ScarletCoral

Je me demande ce qu'ils vont faire du 175 de la Montagne. Ça va devenir un espace commun ou un commerce?

On dirait presqu'un centre hospitalier...

Bon démolition au printemps? Le 50% comprend p-ê seulement les ventes officielles, c-à-d celles avec contrat de vente signé Et le site, c'est tout ce qui est réservé/vendu

WOW Ça avance vraiment vite... J'imagine que les travailleurs veulent absolument fermer les murs le + vite possible

C'est qu'on voit à peine l'Hexagone sur la 2e photo

La confirmation de la construction de la phase 1 n'a été annoncée qu'en juin 2011 : http://affaires.lapresse.ca/economie/immobilier/201106/15/01-4409302-bassins-du-havre-650-millions-investis-a-griffintown.php Il me semble que 3 ans et demi n'est pas si pire pour avoir 2 phases habitées Par exemple, j'ai acheté mon unité dans la phase 1 du Lowney sur Ville en février 2012 et je n'en prends possession qu'en février 2015

Donc, à part avoir renforcé la façade et protégé le mur voisin, il n'y a pas d'autres travaux apparants?

via Architectural Digest : True North With its magnetic mix of rugged individualism and European flair, Montreal exudes an irresistible French-Canadian joie de vivre Text by Mitchell Owens Tourists and travel guides often tout Montreal asa North American version of Paris. Pas vrai. Though the two cities’ abundant historic façades are predominantly limestone, Montreal’s are ash-gray, a rough-hewn contrast to Paris’s soufflé-gold luminosity. As for their all-important food scenes, Montreal’s muscular, hearty cuisine offers a robust counterpoint to the French capital’s refined traditions. And while the Québécois vernacular may have a sharper twang than what is spoken in France today, it’s actually more closely connected to French’s roots. Melissa Auf der Maur, the Montreal-born former guitarist for Hole and Smashing Pumpkins, once dismissed the provincial tongue as “hillbilly French”—only to have her mother, literary translator Linda Gaboriau, defend it as “the original French, the French of the kings.” In an increasingly globalized world, Montreal venerates its deep-seated local culture. French colonists settled Quebec in the early 1600s, and their descendants have never forgotten that intrepid foray, hence the province’s enduring separatist movement and its motto, Je me souviens—“I remember,” rendered pointedly en français. As Los Angeles–based AD100 architect Richard Landry, a University of Montreal alumnus, explains, “When you see those words on every license plate, it’s hard not to think about the patrimoine all the time.” Indeed, this city of 1.7 million, set on an island at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers, is infused with a pioneer spirit and an unpretentious pride in the homegrown. Cuisine is integral to this rich heritage—and a major reason Montreal remains a compelling destination long after summer’s festivals (most famously the International Jazz Festival) and carnivals have ended. “Montrealers reportedly spend more of their disposable income on eating out than on anything else,” says Andrew Torriani, the CEO and co-owner of the Ritz-Carlton Montréal hotel, a 1912 Beaux Arts landmark graced by the impeccable Maison Boulud restaurant, where executive chef Riccardo Bertolino plates suave international fare. The city is well-known for poutine, a tangle of frîtes topped with cheese curds and gravy. Auf der Maur swears by the version at Patati Patata (514-844-0216), a microscopic café close to Mount Royal Park, a 494-acre oasis designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. Diners craving more sophisticated menus can head to chef Normand Laprise’s hushed Toqué!, opposite the glittering business district’s colorful Palais des Congrès convention center and around the corner from the sleek W Montréal hotel. Chef-owners Hubert Marsolais and Claude Pelletier’s surf-and-turf mecca, Le Club Chasse et Pêche, on the other hand, is set amid the colonial gray-stone buildings of Old Montreal. Marsolais and Pelletier also collaborate with chef Michele Mercuri on the Italian-inflected brasserie Le Serpent, at the Ville-Marie arrondissement’s visual-arts center Fonderie Darling. Last year in the working-class Little Burgundy section—not far from the Old Port, where warehouses have been turned into cafés and inns, like the lofty Auberge du Vieux-Port hotel—chef-restaurateurs David McMillan and Frédéric Morin opened Le Vin Papillon, a charming wine bar. The new boîte is on the same block as the celebrated pair’s Liverpool House, a bistro with antler-bedecked walls, and Joe Beef, a tchotchke-filled gastropub that was recently ranked as Canada’s top restaurant, thanks to its lively confections like parfait of foie gras with Madeira jelly. Other daring chefs invigorating the city’s scene include François Nadon of the Latin Quarter’s Bouillon Bilk and Guillaume Cantin at Old Montreal’s Les 400 Coups. The city has a riveting collection of locally designed architecture as well. Starting with Moshe Safdie and his 1967 Habitat housing complex, a number of Canadian and Québécois talents have produced notable contemporary projects, including those in the Quartier des Spectacles, a network of performance halls, restaurants, galleries, fountains, and squares in the Latin Quarter. One of the district’s stars is the Grande Bibliothèque, a joint venture between Croft-Pelletier Architectes and Gilles Guité, both of Quebec City, and Vancouver’s Patkau Architects. The green-glass behemoth, containing multistory rooms walled with yellow-birch louvers, was hailed as “simple but wonderful” by Phyllis Lambert, Montreal’s architecture doyenne. The same could be said of Lambert’s own Canadian Centre for Architecture, which occupies an elegant 1989 building attached to a historic mansion in the Shaughnessy Village neighborhood. (The city does have a few outsider icons, namely Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s 1967 Westmount Square mixed-used complex, I. M. Pei’s 1962 Place Ville Marie skyscraper, and Roger Taillibert’s futuristic Olympic Stadium, a 1976 structure Landry calls “a very, very cool white elephant.”) Québécois art offers major-league delights, too. The works of powerhouse midcentury geometric painters Claude Tousignant and Guido Molinari are highlighted at the multivenue Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. And things are only looking up for current local talents, according to Lesley Johnstone, a curator at the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, which hosts the Montreal Biennial from October 22, 2014, to January 4, 2015. “Today the wealthy younger crowd whose families supported hospitals and the symphony are focusing on Canadian artists,” she observes. Among this new generation are Anne-Marie and Pierre Trahan, the maestros behind the two-year-old Arsenal Montréal, a contemporary art complex housed in a former shipyard in the Griffintown neighborhood. The 83,000-square-foot space is also home to the couple’s Division Gallery, which focuses on domestic talents such as multidisciplinary artists Nicolas Baier and Bonnie Baxter. After taking in Arsenal’s exhibitions, one can visit another Griffin-town magnet, a stretch of rue Notre-Dame Ouest known as Antiques Alley, where cafés alternate with treasure troves like Milord Antiquités and Antiquités L’Ecuyer (514-932-8461). Stylish Montrealers also dress Canadian, heading to Boutique Unicorn and Philippe Dubuc for fashions by their compatriots, while apparel star Marie Saint Pierre operates an eponymous flagship in downtown’s Golden Square Mile area. Boho-chic women—including Sharon Johnston, the wife of Canada’s governor general—step out in fascinatingly funky jewelry that designer Charlotte Hosten makes in her tiny appointment-only Mile End atelier. And at nearby Clark Street Mercantile, the brands primarily come from far beyond the province but share an earthy authenticity that feels absolutely Canadian. It’s a quality worth keeping in mind when exploring a city where roots and remembrance are everything. See more of Montreal's can't-miss destinations.

Via LesAffaires : Immobilier: la SCHL note des risques de surévaluation à Montréal et à Québec Publié à 14:18 Contrairement au reste du pays, le risque de surévaluation des marchés immobiliers est «particulièrement manifeste» à Montréal ainsi qu'à Québec, mais la situation s'améliore, estime la Société canadienne d'hypothèques et de logement (SCHL). Dans sa plus récente analyse, dont les résultats ont été dévoilés lundi, la SCHL estime qu'un «risque modéré» guette ces deux villes, notamment parce que la croissance du nombre de propriétaires a diminué depuis 2012. La SCHL signale que dans la métropole, le nombre de logements en construction par rapport au nombre d'habitants s'approche d'un «sommet historique», ce qui demande une meilleure gestion de la situation actuelle. L'offre de propriétés neuves est également élevée par rapport au nombre d'habitants dans la Vieille-Capitale, mais l'organisme estime qu'elle demeure tout de même dans les «normales historiques». De plus, l'économiste en chef de la SCHL, Bob Dugan, publie une mise en garde de construction excessive pour Montréal et Toronto. Selon lui, cette situation risque de se produire si les nombreux logements actuellement en construction ne se vendent pas. Un risque modéré de surévaluation est également observé à Toronto, Calgary ainsi qu'à Halifax, mais aucune surchauffe ni accélération n'est constatée, souligne la SCHL. Les résultats de son analyse comprennent ceux du marché canadien et de huit régions métropolitaines de recensement, soit Montréal, Québec, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa et Halifax. À l'échelle nationale, la SCHL note une «surévaluation modeste», même si la plupart des marchés demeurent en phase avec des facteurs comme l'emploi ainsi que les taux d'intérêt.

Il semblerait que la grue ait été démontée

On la voit clairement sur ce rendu : [attach]18696[/attach]

Ma maman a dit que dans le journal chinois, c'est écrit qu'un des investisseurs chinois est le propriétaire des supermarchés Kim Phat, un Chinois qui a immigré du Cambodge

via The Gazette : The Restaurant Scene in Montreal : Boom Equals Bust Lesley Chesterman Montreal Gazette Published on: November 21, 2014 Last Updated: November 21, 2014 9:14 AM EST Le Paris-Beurre is an excellent neighbourhood bistro that Outremont residents are lucky to have called their own for more than thirty years. The braised leeks with curry vinaigrette, the goat’s cheese salad, the famous gratin dauphinois and côte de boeuf for two, plus the best crème brûlée in town, make this restaurant a sure bet. Yes, the wine list has been on the predictable side for a decade too many and maybe the soup has a tendency to be a little watery, but the terrasse is divine and the dining room offers the ideal out-of-a-Truffaut-film bistro setting. If Le Paris-Beurre were located in Paris, it would be frequented by both locals and tourists looking for that fantasy French bistro. In Montreal, Le Paris-Beurre has relied on locals to fill its 65 seats. And increasingly, those locals are often grey-haired, owner Hubert Streicher said in a recent interview. Now after 30 years in business, Le Paris-Beurre will be serving its last bavette and duck confit on Dec. 23. Streicher still hopes the restaurant will be sold, yet he’s not holding his breath. “Our sales fell over the last three years,” he said. “We have a very loyal customer base, but those customers are aging. And younger customers are now heading to bistros on Avenue Bernard.” Normally, the closing of this Montreal institution would come as a surprise, but considering the number of iconic Montreal restaurants that have shuttered this year – big players including Le Continental, the Beaver Club, Globe, Le Latini and Magnan’s Tavern – Le Paris-Beurre is just another establishment to give up on the increasingly volatile Montreal restaurant scene. Driving around the former popular restaurant neighbourhoods of our city, and seeing locale after locale with rent signs in the windows, it’s obvious the restaurant industry is hurting. It’s one thing when the bad restaurants close. A regular purging of the worst or the dated is to be expected. But now the good restaurants are hurting as well. There are too many restaurants in Montreal and not enough customers” – Restaurant owner Sylvie Lachance Upon closing, restaurants like Magnan’s Tavern and Globe issued press releases that raised many of the same issues: road work, tax measures, staff shortages, skyrocketing food costs, parking woes, the increasing popularity of suburban restaurants and changing tastes. Add to that list a shrinking upscale tourist clientele, and there are sure to be more closings on the horizon. People have less cash to spend and more restaurants to choose from. Competition is fierce. Tourism Montreal notes that ours is the city with the largest number of restaurants per capita in all of North America. According to François Meunier of the Association des Restaurateurs du Québec, the number of new restaurants with table service increased by 31 per cent from 2005 to 2012 in Montreal. Yet people are spending less. “Sales are down 4.2 per cent in full-service restaurants from last year,” Meunier said. “People don’t have money to spend. We don’t always like to admit it, but Quebec is a poor province.” There’s a definite shift taking place on the Montreal restaurant scene and for many restaurateurs, the obstacles are looking insurmountable. Up the street from Le Paris-Beurre is the restaurant Van Horne. Owner Sylvie Lachance was so discouraged by how the restaurant scene is evolving that she sent an open letter outlining her exasperation to various media outlets last May. “There are too many restaurants in Montreal and not enough customers,” her letter began, before outlining several trends she believed were holding her back from garnering the attention she deserved. Of her chef, Jens Ruoff, she wrote: “(He) is not a hipster, has no tattoos on his arms and does not serve homemade sausage on wood planks.” Of Van Horne’s marketing approach, she said: “We do not have cookbooks for sale, nor a sugar shack, much less a television show. We do not personally know Anthony Bourdain or René Redzepi.” She closed with the final thought: “We are not dying at Van Horne but it is unfortunate, given all the hard work we do, to be forgotten so often.” Now, six months later, Lachance is still discouraged. “Are there too many restaurants in Montreal? Yes!” she said without hesitation. “Everyone is looking for staff. It has become the biggest problem. I have young chefs here who say, ‘I could go to you, Toqué! or Boulud.’ They can go anywhere. And I also see restaurants that open up that are constantly looking for chefs, waiters, bus boys. They don’t even staff their restaurants properly before opening. And as for chefs, they have to be everything these days: creative, good at marketing, eager to meet with suppliers, manage employees, calculate food cost. Good luck finding one who can do all that.” Across town, Carlos Ferreira is facing many of the same concerns at his famous Peel St. restaurant, Ferreira Café. The restaurant’s lunch scene draws the elite downtown crowd. Dinner is equally popular. Now going on 18 years in business, Ferreira should be leaning back, counting the profits, happy with his multi-restaurant empire. Not quite. “Montreal has become a restaurant city focused on fashions and trends,” he said between bites of grilled octopus at lunchtime recently. “New restaurants invest a lot in decor and ambience. In the past, the food in trendy restaurants like Prima Donna and Mediterraneo was very good. But today, it’s not serious. The ambience is exaggerated, the markups on alcohol too. A lot of those restaurants took their clients for granted and now they’re all closed. And today there is this new Griffintown phenomenon. If you don’t go to eat there, you are a loser!” When asked if he thinks there are too many restaurants in Montreal, Ferreira nodded. The problem, he said, is a lack of direction. “We’re losing sight of what a restaurant should be,” Ferreira said. “People are opening restaurants without knowing the business.” Ferreira does know the business – he’s been drawing in customers to enjoy his modern Portuguese food coming up on 20 years. Next year, though, he will be re-evaluating his entire business. “In 2013, we served 1,800 fewer customers,” he said. One of the problems now is that with the ongoing erosion of the high-end restaurant genre and the increasing popularity of casual dining, the middle ground is getting crowded. To Ferreira, restaurants can be divided into four categories: high-end (gastronomic), casual (bistros), cafés and fast-food. “The high-end restaurant is condemned,” he said, matter-of-factly. “They are too expensive and people say they’re very good but … boring. And if people go into a half-full restaurant, they don’t want to return.” Another highly successful Montreal restaurant, Moishes, celebrated its 75th anniversary this year but has faced its share of challenges. Yet owner Lenny Lighter is not willing to blame the lack of business on the booming number of new restaurants. “Competition always makes me nervous,” Lighter said. “And not just another steakhouse but anyone in my price category. But where is that ‘too many restaurants’ statement going? We live in a free society. Anyone can open a business. It’s not for us to tell people what to do. You know what’s not good? Not enough restaurants. The more choices people have, the more interesting the game gets for everyone.” To Lighter, there’s too much going on in Montreal lately to curtail entrepreneurial spirit. Young people willing to raise the capital and take the risk should do it, he said. “Some will close, there will be heartbreaks. But the ones that survive might just be the next big thing. We never know what the next Joe Beef will be or who the next Costas Spiliadis will be. Only the strong will survive. Competition is good. It raises the stakes.” And yet the hurdles in the game may also make for an uneven playing field. Next August, Ferreira will face a lengthy construction period on Peel St. and the makeover of Ste-Catherine St., both of which he is dreading. “I understand it has to be done,” he said. “But it must be done intelligently, so that there is still access to businesses.” The fear of being barricaded by a construction site is a prime concern for many a restaurateur. Even at arguably the city’s most popular restaurant right now, Joe Beef, construction worries loom large. “If the city ripped up the street in front of me here for three weeks,” said co-owner David McMillan, “I’d go under.” At Thai Grill on the corner of St-Laurent Blvd. and Laurier Ave., owner Nicolas Scalera watched his business come to a halt when the sidewalks were widened. For four months, the entrance to his restaurant was accessible only by a small plank set over a mud pit. Construction, estimated to last a month, started in August yet only finished in early November. Scalera said customers not only petered out, many called to see if he was closed. “I paid $68,000 in taxes to the city last year. It would have been nice to see a break during construction.” “I’ve been here for 17 years. I have some rights as well. But they don’t care,” Scalera said. “I had (city councillor) Alex Norris (for the Jeanne-Mance district) tell me right to my face that they don’t want people coming in from other areas or Laval to eat in restaurants in this area. He told me the Plateau is for the Plateau residents. I’d like the city to promote our restaurants instead of doing nothing to help us. Instead, I’ve seen a major decline in business. I will never open anything or invest in the Plateau again. It’s too risky. You could lose everything.” Norris, the city councillor in question, disagrees. “The Plateau gets hundreds of thousands visiting our streets,” he said. “We encourage people from all over the city to frequent our businesses. It’s a densely populated neighbourhood, so we’ve had to manage the relationship between commercial endeavours and residents. To suggest we don’t want people to visit our neighbourhood is absurd.” Inflated taxes didn’t help Le Paris-Beurre’s Streicher in Outremont, either. “I was charged $2,500 in taxes (this year) for my terrasse alone, and my terrasse is part of my restaurant, in the back courtyard, not on the street.” Van Horne’s Lachance is also disheartened by the lack of interest from the people who collect her tax dollars. “In Outremont where I am,” she said, “not one elected municipal representative has been to my restaurant. They go to the cheap restaurant down the street. I’ve served Tony Accurso, but I’ve never had any mayor or elected official in my restaurant. There is a lack of appreciation for our restaurant scene. People don’t talk about what show they went to anymore, but what restaurant they ate at. Restaurants are part of our culture now.” When asked if he frequents restaurants in his neighbourhood, Norris could name only one, L’Express. “There are others,” he said. “I’ll have to get back to you.” We’re losing sight of what a restaurant should be.” – Carlos Ferreira Even at the internationally acclaimed Joe Beef, Montreal officials have been scarce. “I’ve served three former prime ministers,” McMillan said. “The governor of Vermont has eaten at my restaurant four times, but not one Montreal mayor or one municipal councillor from my area has eaten at Joe Beef. The last five times I ate in restaurants in New York, three of the times I saw the mayor eating there, too.” “I have taken note of the comments, and I am pleased to see that the people at Joe Beef’s want to see more of me,” Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said via email on Thursday. “I was happy to see them recently at the Corona Theatre, where they catered an event celebrating David Suzuki. Unfortunately, the last time I was near Joe Beef’s restaurant, I was in a hurry and went to eat at Dilallo Burger.” “The city doesn’t understand how important the restaurants are in Montreal,” Ferreira said. Lighter is less dismissive, though he does see a lack of interest from above. “They’re not understanding the risk people take,” Lighter said. “There are payroll taxes, property taxes, operating taxes, school taxes. Government should be supporting you, not always policing you. And ultimately, with more sales, they get more taxes. Good business is profitable for them, too.” Despite the many factors hindering business, Montreal restaurateurs are not blaming customers. Client fidelity is at an all-time low, they say, yet they understand the desire to go out and eat around. “Montrealers follow the buzz,” Lachance said, “but they come back.” And yet there is one clientele all restaurateurs would like to see more of: tourists. “There is gigantic work to be done,” Ferreira said. “The summer of 2014 was the worst summer for tourists. Tourism Montreal says it was a record year, but they are drawing in the cheap tourists. These people aren’t spending.” Ferreira would like to see the city attract high-end conventions and tourists with money to spend by focusing more on the luxury market. “But no one will talk about that,” he said, discouraged. Pierre Bellerose, vice-president of Tourism Montreal, agrees the restaurant scene is hurting but with about 6,500 restaurants in the city, that’s to be expected. “We have more restaurants per capita than New York,” he said. “But we’re a poor city. Many close, many open. It’s a lot to ask the population to support the industry.” According to Bellerose, tourism is up 50 per cent from 20 years ago, and drawing visitors to the restaurant scene is one of the agency’s priorities. Bellerose said: “There is a good buzz about Montreal. It’s estimated that between 20 to 25 per cent of the clientele at high-end restaurants are tourists. There’s a lot of interest in food. But that interest varies. Some people just want smoked meat and poutine. And tourists are mostly circulating in the central areas of the city. We can’t follow them around and tell them where to go.” McMillan thinks Tourism Montreal could find better ways to promote our restaurant scene. “Tourism Maine and Tourism New York follow me on social media, but not Tourism Montreal,” he said. “And they keep paying for these bloggers to come in and discover the city. Instead, why not send some of us chefs out to promote Montreal restaurants abroad at food festivals or even in embassies? I’ve never been asked to promote my city or cook in an embassy – and if asked, I would do it.” And there is plenty here to promote. The New York-based website Eater.com recently dropped both their Toronto and Vancouver pages yet held on to their popular Montreal site. Though low on the high-end restaurant count, Montreal has an impressive number of chef-driven restaurants, with an increasing number of them drawing international attention to our scene. Plus, Montreal remains a far more affordable restaurant city than the likes of Paris, London or even Toronto – although the down side of being an affordable dining destination means less money in restaurant owners’ pockets (the ARQ estimates profits at a paltry 2.6 per cent). “We should be a premier destination,” Lighter said. “We have a unique culture, a great reputation. But Montreal has suffered economically. We’re highly taxed. There’s not a lot of disposable income and it’s expensive to eat out. I sense there is a certain defensiveness restaurateurs have with customers, but we have to learn from customers, too. We always have to have our eyes and ears open, ready to adjust.” Restaurants in Montreal: 6,500 People per restaurant in Montreal: 373 People per restaurant in New York City: 457 Increase in the number of new restaurants in Montreal from 2005 to 2012: 31 per cent Decline in sales at full-service restaurants in 2013: 4.2 per cent Sales at high-end Montreal restaurants from the tourism industry: 20 per cent End-of-year profit margin on all sales for Montreal full-service restaurants: 2.6 per cent Restaurants closing this year : Le Paris-Beurre : The bistro on Van Horne Ave. in Outremont will close on Dec. 23 Le Continental : Closed in May Le Latini : Closed in September Beaver Club : Closed in March Magnan Tavern : Will close on Dec. 21 Globe : Closed in September

via The Gazette : Blue Bonnets blues: Abandoned racetrack a sad sight Paul Delean, Montreal Gazette Published on: November 21, 2014 Last Updated: November 21, 2014 6:16 PM EST At the site of the former Blue Bonnets racetrack, plants are growing out of a dirt racing surface that crews used to smooth and tend to with the same detail and attention that golf courses lavish on greens. Photo by Ann MacNeill, Special to the Montreal Gazette Ann MacNeill / Montreal Gazette Abandoned racetracks are a rare and dispiriting sight, especially at the onset of winter. And the island of Montreal happens to have one. It’ll be six years this month that horse racing officially ended at Hippodrome de Montréal, known for most of its 101-year history as Blue Bonnets. A place that in its final decades seemed to be from a different time, set amid the urban sprawl next to one of Montreal’s busiest thoroughfares, now sits empty and unattended, its faded 1960s-era architecture a sad reminder of bygone days. In July of 1970, the Décarie Blvd. landmark attracted what was then the largest crowd for any sporting event in Canada, 41,578 people. In the 1960s and 1970s, it was one of the busiest harness tracks on the continent, and considered a showcase of North American racing. Now it’s just an empty shell on a large property going to seed. A housing development slated for the site is stalled. Plants are growing out of a dirt racing surface that crews used to smooth and tend to with the same detail and attention that golf courses lavish on greens. The decrepit barns that used to permanently house hundreds of horses (and a few of their caretakers) now are visited only by graffiti artists and the occasional raccoon. Back in the day, the stable area was a hive of activity, especially in the morning, as horses would be bathed, fed, washed, shod and hooked up to their sulkies for training. In the paddock, competitors would align next to their rivals for the races of that day (or night), calmly awaiting their call to the post under the watchful eye of their trainers and grooms. It was abuzz on race nights with drivers and trainers talking strategy, nattily-attired owners tiptoeing through dust, mud and horse manure to visit their animals before the races, and track officials trying to keep things running on schedule. Plants are now growing out of the dirt racing surface. Photo by Ann MacNeill, Special to the Montreal Gazette Ann_MacNeill The paddock was abuzz on race nights. Photo by Ann MacNeill, Special to the Montreal Gazette Ann_MacNeill Abandoned victory blanket at the empty Blue Bonnets site. Photo by Ann MacNeill, Special to the Montreal Gazette Ann_MacNeill Cool-down blankets were one of the perks of winning major races at Hippodrome de Montréal, a badge of achievement. Now they’re keepsakes from another time, or merely the detritus of a livelihood lost. Drivers and trainers sporting all-weather racing suits in their own individuals colours were the top of the pecking order in the backstretch, the ones making the decisions. Only their ghosts remain in the stables they once ruled. Hundreds of horses used to live in the Blue Bonnets stables, training in the mornings, resting and eating during the day, racing at night (mostly). The trucks and trailers would arrive daily, moving out horses that were injured, tired, sold or sour and bringing in new faces from farms and racetracks all over the continent. Where did they go when the racing died? To other tracks and farms, if they were lucky. It was a life of routine, long hours, modest pay and dirty, exhausting physical work, but for those who worked with horses, it brought its own form of fulfilment, and most had trouble imagining doing anything else. They, too, dispersed in the wake of Hippodrome de Montréal’s closing. Now, it’s as if they were never there. The site sits empty, its architecture a sad reminder of bygone days. Photo by Ann MacNeill, Special to the Montreal Gazette Ann_MacNeill Back in the day, the stable area was a hive of activity. Photo by Ann MacNeill, Special to the Montreal Gazette. Ann_MacNeill Graffiti artists are among the only visitors to the Blue Bonnets site. Photo by Ann MacNeill, Special to the Montreal Gazette Ann_MacNeill

Via the Gazette : Posh new residence redefines student living Karen Seidman, Montreal Gazette Published on: November 20, 2014 Last Updated: November 20, 2014 6:54 PM EST Student residences aren't what they used to be. Pierre Obendrauf / Montreal Gazette There you are, on the 27th floor of your student residence, taking in the sweeping vistas of Old Montreal and the hills beyond the St. Lawrence River while getting ready to take a dip in the shimmering turquoise and cobalt blue indoor pool. Your day started at the Lavazza coffee bar. You’ve already been to the state-of-the-art gym, stretched in the Pilates room and completed your homework in the mahogany panelled study room. After swimming, you’ve invited some friends for a spirited game of pool and air hockey in the game room. Then you’ll all head to the building’s microbrewery before watching the hockey game on a giant projection screen in the multimedia room. Anyone who thinks living in a student residence means a dingy room with erratic heating, cheap furniture and a Scrabble game for entertainment hasn’t kept up with the times. Welcome to the new age of student residences; literally the evolution of student living — which is how the newest player in the burgeoning private student residence market in Montreal got its name: EVO. The swanky downtown student residences housed in the former Delta Centre-Ville hotel on University St. and the former Holiday Inn Midtown on Sherbrooke St. W. may be called EVO, but a more fitting name might be OMG. As in: OMG, are those tanning beds? Is that an 80-inch TV on every floor? OMG, is that a student lounge or a posh hotel lobby? This is not your parent’s dorm. “Book a visit to student paradise,” trumpets the EVO Google ad, and it’s not kidding. “What we’re trying to do here is brand new and out of the box,” said Olivier Monnais, the area manager who oversees the two EVO properties in Montreal. “We are trying to teach the local market that there are other opportunities than the ugly basement in the student ghetto.” And while they just opened in September and don’t have that many students yet — the restaurant, coffee bar and microbrewery are set to open in the next month on University — those who have discovered it seem delighted. The main living area at the entrance of the new EVO residence on Wednesday November 19, 2014. The new swanky private student residence is located on University street in a renovated hotel.Pierre Obendrauf / Montreal Gazette “I wasn’t expecting anything like this for a student residence,” said Léo Aksas, 18, a student at HEC Montréal from Paris. He can’t get over the gym facilities (he was on his way to a kick-boxing class), and said his mother is happy about the enhanced security. Aksas said the only drawback to EVO is, well, that he’ll have to leave one day. “They’re going to have to kick me out,” he said. “It’s so nice.” EVO can only be described as the antithesis to the red square movement in a city that was besieged by students protesting a planned $350 tuition hike two years ago, and in a province where even marginal tuition increases can spell political death. However, with about 200,000 post-secondary students in the city and universities courting the lucrative international student market, a growing number of private student residences are popping up in downtown Montreal: Varcity 515 on Ste-Catherine St.; Parc Cité on Parc Ave.; the Edison Residence near McGill University’s Milton Gates. These are not slap-on-the-paint, throw-in-a-cot operations. EVO is a joint venture between U.S.-based Campus Crest Communities Inc. and Europe’s private-equity firm Beaumont Partners SA. They paid about $60 million to $65 million for each of the downtown properties. Monnais said about $20 million has been spent renovating them. (Still to come: a decision on how to best use the iconic revolving restaurant that tops the old Delta hotel.) Campus Crest has grown in the last 10 years to one of the largest developers of high-quality student housing in the U.S. But its popular Grove concept — complete with outdoor fire pits, volleyball courts and clubhouses — wasn’t the right approach for an urban setting. So EVO was born. So far there are just three of the student housing towers: one in Philadelphia and two in Montreal. There are about 1,300 beds at the EVO on University St. and 948 on Sherbrooke St. And there’s no question the arrival of EVO, and all the private residences, has shaken up the market. “The competition is a concern because they have a lot of shiny new stuff,” said Janice Johnson, managing director of residence life at McGill. “We were worried with so many new beds opening but I think it’s just helping to raise the standards.” So how can public universities — plagued with budget cuts — compete with lavish digs like EVO? The single room at the new EVO residence on Wednesday November 19, 2014. The new swanky private student residence is located on University street in a renovated hotel. Pierre Obendrauf / Montreal Gazette “Our places aren’t as shiny and fancy as the new places, but many parents still want their kids at McGill having that university residence experience,” Johnson said, adding that the university provides social and support programming that is unbeatable for its primarily freshman clientele. In fact, when McGill took over a hotel on Sherbrooke St. W. for its newest La Citadelle residence, they covered the indoor pool to create a common space. Chalk it up to risk management, said Johnson. And different priorities. “I don’t think a tanning bed is what I’d want my kid to have,” she said, noting McGill’s numbers haven’t dropped since the new residences opened in the last few years. It still has about 3,000 first-year students in residence. The new residences often can’t compete with the university ones in terms of proximity, services, events and student integration, said D’Arcy Ryan, director of residence life for Concordia University, which has 900 beds. Sure, Concordia’s newest residence at the Grey Nuns building has a gorgeous reading room in the old chapel, but Parc Cité has “brain rooms” on each floor equipped with a Mac, PC and printer. And it’s got Tim Hortons providing room service to its tenants. Hard to top that. While they all boast bright and modern accommodations — even the newer university residences — and most offer amenities like game rooms and gyms, EVO brings the student experience to a whole new level. Its plush surroundings scream boutique hotel rather than student residence. The double rooms, at the new EVO residence on Wednesday November 19, 2014. The new swanky private student residence is located on University street in a renovated hotel. Pierre Obendrauf / Montreal Gazette And then there are the tanning beds. Three at the University site, two on Sherbrooke. And offered at no extra charge. Really? Don’t parents worry about the health risks, a reporter ask. “Kids are kids and they still have a right to choose to do it or not,” said Monnais, adding that the tanning beds have been a popular feature in the company’s U.S. student residences. Monnais says the luxurious atmosphere isn’t even what distinguishes EVO. He believes the real attraction is the all-inclusive lifestyle. Other than food, the only additional fee is for laundry. And the fabulous gathering spaces — even the expansive laundry room offers a bright and funky setting — means students don’t have to be cooped up in rooms which were, after all, just hotel rooms intended for short stays. It’s so appealing that about 10 per cent of the University St. clientele so far is young professionals — not students. Jonathan Pesce, 21, stumbled across EVO on the Internet. He’s from France, studying neuroscience at the Université de Montréal — and he couldn’t be happier about his choice of residence. “It’s a very convivial atmosphere and I’ve met a lot of people,” Pesce said while playing foosball with a friend. He particularly likes the elegant study room and the communal kitchen on each floor, which makes it easy to prepare meals. With more than a touch of envy in his voice, his visiting friend confirmed what anyone who sets foot through the doors discovers: “It’s really nice here.” Prices of some on-campus and private student residences in Montreal: EVO Double room: $675 per month for 12 months, $775 for nine months, $875 for four months Single room: $1,075 for 12 months, $1,175 for nine months, $1,275 for four months Parc Cité Standard double: $599 to $849 per month Standard single: $999 to $1,648 per month Corner double: $649 to $899 per month Corner single: $1,049 to $1,698 per month Varcity 515 Small shutter room: starts at $759 per month Large shutter room: starts at $799 per month Large window room: starts at $959 per month McGill University Double room: $1,225 Large double: $1,304 Single: $1,401 Rates are for the academic year, eight months. Room and board ranges from $9,000 to $12,000 for the academic year. Rates for McGill’s newest residence, La Citadelle (the per month rate is over eight months only and includes a full meal plan) Concordia University Double room: starts at $450 Single room: $850 Rates are for the academic year, eight months. A mandatory meal plan costs an additional $4,000 for the year. kseidman@montrealgazette.com twitter.com/KSeidman

12.5 millions vs 2.5.... La SHDM aurait été fou de choisir l'offre de Broccolini Et en cash en plus

Dans LaPresse+ Édition du 22 novembre 2014, section IMMOBILIER, écran 4 Le retour de la « condomanie » ? MAXIME BERGERON LA PRESSE La scène rappelait les moments les plus fous de la « condomanie » montréalaise. Vendredi dernier, alors que le mercure était sous la barre du zéro, une quinzaine de personnes ont poireauté toute la nuit sur un trottoir de la rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest, en attendant l’inauguration d’un bureau des ventes. À l’ouverture des portes, samedi midi, une quarantaine de clients faisaient la queue. Et quelques heures plus tard, les 87 condos du projet S sur le Square avaient tous trouvé preneur. La frénésie généralisée serait-elle de retour au centre-ville de Montréal ? Loin de là. En fait, la popularité surprenante du complexe S sur le Square semble plutôt constituer une exception. Ce succès repose sur l’attrait de ce microsecteur du centre-ville (Shaughnessy Village), et sur la bonne réputation du promoteur Prével, dont le précédent projet dans ce quartier s’était aussi vendu à une vitesse fulgurante auprès d’une clientèle à forte concentration asiatique. Il n’y a pas de pénurie de condos neufs dans les quartiers centraux de Montréal, bien au contraire. Selon une étude du groupe Altus, l’offre demeure très abondante. Au total, sur les 8610 copropriétés neuves du centre-ville (incluant le Vieux-Montréal et Griffintown), 2900 sont invendues. Ce chiffre, historiquement assez élevé, comprend les unités en prévente, en construction et complétées. Altus apporte certaines nuances à cette donnée inquiétante. La firme souligne ainsi que 85 % des condos construits sont déjà vendus. Cela laisse en réalité un inventaire de seulement 307 appartements disponibles pour occupation immédiate dans le centre de la métropole. Le degré de succès des projets varie aussi de façon assez marquée entre les différents secteurs du centre. Dans Griffintown, par exemple, 94 % des condos neufs et complétés sont vendus, une proportion qui descend à 90 % au centre-ville ouest, à 88 % dans le Vieux-Montréal… et à 66 % au centre-ville est. Pour l’ensemble du troisième trimestre, 376 condos neufs ont été vendus au centre de Montréal, assez près de la moyenne historique de 440, indique le rapport. Les ventes ont augmenté dans tous les secteurs depuis un an, sauf le centre-ville ouest. « En gros les ventes de condos reprennent du tonus depuis les deux derniers trimestres au centre-ville, ce qui nous laisse croire en une stabilisation du marché », indique Mathieu Collette, directeur de la recherche chez Groupe Altus. Autre signe encourageant selon Altus : le nombre de nouveaux projets a fortement diminué au troisième trimestre. Seulement 230 condos ont été mis en marché, bien en deçà de la moyenne trimestrielle de 655 observée depuis 2011. La firme estime que l’offre « est en lien étroit avec la demande » à ce jour en 2014. Altus avertit du même souffle que cette « modération » des promoteurs devra se poursuivre encore quelques trimestres, puisque le niveau de condos invendus (2900) reste élevé. Le mégaprojet YUL, qui totalisera plus de 900 unités sur le boulevard René-Lévesque, affiche par exemple des ventes de 40 % un an après sa mise en marché.

Photo dans LaPresse+

On le savait depuis dimanche, avant même le communiqué de presse de Prével sorti lundi!! Techniquement, ils ne sont pas vendus tant que les gens n'ont pas signé leur contrat de vente avec preuve de financement

Très différents des rendus qu'on peut voir dans le post #1

Les nouveaux immigrants Chinois sont bcp plus riches que l'ancienne génération. Souvent, en arrivant ici, la première chose qu'ils font c'est de s'acheter une maison "cash"... Ce qui n'est pas mon cas malheureusement

Depuis l'annonce du projet que YUL a une pub en première page des journaux chinois locaux... C'est à croire que le projet visait particulièrement la communauté chinoise... Même si je suis Chinoise, je n'aime pas être entourée de Chinois... Ça fait "ghetto"

Je crois que c'est bien Alexandre Dumas... Sinon, c'est son frère jumeau Selon son profil LinkedIn, il fait du PR maintenant https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandredumas1

Si je me fis au plan, le bâtiment de 20 étages est directement en face du S sur le Square. Donc, le côté Sud de Ste-Catherine aurait une limite de hauteur moindre.

Quand Prével cherchait un terrain pour ce projet, il y avait un sondage pour demander à leurs clients s'ils préféraient un projet sur Ste-Catherine ou sur René-Lévesque. Je me demande si Prével a garder le terrain sur René-Lévesque en réserve pour un futur projet