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Tessier said Brigil could still build something at 61 rue Laurier, but it would have to apply for a zoning change if the company wanted to go higher than three storeys on the single lot.

Asked last week if the company would develop Place des Peuples elsewhere in Gatineau if the heritage designation took the Museum District off the table, Yves Ducharme, special adviser for Brigil, posed a question in return.

“Let’s say you’re in love with a guy named John. And I say, ‘You are able to be in love, but it’s not with John that you’re going to go out with, it’s Mark.’ What would be your answer?

“The best location for investing $400 million is right in front of the museum,” he concluded.

Brigil estimated that Place des Peuples would generate $8 million in tax revenue for the city on an annual basis, and generate 1,000 new jobs in the area.

In an interview following the council vote, Ducharme said it marked the end of Place des Peuples “for tonight,” adding that Brigil was “very patient.” Last week, he voiced his own belief that the designation wouldn’t stand the test of time.

The heritage designation will extend considerable protection from development to the Museum District and the dozens of historic buildings it contains, many of which date back to the late 1800s. Buildings inside the district can still be demolished, renovated and transformed, and new ones can be built, Tessier explained, but they have to respect the neighbourhood’s heritage characteristics, so a glass highrise complex that caps out at 55 floors won’t fly.

Gatineau mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin voted in favour of the designation.

“There are many, many places in Gatineau where a project like that can be built … not in a heritage neighbourhood,” he said following the council meeting.

“We have about four million people walking on the street every year. On one side we have the history museum, on the other side they have a big part of Gatineau’s history and Gatineau’s identity. We have to value that and we have to invest in it.”