SKYMTL

Most of us just head to Hawkesbury these days. Back to the topic at hand, I'm trying to understand what's going on. I've been following the development pretty closely and site prep seems to be a lot more advanced than the actual planning itself. According to the project office, key elements of the structure, architecture and even preliminary plans haven't even been started / completed yet: https://projethopitalvaudreuilsoulanges.com/2023/01/25/ateliers-darchitecture-et-dingenierie-les-travaux-vont-bon-train/

Finally gone....thank goodness. There's an opportunity here to make this area more like the Boston Waterfront rather than the disaster of Griffintown.

I see dead trees, a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree, plenty of dandelions, crabgrass, a wayward candle, graffiti, haphazardly roped off areas and plants in potentially contaminated soil. Yup, all the hallmarks of a Montreal park except the one missing element: a broken traffic cone.

Yes. But according to him, most trades that would normally be working right now are not. At this point under normal circumstances there would be an almost continual concrete pour every day along with preparatory work on completed floors. At this point, pouring is only happening at 1/4 speed at most and prep work on set floors isn't happening. There's only a few workers on the roof coordinating the most minimal pour allowed without cap setting and other than that, most of the site is sitting idle. Initial plan was to be at 18 floors by now.

My friend is working on this project. A stop-work order has been issued to most trades from the General Contractor. He doesn't know any more but if I hear something I'll post.

Broccolini has stopped advertising for this project on social and print media. Its place in any contracted ad campaigns will be taken by other Broccolini projects. Whether this means a complete revision, a pause due to poor interest or something else is anyone's guess at this point but its still an interesting development.

Typically the poorest and most wealthy neighborhoods are positioned right next to one another. So that's a moot point considering Marche Central was set up as a typical power center to cater to a different set of shopping needs. As has already been stated, the type of clients LVMH and Carbonleo are trying to attract to this aren't folks who will be taking the metro. Not in the least. I think you also misunderstand what a high end fashion mall typically looks like, especially in a world that's pivoted increasingly to online shopping. Essentially, the "high end" shopping mall concept is dead (one of the reasons why Yorkdale has had to backstop its leasing space with the likes of Reitmans, Shoppers Drug Mart, etc.) outside some very niche spaces like Mall of the Emirates, Fashion Show Mall and a few others. High end retailers are now positioning themselves as stand-alone destinations which is why retailers like Dior, Chanel, Louis Vuitton and others have begun shuttering their mall locations while broadening their street side presence in affluent neighborhoods. If Rockland's positioning could be considered a no man's land, Royalmount is doubly so due to its ridiculously bad access and even worse traffic. The last thing someone wants is to be sitting in their Bentley in traffic just to grab a new Chanel bag. Nope, this location is doomed to failure without the primary functions first laid out by Carbonleo: residential and commercial, not just retail alone. You also forget the immigrant aspect. Most affluent immigrants avoid Quebec like the plague and like it or not, they're some of the primary consumers of high end luxury goods. Sure some settle here but the market is absolutely not there for a high end fashion mall, especially now.

So I'm trying to put this into some context. Rockland Shopping Center was supposed to be a "hub" for high end fashion It fails spectacularly regardless of the fact its within spitting distance of two of the most affluent neighborhoods in Canada Royalmount is designed as a symbiotic blend of commercial, residential and retail NIMBY's step in And the end result is Rockland 2.0, but further removed from the high end clientele and we expect a different result? Do I have that right? To parallel this with Yorkdale is absolutely laughable. The fashion retail environment and accessibility to fast fashion is completely different from Montreal. To suggest otherwise shows a complete lack of understanding of how Montrealers shop for fashion versus affluent individuals in the rest of Canada.

That's really good news for local Tesla owners. Hopefully it also clears up some of the insane maintenance backlog at the other service centers.

What an embarrassment.

A perfect representation of Montreal: a vertical pothole. This isn't "art". Its a circle.

I have a Pre-Delivery Deficiency Listing of one of the 2-bedroom units from a friend. Can't post until it is addressed (or not) by the builder....but it has 108 items including (paraphrasing here to protect the buyer): - Master bedroom door does not close - Bathroom water (sink) does not work. Pipes plugged? - Toilet backup - Leaking kitchen faucet - Exterior window rattle in low winds That's the tip of the iceberg.

I have a friend who went to go look at a unit here yesterday. Supposedly the finishing is absolutely terrible, especially in the bathroom and the kitchens look like they were bought straight out of Ikea. He also noticed the range hood wasn't ducted to anything. It was just capped off in the cabinet overhead. The real estate agent admitted to buying 6 units during a private pre-sale and is now flipping them. He mentioned all of the "deficiencies" would be corrected by the contractor.....yeah right.

Hey hey hey, goooodbye! Don't let the door hit you on the way out MLB! Actually yes, please let the door hit you on the way out and don't come back!

Trying to understand something here. Some recent renderings show full-height glass on the entire exterior. Other recent renderings show a mix of blank black prefab + windows in various ratios. Then common spaces show curtain walls. Which is it? Or is it all of the above?

So, after all this talk....these two 40 story towers are basically using the usual "Griffintown Greige", pillbox-style design? Fabulous but totally expected in our market. 🤐

As a resident of Vaudreuil, this is just absolutely ridiculous. Here we are in one of the fastest expanding regions in Canada and this is what we get. How? I'm beginning to think idiocy in infrastructure planning is a societal thing here around Montreal... With that being said, what was the last major bridge coordinated by the MTQ around Montreal? The 25 was a PPP, as was the 30. Meanwhile the Champlain Bridge was handled by the Feds. Meanwhile the current ones they manage are all decrepit (look no further than the Quebec side of the Mercier for that). Their strategy of avoidance when it comes to major over / under waterway structures reeks of incompetency.

Nope. The roads in both those cities are better maintained. 😅

Oh yes. Painting concrete in Montreal. Sure, that's gone SO well in the past. /sarcasm

To me, that big blank wall is BEGGING for a mural. Get the same guy who did the Leonard Cohen one to do one of Maurice Richard or something. It would be stunning.

I'm still trying to understand the massive wall of grey. Did they think the building going up next to this project would be taller?

OMG. What more is there to say?

What an eyesore. I also love how their highschool-level rendering seems to show reflective glass floor to ceiling on the majority of the windows whereas in reality its the same Griffintown-style bunker windows ripped straight out of the Compton Projects Book of Architecture.

Those prices are.....unbelievable. Especially in a market where people are looking to move OUT of the downtown core!

Condos of that size are AirBnB bait. Or a pied-à-terre for people who've moved outside the city in the last few years but still want a downtown unit. As Montreal (hopefully) rebounds, its something we're actively looking at too, though the layout of this one vs others is just atrocious.