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Statistics will tell you telecommuting has become a fashionable way to work in Canada — but have you ever tried finding a coffee shop willing to host you and your laptop for eight hours or more each day?

Freelancers and remote workers have a few options, including working from home, haunting a circuit of cafés or renting a desk in a co-working space, the latter of which abound in Montreal.

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Crew, a young Montreal company now in its third year of operation, is in the preparatory stages of becoming yet another co-working space in the city.

However, its location — which will open to the public in April — is unique among its competitors: it is the former headquarters of the Royal Bank of Canada, built in 1928 down on St-Jacques St. in Old Montreal.

The space has sat empty since RBC abandoned the building in 2010 — a shame, considering the grand splendour it once possessed, with its 50-foot-high vaulted ceilings, chandeliers, intricate tiling and marble and bronze galore.