News

The Ville de Montréal’s Executive Committee has given a green light to the Frontenac real estate complex project submitted jointly by two paramunicipal corporations, namely the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) via its business subsidiary, Transgesco, and the Société d’habitation et de développement de Montréal (SHDM). The complex will be built on a 54,200-square-foot lot owned by the STM, close to the Frontenac métro station in the Ville-Marie borough. The project features the construction of 298 housing units, including 60 social housing units and 109 affordable, Accès Condos accredited condominiums, along with 25,700 square feet of office space to meet the STM’s needs.

Statements

Valérie Plante, Mayor of Montréal: “This project shows how we can call on the combined strengths of our paramunicipal corporations to deploy exemplary projects that meet Montrealers’ needs. As a property owner, the STM wants to develop or optimize its assets beyond its own needs. By joining with the SHDM, it taps into the latter’s expertise in real estate development in areas needing consolidation. Together, the STM and SHDM have designed a project aligned with the development vision for the neighbourhood, expanding the residential offering in a sector in high demand and integrating diversity into their project by proposing 169 social and affordable housing units. In addition, they are doing all this by drawing on the proximity of the public transit system, a key aspect of the overall project.”

Philippe Schnobb, Chairman of the STM Board of Directors: “The STM is especially proud of this project, which is a first step in developing its real estate assets. Prepared in partnership with the SHDM, the project contributes to revitalization of the Sainte-Marie neighbourhood and enhancement of the housing stock, in line with the STM’s sustainable development vision, greater accessibility of public transit and elimination of a heat island. It’s a positive initiative in a number of ways, and we hope to repeat it.”

Nancy Shoiry, Executive Director of the SHDM: “The SHDM’s expertise in responsible property investment takes on its full meaning with this ambitious project, which is an innovative response to the objectives of the Ville de Montréal and the STM with regard to housing, urban planning and sustainable mobility. By combining our know-how with that of our partners to develop a winning business model for all involved, the SHDM meets the needs of Montréal families in terms of housing and access to home ownership, in addition to significantly exceeding the Ville de Montréal’s targets by integrating 57% affordable and social housing.”

Frontenac real estate complex: an ambitious mixed-use residential project
The project involves the construction of a mixed-use real estate project located next to the Frontenac métro station and Maison de la Culture Frontenac, on a 54,200-square-foot site bordered by Du Havre, La Fontaine and Frontenac streets (Ville-Marie borough). The location means that the site is appropriate for a densification project based on transit-oriented development (TOD) principles, involving the creation of residential or commercial areas that encourage the use of public transit.

The STM decided in 2015 to develop this real estate asset, which is currently a parking lot, and invited the SHDM to join with it in creating a project that meets its needs and integrates the Ville de Montréal’s priorities for this sector undergoing revitalization. The Coop du Havre technical resource group subsequently joined the partnership, taking charge of development of social housing units as part of the AccèsLogis program.

The architectural design, signed Lemay, provides for the construction of 298 housing units, including 60 social housing units intended mainly for families as part of the AccèsLogis program; 109 affordable, Accès Condos accredited units, 58% of them with two or more bedrooms; 129 private units; and 25,700 square feet of office space for the STM. The project also includes underground parking for 213 cars and 175 bike stalls. It will be built by developer Cosoltec Inc. Construction should get under way in 2019, with delivery of the project in 2021.

About the STM
The STM develops and operates an integrated bus and métro system, as well as a paratransit service, for the benefit of its customers. The métro system comprises four lines serving 68 stations, with 71 km of tunnels, and the bus system covers the island of Montréal, an operating area of 500 square kilometres. The STM provided 416.2 million passenger rides in 2016, which translates into some 1.4 million rides per day. It accounts for over 80% of all public transportation in the Montréal area, representing more than 70% of all public transit use in Québec. To find out more, go to www.stm.info.

The Ville de Montréal has just announced the enhancement of its program to support the acquisition of a residential property, a fund that offers financial assistance to buyers, under certain conditions.

For buyers of Accès Condos accredited units, this is great news! Indeed, this means that buyers who use the Accès Condos financial tool, a tool managed by the Société d’habitation et de développement de Montréal (SHDM), can ALSO, under the municipal program, have access to a subsidy from the Ville de Montréal for their purchase, according to the same criteria applied to any other buyer.

Indeed, the SHDM has designed the Accès Condos program to be complementary to other municipal initiatives aimed at enabling more households to buy a property and live in Montréal.

While the Ville de Montréal’s financial assistance program for the purchase of a residential property is accessible according to certain eligibility criteria, the only criterion of the Accès Condos financial tool is that of being eligible for a mortgage loan. Thus, in addition to the 10% purchase credit that reduces the down payment to only $1,000 for the purchase of an accredited Accès Condos unit, you may also be eligible for financial assistance from the Ville de Montréal ranging from $5,000 to $15,000, for a purchase made on or after May 1, 2018.

Have you already reserved your unit at Faubourg Contrecœur phase 5? You should immediately look into this new program because your deed of sale will only be notarized when you take possession of your unit, i.e. after the date of entry into force of the new program!

For more information on the Ville de Montréal financial assistance program for the acquisition of a residential property and the eligibility criteria, click HERE.

To visualize the Accès Condos accredited projects, click HERE.

Launched in 2016, the BORO project involved the construction of 26 affordable housing units, including 22 townhouses, in the Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough. This project has received an Accès Condos accreditation following a thorough qualification process.

Due to exceptional and unusual circumstances, the developer was unable to complete the project. Indeed, its chief executive has been reported missing by the police department of the Ville de Montréal (SPVM) since November 5, 2017. His relatives had alerted the authorities at the time of his disappearance, because he allegedly made suicidal remarks a few weeks before.

In order to get out of the legal vacuum created by these unforeseeable circumstances, the Superior Court of Québec appointed Ernst & Young to act as interim receiver and to launch a call for tenders to find a new developer.

Throughout this process, the SHDM has urged those responsible for the project to ensure transparent communication with buyers by regularly informing them of progress or obstacles encountered. Going beyond our strict legal responsibilities, we ensured a personal follow-up, addressing everyone’s concerns and disappointment to the best of our abilities.

All partners were hoping to find a solution to complete this project according to the parameters of the Accès Condos program, but this was not possible. All buyers will be released from their commitment by the interim receiver and deposits will be refunded, without condition or penalties.

The Accès Condos team shares the disappointment of buyers interested in this project and we continue to develop other projects that you can explore in the Projects underway and Projects to come sections.

This year, the SHDM has been invited to join the honorary committee of the seventh edition of Parle-moi d’amour Centre Wellington for the benefit of the Atelier des Impatients of Verdun.

Members of the SHDM community as tenants at the Monastère du Bon-Pasteur, a heritage property of the SHDM, the Impatients’ team is doing a remarkable job with people suffering from mental health problems by leading workshops of artistic expression. Offered for free in various locations in Montréal and the surrounding region, the Impatients welcome some 650 participants per week for creative activities that are supervised by artists or professional therapists. Through artistic practice, participants are called to socialize and break their isolation, thereby contributing to improving their quality of life.

In addition to their workshops, the Impatients have a gallery space in the Monastère du Bon-Pasteur to exhibit the works that are created during the workshops. There are also travelling exhibitions, publications, public readings and concerts, as well as a collection of more than 15,000 works of art by their participants.

All this work requires a lot of commitment, effort and love for the cause of mental health and art, but also a lot of money. This is why the Impatients organize every year silent auctions of works by participants and emerging and renowned artists as part of various exhibitions open to the public. The profits from the sale of these works make it possible to finance the activities of this organization, while giving an opportunity to a wider public to build a collection of works of art. It is an innovative way to democratize art while raising public awareness of the cause of mental health.

It is therefore with great pleasure that we invite you to reserve a date between May 1st and May 9, 2018, to visit the Parle-moi d’amour Centre Wellington exhibition (4932 rue Wellington, H4G 1X6) to enjoy the many works that will be shown and make a silent bid on your favourite. The exhibition and the silent auction will end on the evening on May 9 during which will be held a live auction of a dozen selected works, led by the spokesperson of the event, Chantal Lamarre, actress, columnist, host and Quebec writer.

Art lovers, aspiring collectors as experienced collectors, philanthropists or good Samaritans, this is an opportunity for you to participate in a beautiful evening for the benefit of a great cause, to treat yourself, to surprise a loved one, or even offer a nice gift to your mother on Mother’s Day. We are waiting for you! In the meantime, check out the online catalogue of the works that will be auctioned. You will find real treasures to hang on your walls that were created by emerging artists, established artists and participants in Les Impatient’s workshops.

 

The SHDM community includes more than 4,700 tenants. We share here a testimony of one of its members who is a tenant in a building managed for the SHDM by the Société de développement d’habitation communautaire (SODHAC). She shares her life story and talks about her relationship with the Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood, in which SHDM owns many affordable rental units. Neither community housing, nor luxury housing, SHDM’s rental properties meet the housing needs of more than 8,000 Montrealers and contribute to the diversity and vitality of our neighbourhoods.

Madjiguène lives with two of her children aged 21 and 25 in the Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough (CDN-NDG). “I have lived here for almost 20 years,” she explains. We met her during a horticulture workshop offered by the SHDM to its tenants and hosted by Sentier Urbain just a few steps from her apartment, Madjiguène told us her life story, which brings to light her sense of belonging to this neighbourhood that has seen her children grow and spread their wings.

 

Originally from Senegal, she arrived in Montréal in 1994. “I got married in Dakar. My husband came to Montréal first with our oldest child to do his Ph.D. in sports psychology. I joined him about ten years later with our two youngest and our last son was born here. I have two daughters and two sons, now aged 21 to 39,” she says. “We first settled in this neighbourhood a few blocks from here, and then, my husband wanting to live in something bigger, we moved to the outskirts of Montréal. It only lasted a few months because my husband died of a heart attack. As a result of this event, I decided to return to Côte-des-Neiges because it was a familiar environment in which I felt at ease. In 1998, she settled in a SHDM rental housing unit and still lives there nearly twenty years later.

Though fond of her neighbourhood, Madjiguène also enjoys her country of origin on a seasonal basis. “For several years now, I have been going to Senegal for several months to avoid the winter in Québec,” she says with a smile as she calmly prepares to leave her grown-up children in Montréal in a few weeks, the youngest of whom is still studying and lives at home. “My whole family is in Dakar, my mother, my brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts. I am much attached to Senegal, even though I am proud to be a Canadian and love my country of adoption,” she continues. Indeed, Madjiguène’s four children live in Québec, in Montréal, except for her eldest who settled in Joliette. The latter is the father of 5-year-old twins. “They have so much energy at that age!” says Madjiguène, who is definitely a resilient woman with a zest for life.

 

The life of expatriates and immigrants is a fundamental reality for the people of Montréal, especially in the CDN-NDG borough. Indeed, nearly half of the residents of this borough are immigrants and many of its neighbourhoods are known as a host environment for newcomers. “I like this area because we are really in the city. There are different people, different cultures and different lifestyles. It is a very open neighbourhood. There are also the metro, universities, schools, shops,” says Madjiguène. “When my children were little, the neighbourhood was also very lively and family-oriented. I remember, for example, that children came and went from apartment to apartment, visiting each other. A friend of my daughter also came every morning to get my daughter so they could walk to school together,” she adds. Several community organizations are located in the borough to support the highly represented families and immigrants in the area. “The Senegalese community is quite important here and I liked to get involved through different associations. Also, when my children were younger, we attended Le Baobab familial, which is an organization that welcomes families and offers help with homework, daycare and various community activities. The founder, Marie-Rosaire Kalanga, had her hair braided by my daughter who was doing this to earn pocket money!” remembers Madjiguène.

On this International Women’s Day, let us highlight not only the courage of all these single mothers, but also that of all those immigrant women who get involved in their Montréal neighbourhood because they feel at home there.

Our thanks to Madjiguène for her kindheartedness and for agreeing to give this testimony.

Long awaited by the residents of the Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension borough, the inauguration of Maison de la culture Claude-Léveillée took place last night. Located at 911 rue Jean-Talon Est, on the ground floor of the Centre Jean-Marie Gauvreau, this new cultural venue now offers a brand new 260-seat theater, a 220 m2 exhibition hall, a mediation room of 60 m2, a large foyer for the reception of visitors and spaces to house administrative offices. For the occasion, an evening tribute to Claude Léveillée was orchestrated and hosted by Monique Giroux. Guests were able to pay homage to this monument of Québec song, who grew up in this Montréal neighbourhood, with musical performances by Catherine Major, Daniel Lavoie, Pierre Flynn, Ingrid St-Pierre and Moran.

“I am proud of this recognition of Claude Léveillée and I am convinced that the new Maison de la culture dedicated to the memory of this great Montréal artist will be a crossroads of inspiring meetings, a place of synergy that will contribute to the cultural vitality of the Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension borough. I also believe that this new venue, in addition to the already diversified cultural offer that is spreading throughout Montréal, will become an indispensable cultural meeting place for all Montrealers” said Valérie Plante, Mayor of Montréal.

Almost $6.4 million were invested in the development of this cultural amenity of which $1.2 million were paid by the borough and $5.1 million by the City’s central administration. Added to this is the investment of the Société d’habitation et de développement de Montréal (SHDM) as explained by Ms. Nancy Shoiry, Executive Director of the SHDM:

“The inauguration of the Maison de la culture Claude-Léveillée is a moment of great pride for our team who took charge of the management of this project for a new cultural venue. As part of this partnership with the City, the SHDM has invested $2.8 million in major works on this heritage building, which it owns, including $2 million specifically for the space dedicated to the Maison de la culture. This contribution demonstrates the significance of the SDHM’s role as a privileged partner of the Ville de Montréal in carrying out projects that contribute to Montréal’s social, cultural and economic development.”

Ms. Giuliana Fumagalli, Mayor of the Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension borough, Ms. Christine Gosselin, responsible for culture, design and heritage on the Executive Committee of the Ville de Montréal, Ms. Isabelle Léveillée, representative of the Claude Léveillée’s family, as well as partners such as the architect of the project, Mr. Éric Gauthier of FABG architectural firm, also took part in this inauguration ceremony.

Montrealers will be able to discover their new Maison de la culture during the open house days that take place as of today and until Sunday, February 25. During their visit, they will also be able to appreciate one of the four luminous installations of Faisceaux d’histoire, a legacy of the 375th anniversary of Montréal created by ATOMIC3, the exterior artwork of artist Claude Lamarche, which has just been restored, as well as a work of art by Julie Favreau, this time installed in the lobby.

For more information, read the press release published by the Ville de Montréal (in French).