Édifice du Canal - 5 étages (2021)

[Rocco]

Superbe petit édifice. La madame chiale pour la perte de sa vue? Fermez lui le clapet en déposant une belle pépine neuve devant sa fenêtre un beau matin. Non mais...

[v30DZzw5x]

C'est bien, mais ce qui manque sur le canal c'est des commerces pour mettre de la vie!

[ScarletCoral]

http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/airbnb-headquarters-new-building-makes-waves-on-lachine-canal

Airbnb headquarters? New building makes waves on Lachine Canal

Heritage activists and residents of the Corticelli Lofts raise concerns about the planned six-storey complex.

 Andy Riga, Montreal Gazette

Published on: May 23, 2018 | Last Updated: May 23, 2018 6:00 AM EDT

John Gutpell, at the Corticelli Lofts, studies plans for the new office building. Some residents, he says, "are going to have office workers looking directly into their apartments.”
PIERRE OBENDRAUF / MONTREAL GAZETTE

A proposed new building expected to house Airbnb’s new Montreal headquarters is making waves on the Lachine Canal, raising concerns of neighbours and heritage activists about an area undergoing a building boom.

People who live next door in the Corticelli Lofts, one of the first 19th-century factories near the canal to be turned into condos, say the planned six-storey complex encroaches on their views and is too close to their residences.

“The thing that they’re building is going to be so damn close, the people on the east side of our building are going to have office workers looking directly into their apartments,” said John Gutpell, a board member at the Corticelli.

The Sud-Ouest borough delayed a vote on a resolution related to the new six-storey building last week after asking the developer, Groupe Mach, to shift the location of the building.

On Friday, a spokesperson for the company told the Montreal Gazette that a revised plan, with the building set further back from the Corticelli, is in the works.

The Corticelli is on St-Patrick St. in Pointe-St.-Charles, just east of des Seigneurs St.

Artist rendering: the new office complex will pass over a basin that connects to the neighbouring Corticelli Lofts.
ROUPE MACH

The new building has been in the planning stage for almost a decade.

The plan was revised in 2012, though neighbours say they only saw the changes in recent months.

Compared to plans shown at a public meeting in 2010, the building was moved at least seven metres closer to the Corticelli, according to Corticelli residents.

At its closest point, the neighbours say a portion of the new building will now be six metres from the Corticelli. In meetings with Corticelli residents, Groupe Mach has contended that it will actually be almost 10 meters away.

Neighbours are also concerned about how close the new building will be to seven maple trees that the city is obliging the developer to save.

“We’re talking to Groupe Mach to try to get some concessions that the neighbours wanted,” said city councillor Craig Sauvé.

The borough asked the company to modify the design so the building is not as close to the Corticelli or to the maple trees.

Eric Barbeau, a Groupe Mach spokesperson, said the company “wants to be a good neighbour” and will move the building away from the Corticelli and the trees. He could not say how far the building will be shifted, noting new plans will be submitted to the borough by May 31.

Sauvé said the borough can’t force the company to move the building because “they have full rights to go ahead and build due to previous (borough) votes” in 2010 and 2012.

Even if the updated plan doesn’t satisfy neighbours, the borough can only delay the project at this stage, he said. It cannot stop the construction. 

 

A Sud-Ouest bylaw forbids erecting a single building on multiple lots. The developer wants to construct the new building on two lots between St-Patrick and des Seigneurs. On one lot sits a nondescript empty factory to be demolished; the other features a parking lot.

The developer has asked the borough to pass a resolution – a bylaw derogation – allowing it to proceed.

Elected officials were scheduled to vote on that resolution May 14 but put it on hold due to negotiations with Groupe Mach. The next borough council meeting is June 11.

If the developer and the borough can’t come to an agreement, the developer could file a request with the Quebec government to combine the two lots, Sauvé said. That process can take several months, delaying the start of construction. It’s a given that Quebec would approve the change.

The new building will be about two metres higher than the Corticelli and will feature about 134 underground parking spots, according to Groupe Mach plans given to Corticelli residents.

Residents of the Corticelli had urged the borough to send the project back to the drawing board.

They argued the planned structure is larger and closer to neighbours than the building approved in the past by the borough.

The Corticelli residents also note that a 2012 borough decision ordered that the new building location should be inspired by the neighbouring Redpath Lofts, another former industrial building. If that rule was followed, the new building would have to be shifted several metres away from the canal, the neighbours say.

But Sauvé said the borough has closely reviewed Groupe Mach plans and the company has the right to construct the building as proposed.

Neighbours are concerned about how close the new building will be to maple trees that the city is obliging the developer to save.
PIERRE OBENDRAUF / MONTREAL GAZETTE

Heritage activists are also raising concerns.

Dinu Bumbaru, policy director at Heritage Montreal, said he is uneasy about the building’s impact on the landscape of a historic part of the city.

The building will face the Lachine Canal’s St. Gabriel Locks, which help explain the history of Montreal, he noted.

Built early in the 19th century, the canal made Montreal one of the main ports of entry to North America and helped spark an industrial building boom. The canal, used to transport goods for almost 150 years, became obsolete when the St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959.

“This is a rather unique and iconic part of Montreal,” Bumbaru said. “It’s not just water flowing in the middle and then real estate on the side. It has a personality.”

He said he looked at plans for the new glass and brick office building “and I say, is this the best we can come up with?” 

Bumbaru said the large building may “close the space and visual landscape around these iconic locks” by “bringing a wall so close to the canal.”

The red-bricked Corticelli building, completed in 1884, once housed the Belding-Corticelli silk manufacturing factory, at one point employing hundreds of people producing more than 2,000 types of thread. The building was a factory until 1982 and was converted to open-concept, high-ceiling condos in the late 1980s.

One side of the Corticelli is still graced by a water channel that once connected to the building’s power wheels and was later used to transport raw materials to the factory.

“We have so few of these historic waterways in Montreal that special care should be given to keeping them present and visible in the city fabric,” Bumbaru said of the channel.

Drawings that Groupe Mach has shown neighbours indicate the new building will cross over only part of the channel, and the section above the channel will be elevated – about five metres above ground level. 

Bumbaru praised this part of the design, saying it will provide a pleasant experience for those who want to visit the channel, which is connected to the Lachine Canal via the Bassin des Prêtres, which runs along part of the Redpath building. 

“You can see from the drawing that the section of the building over the (channel) is narrower than the whole project so there will be some sky,” he said.

Groupe Mach has told residents it will rebuild the channel walls, parts of which are crumbling.

Groupe Mach has told Corticelli Lofts residents that it will rebuild channel walls that are crumbling.
PIERRE OBENDRAUF / MONTREAL GAZETTE

Groupe Mach officials have told neighbours that Airbnb, an accommodation-sharing service, will be the new building’s main tenant, Gutpell said. Airbnb and its Luxury Retreats subsidiary are on a hiring spree in Montreal, with 22 job openings.

Asked whether Airbnb will be moving into the building, Sauvé said “that’s what we’ve been led to believe.”

Groupe Mach, for its part, said it could not reveal the name of its tenant.

Sauvé said several hundred people are expected to work in the new building. The arrival of more workers in the area is good news, he added: “Having jobs in the city fights urban sprawl and it’s good for local commercial streets as well.”

The Lachine Canal has changed considerably since he moved into the Corticelli 25 years ago, Gutpell said. At the time, few buildings were over four storeys, many old factories stood empty and few people lived or worked in the area.

Many condo towers have gone up since, especially across the canal in Griffintown, where construction cranes fill the skyline.

“When you look at Griffintown, there are these 15-to-20-storey condo towers going up,” Gutpell said. “The city has gone crazy, with no regard for density. The condo buildings are jammed in like boxes of cereal on a shelf.

“It’s really the opening of the canal that spurred things,” he added, referring to the refurbishment of the waterway and its opening to recreational boating in 2002.

“It brought restaurants down here and all kinds of things. In many ways, it’s a positive thing but I just think it’s gone a bit too far.”

Thirty-two years ago, it was the imminent arrival of Corticelli and Redpath condo dwellers that made waves. In 1986, about 150 Pointe-St.-Charles residents took to the streets to complain that the new residences would drive up rents in buildings nearby and displace longtime residents.

“We built this community and brought up our children here and now we’re being pushed out because never in a million years could we afford to live in these fancy places,” one of the protesters told the Montreal Gazette at the time.

[Dominic723]

Et pour ceux qui se désolent de la perte des érables de Norvège... c'est une espèce envahissante

[ScarletCoral]

http://montrealgazette.com/news/airbnb-next-door-developer-adjusts-30m-lachine-canal-office-project

Airbnb next door? Developer adjusts $30M Lachine Canal office project

The new building's "good quality, high-tech jobs will be a benefit to the community and are going to help feed the stores on Centre St. All those (workers) are going to go for lunch, they're going to get their groceries."

ANDY RIGA, MONTREAL GAZETTE

Updated: June 9, 2018

Artist rendering of a new office building being planned along the Lachine Canal by Groupe Mach, a real-estate developer. The new building, expected to be used for Airbnb's Montreal headquarters, is to go up between the Redpath Lofts (far left) and the Corticelli Lofts (far right). Source: Groupe Mach GROUPE MACH

It looks like residents of a condo complex on the Lachine Canal will have to get used to having Airbnb next door — not a short-term rental but the Montreal headquarters of the accommodation-sharing service.

On Monday, the Sud-Ouest borough is expected to approve a motion that will remove the final hurdle in developer Groupe Mach’s plan to build a $30-million, six-storey office building in Pointe St-Charles.

Groupe Mach officials have told neighbours and city officials that Airbnb will be the new building’s tenant. Airbnb and its Luxury Retreats subsidiary are on a hiring spree in Montreal, with 22 job openings as of Friday.

The borough approval would come after Groupe Mach modified its project in an effort to appease residents of the neighbouring Corticelli Lofts. They complained that the offices would be too close to their homes and too close to seven mature maple trees.

“From my point of view, I’m happy that we at least have a bit more space between the two buildings,” said John Gutpell, a board member at the Corticelli Lofts, a former thread factory that is between St-Patrick St. and the canal, next to the lots on which Groupe Mach will build.

But he said some residents who live on the Corticelli’s east side are still not happy that the new building will eliminate their views of the canal and downtown Montreal. Some may ask the city to lower their property valuations to reflect the reduced appeal of their units, Gutpell said.

The green-shaded area shows parts of the building that have been moved away from the Corticelli. The pink-shaded areas show where the building has been expanded. GROUPE MACH

In May, the Sud-Ouest borough said Groupe Mach’s plan conformed to city bylaws but delayed a vote on the project and asked the developer to adjust the design to make it more palatable to neighbours.

In the new plan submitted to the borough last week, the developer moved two sections of the building’s western walls away from the Corticelli — one by about 2.5 meters, the other by about 3.5 meters. The building will now also be 2.5 meters further away from the maple trees.

In addition, the company said it will reduce the amount of window space on the side next to Corticelli by 10 per cent.

Groupe Mach said the building will be extended in several other locations so that the overall size will remain 148,000 square feet. Construction is expected to begin later this month, with completion slated for October 2019.

“We told the developer, ‘Look we don’t want to scale back your project, we just want to make it fit better with the surrounding environment’,” said city councillor Craig Sauvé. “And they reworked it and we were able to get a good deal.”

Heritage Montreal has said it was uneasy about the building’s impact on the landscape of a historic part of the city. The building will face the Lachine Canal’s St-Gabriel Locks, which help explain the history of Montreal.

But since the new building is a place of work, “what we’re doing is fully consistent with the history of the canal,” said Christopher Sweetnam-Holmes, Groupe Mach’s vice-president of development.

He noted the site was long used by industry. An archeological dig is expected to unearth remnants of a pumping station and of a secondary canal that has long been covered up, Sweetnam-Holmes said. Information panels are to be installed describing the location’s history.

John Gutpell looks at plans for a new office building from the Corticelli Lofts, looking north towards the Lachine Canal on Tuesday May 15, 2018. The new six-storey office building will replace the two-storey structure in the centre of the photo. (Pierre Obendrauf / MONTREAL GAZETTE) PIERRE OBENDRAUF / MONTREAL GAZETTE

The new offices, expected to be used by several hundred workers, will be a boon to the neighbourhood, Groupe Mach says.

“The feedback we’ve heard is that the borough and people in Pointe St-Charles don’t want more condos on the canal,” Sweetnam-Holmes said. “They want jobs, they want employment.”

The new building’s “good quality, high-tech jobs will be a benefit to the community and are going to help feed the stores on Centre St.,” he added. “All those (workers) are going to go for lunch, they’re going to get their groceries.”

Built early in the 19th century, the Lachine Canal made Montreal one of the main ports of entry to North America and helped spark an industrial building boom. The canal, used to transport goods for almost 150 years, became obsolete when the St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959.

The red-bricked Corticelli building, completed in 1884, once housed the Belding-Corticelli silk manufacturing factory, at one point employing hundreds of people producing more than 2,000 types of thread. The building was a factory until 1982 and was converted to open-concept, high-ceiling condos in the late 1980s.

 

[ScarletCoral]

http://journalmetro.com/local/sud-ouest/actualites/1629714/un-projet-immobilier-controverse-adopte/

19/06/2018 Mise à jour    : 19 juin 2018 | 15:39

Un projet immobilier controversé adopté

Par Justine Gravel

Un immeuble commercial de six étages verra le jour au 1720, rue du Canal dans Pointe-Saint-Charles au grand dam des voisins de la future construction. Malgré leurs efforts et ceux de l’arrondissement, plusieurs déplorent que les modifications demandées pour préserver la verdure et réduire la taille du bâtiment soient absentes du projet.

Au dernier conseil d’arrondissement, les élus ont donné le feu vert au promoteur Groupe Mach pour l’immeuble qui accueillera l’entreprise de location de logements Airbnb.

Le projet, préalablement autorisé en 2010 puis modifié en 2012, a fait l’objet de nombreuses contestations au cours des dernières semaines, particulièrement quant au fait que les nouveaux plans rapprochaient de 11 m la future construction du Corticelli, la tour à condos voisine. Cette augmentation de la superficie de l’immeuble était d’autant plus contestée puisqu’elle menaçait directement la survie de onze érables de Norvège matures.

Plusieurs rencontres menées entre l’arrondissement, les résidents du Corticelli et le Group Mach ont donné lieu à quelques améliorations, soit une réduction de la superficie de 2,5 m par 4 m et la conservation de sept des onze arbres. S’il advenait que ces feuillus soient endommagés, le promoteur devrait débourser 300 000$ à l’arrondissement en vertu d’une lettre de garantie signée.

Ces changements s’avèrent toutefois insuffisants selon plusieurs copropriétaires. «L’immeuble est encore beaucoup trop près. J’ai acheté ce condo pour l’emplacement et maintenant la vue que j’aurai de ma fenêtre c’est une bâtisse», déplore un résident du Corticelli, Michel Comeau.

Verdure
M. Comeau souhaiterait également que les quatre autres érables de Norvège soient sauvés. «Ça prend 50 ans avant d’avoir des arbres de cette grosseur, fait-il savoir. Ils pourraient créer un écran végétal entre un lieu résidentiel et un milieu commercial, où il y aura sûrement des lumières 24h sur 24h, parce que c’est Airbnb.»

Le maire du Sud-Ouest, Benoit Dorais, concède qu’il est dommage que des arbres en santé soient abattus. Il souhaite d’ailleurs renforcir le règlement à cet effet, afin que ce genre d’événement ne se reproduise plus.

«La réglementation actuelle autorise de couper des arbres en santé dans le cadre d’un projet immobilier. Nous voulons revoir la réglementation de manière à être plus sévères en demandant de modifier l’implantation du bâtiment pour conserver les arbres», explique-t-il.

Anti-démocratique?
Selon une autre copropriétaire du Corticelli, Louise Bédard, le fait de ne pas avoir dévoilé le nouveau projet de 2012 publiquement et de ne pas pouvoir le contester est une pratique antidémocratique.

«Il en ressort l’impression persistante qu’une autorisation donnée à un promoteur est toujours irréversible alors qu’une obligation émise à un promoteur dans le cadre de la même entente demeure toujours négociable par ce dernier. Le promoteur n’a-t-il pas un poids démesuré dans notre arrondissement? Je suis d’avis que oui», déplore-t-elle, dans un courriel remis aux élus, dont La Voix Pop a obtenu copie.

En attendant que le permis de construction soit octroyé, les copropriétaires du Corticelli poursuivent leurs négociations avec le promoteur à propos de la conservation des quatre autres arbres matures, la superficie du bâtiment et le stationnement.

Le Group Mach n’a pas répondu aux demandes de La Voix Pop.

[jerry]

Ça commence!

[slanctot]

2018-07-23

 

[jerry]

La démolition est bien avancée.

[slanctot]

2018-08-25