With all the new projects under construction or proposed these days, it’s hard to put them all into one post. In this update, we’ll be looking at skyscrapers that are approved or proposed by their respective developers in downtown Montreal.

Approved

1. 1000-1006 de la Montagne/975 Lucien-L’Allier (~50-floors/27-floors)

This project has evolved since I first heard about it in 2013, going from 40-floors to about 50-floors for the tallest tower, and the shorter tower between rentals or a hotel. The old vacant brick building in this location has been demolished to make way for the 27-floor rental or hotel, but other than that, we still wait for what comes next. If this project goes through with both towers, it will only densify the area around the Bell Centre, which in the past 5 years added 8 skyscrapers, with more under construction/approved and proposed.

2. Union sur le parc- (20-floors x2)

You know the Montreal condo market is hot when the first tower that was put on the market sold out in 3 days (180 units). This project is located in the far western part of downtown, in Shaughnessy Village. The first tower should start construction at the beginning of 2018 and will continue bringing young professionals and families back to downtown. The project will also include 30,000 square feet of green space, thus, continuing the “greening” of downtown.

3. EstWest, part of the Children’s hospital project (27-floors x2)

Since I posted about the children’s project a couple of months ago, just recently we got news of the first phase, EstWest. 2 sleek and modern towers in downtown west with amazing views of the downtown core, the mountain and the river. The project will also include services, restaurants, green space and potentially a school. As to when this project will break ground? my hunch is late 2017/ early 2018.

4. Hotel 1175 (26-floors)

Another approved project that should hopefully start soon, as the old building that stood here has been demolished. Located on Rue Mackay, this has been approved as a hotel for now. Noone knows which brand it’ll be, but the rumours are it could be a Radisson Red hotel. One thing is for sure, Montreal is going through a hotel boom as well, with Marriot announcing it’ll be part of the Humaniti project, amongst others under construction or approved.

Approved/Proposed- Office towers

Before I go on, many people who know me also know how much I love it when downtown gets new office towers. think of this, before Deloitte got their new office tower in 2015, the last major office tower was constructed in 2005! ever since Deloitte, downtown Montreal has added nearly 1 million square feet of office space, the biggest being Maison Manuvie. As of Q2 2017, according to JLL, downtown vacancy is at 9.5%, mainly due to all the new class A office space recently added. For a major city, the vacancy rate is low, especially compared to some American/Canadian cities which have 15-25% vacancy rate, yet still, build office towers. Here are some office towers approved/proposed that should break ground within the next couple of years.

Tour QDS (14 & 33-Floors)

A project many Montrealers are still waiting to start, it’s been 5+ years since the project has been announced, and so far the lot sits vacant in the entertainment district. The complex totals 1.1 M square feet between two towers and will include street level commercial spaces, restaurants and cafes. The main tower is expected to soar up to 150M, making it the tallest office tower since 1992 (unless another office project starts), when we got le 1000, Montreal’s current tallest (for now). At the moment, we’re all waiting for this to start, hopefully, finding a tenant soon so we can get another gem downtown.

2. 750 peel (2 towers) part of Quad Windsor

This phase is part of the $2B mega-project Quad Windsor, which should be completed in the next 10 years. This phase consists of 2 office towers totalling 1.2 M square feet. The tallest tower has been rumoured to be anywhere between 160M-180M(beating out tour QDS), while the second between 130-140M. This project is personally, one of my favourites because of the scale and architecture. The project will also be located right next to Tour des Canadiens 2 & 3, the 2nd currently under construction right now.

TDC 3 on the left, TDC 2 in the middle (u/c right now) and on the right, 750 peel. The project should be launched within a 2-5 year time frame, but anything can change. At the current rate, vacancy downtown keeps decreasing, and with companies looking for class A office space, the chances of new office towers going up will only increase. There are about 3-4 major office tower proposals left downtown, but I’ll save those for a later update. All pictures of project renders were taken from Mtlurb (I’m also a member of that site). For projects without a website, I’ll add them to future updates if they do indeed get sites soon, or in the near future. Montreal is booming, let’s embrace the current changes and enjoy it.

Websites: condos

https://estwestcondos.ca/fr/est/le-projet/ http://www.prevel.ca/fr/content/union-parc http://centracondos.com/promoter.php (for 975 L.A/1000 de la Montagne project, same promoters yet no official site yet)

No site for 1175 project at the moment

Office towers

Montreal Q2 2017 office market report

http://www.jll.ca/canada/en-ca/research/569/montreal-office-insight-q2-2017