Downtown Montreal continues to boom, and with a hot market as of late, the boom has gotten bigger. New towers are starting, more foreign investments are pouring in, and with new international destinations, Montreal is becoming an Alpha city. Today, I had the chance to walk around downtown to catch up on new construction, and towers that are complete from the 1st boom cycle.

Centra condos on Rue Mackay, this will be a 16-floor condo tower and will densify this street further.

Right across from centra condos are 2 developments. The empty lot will be a future 26-floor hotel (as rumours have it now), and although development hasn’t started yet, the demolition of the previous building shows that it’ll start soon. Next to it, another 16-floor condo will be going up. This building used to be a 5-floor commercial building that was sold, stripped down and will get built up.

YUL phase 1 nearing completion. The quality of glass used for this project is one of the most elegant and high-quality glasses I’ve seen on a condo building. The white panels add contrast to the building, which gives it an even more unique design.

YUL, Holiday Inn and Tour des Canadiens phase 1. YUL phase 2, which will be in the middle of Holiday Inn and YUL 1 is expected to start this fall.

Roccabella phase 2 nearing completion! I got to witness them taking down the crane, which was a first for me. The tower also has a restaurant on ground level called Jerry Ferrer (which I recommend).

Here’s the crane that came down from Roccabella, with the help of two teo taxies (kidding of course)

The big 2 in this sector of downtown, L’avenue on the left (184 metres tall) and Tour des Canadiens 1 (170 metres). On the ground floor of TDC 1 will be, come October, Canada’s largest sports bar called 1909 Taverne Moderne. This new bar/resto just adds to the many restaurants around the Bell Centre, adding more competition and the potential for future ones to be added.

The new Bell Centre district. What an amazing transformation. New towers, new shops, grocery stores and restaurants. Between these 5 buildings, 1,830 units have been built, and if you factor in other buildings built/under construction or approved within walking distance of the Bell Centre, it adds to an additional 2,888 units (YUL phase 1,2, Holiday Inn rentals, TDC 2, Drummond 1 & 2, Centra condos, De la Montagne project of 2 towers) and of course the potential of thousands more with other projects.

Tour des Canadiens phase 2 taking off. It’s remarkable how fast this tower is going up. Last week the team was able to build 2 floors. Right now the tower is at floor 14, with it to be 53/54 floors total and 168 metres tall. This phase, along with the 1st tower is sold out.

This is also part of the Quad Windsor project, which will push the downtown core even further south with new condos and office towers, such as the Doilette tower on the right.

TDC 2 once again, it looks like they’ll be installing glass soon.

And a final picture showing the beautiful downtown core with historic buildings and a park. If you look closely to the left, you’ll see the almost completed Maison Manuvie tower.

With all the positive news lately about the Quebec economy, and of course Montreal’s economy, many projects have broken ground or have been proposed. In addition to economic news, with the REM starting construction soon, and with a reported $5B in real-estate investments, we can see the downtown area go through a bigger building boom. The next few years will be very interesting times for the city, and my excitement won’t change.

Interested in seeing condos/buying?

http://centracondos.com/ (same promoters of the De la Montagne project)

http://roccabella.ca/en/

http://www.yulcentreville.com/home

https://www.lavenuecondos.com/en/