to work with their lifestyle.”

“We’re leveraging the entertainment that exists all around,” Lutfy said, naming the Bell Centre, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, night life and day life in the area.

The condo towers rising around the Bell Centre represents a vote of confidence in the area, he said. “It’s unprecedented, unparalleled investment in the area,” he said. But the cluster of towers just to the south is in an area that “five seconds ago, was just a parking lot,” he said.

They’re all residential, he said of the condo towers. “People need to eat, people need to drink and people need to connect and share – collaborate, shop, have dinner.

“We stand to be the epicentre, if you will. That is our objective — to become the food, beverage epicentre. This is where people will come to connect.”

Holt Renfrew, meanwhile, says it will announce within weeks details of its plans for the expansion and branding of the new store.

The construction project replaces the now demolished Hotel de la Montagne and a parking lot.