Orgie de projets au centre-ville: 10 annonces d’un coup

[MtlMan]

Un article au titre tendancieux: on laisse sous-entendre que la ville est à moitié fantôme. Quand on lit on se rend compte que les projets se vendent bien, que les promoteurs sont confiants.

 

Bien sûr qu'il y a des unités invendues! Mais en analysant, on voit bien que les projets lancés il y a quelques années sont presque tous vendus. Ce sont ceux qui doivent être livrés en 2014-2015 qui constituent la majeure partie du stock libre. Rien d'anormal là-dedans! Il n'est pas entièrement clair par contre si le Roccabella et l'Icone sont inclus dans le calcul des unités invendues. Comme ils viennent juste d'entrer sur le marché, pas surprenant qu'il en reste à caser!

 

Franchement, des fois La Presse.....

[MartinMtl]

Souvent, pas des fois... La Presse.

[Vaillant]

Un article au titre tendancieux: on laisse sous-entendre que la ville est à moitié fantôme. Quand on lit on se rend compte que les projets se vendent bien, que les promoteurs sont confiants.

 

Bien sûr qu'il y a des unités invendues! Mais en analysant, on voit bien que les projets lancés il y a quelques années sont presque tous vendus. Ce sont ceux qui doivent être livrés en 2014-2015 qui constituent la majeure partie du stock libre. Rien d'anormal là-dedans! Il n'est pas entièrement clair par contre si le Roccabella et l'Icone sont inclus dans le calcul des unités invendues. Comme ils viennent juste d'entrer sur le marché, pas surprenant qu'il en reste à caser!

 

Franchement, des fois La Presse.....

 

c'est exactement ce que j'étais pour dire..

[IluvMTL]

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/open-house/Aubin+Would+kill+building+boom/6955383/story.html

 

Aubin: Would PQ win kill building boom?

 

Canadiens’ tower would go ahead regardless, but other developers say plans could change if foreign speculators are scared off

 

By Henry Aubin, The Gazette July 19, 2012 8:49 AM

 

 

This week’s announcement of the Canadiens’ 48-storey condo project is just the latest of 10 – count ’em, 10 – highrise towers planned within shouting distance of the Bell Centre. This cluster of projects highlights the biggest explosion of real-estate investments downtown since 1976, when the election of the Parti Québécois interrupted a building boom.

 

 

It’s an exciting time. Each of these projects is serious: The Ville-Marie borough council has given each the green light. The “smallest” would be 21 storeys; the largest, L’Avenue, across the street from Bell Centre, would be Montreal’s tallest residential building at 50 storeys.

 

The plans raise high expectations about downtown’s future, yet they also raise questions about whether the city is making the best of this golden opportunity to grow.

 

Let’s start on an upbeat note. These towers near the Bell Centre would represent a welcome boost to Montreal’s tax base. They’re part of a trend in which urban sprawl is slowly losing momentum (though still growing) while Montreal Island is gaining steam.

 

Almost all the projects would rise on parking lots or other vacant land, lessening downtown’s dreary, “bombed-out” look. No existing buildings of significant architectural or heritage value would be sacrificed.

 

All 10 towers would be handy to the métro.

 

Nine would be residential, and they’d add about 2,500 units to downtown. Montreal already has one of North America’s most throbbing downtowns, day and night, and now it would be even more so.

 

Indeed, several other residential towers, outside the immediate vicinity of the Bell Centre, would add further life. (For example, the 34-storey Peterson tower is planned for the Quartier des spectacles, an 18-storey project is planned for 1430 de la Montagne St. and 1220 Crescent St. could get an eight-storey building. The 450-unit Seville project, near the Old Forum, is already well under way.)

 

I’ve argued before that as a rule of thumb residential buildings outside the downtown core should, for sake of families’ quality of life and landscape esthetics, be no higher than eight storeys (and preferably considerably lower). But that consideration doesn’t apply here: The highrise cluster around the Bell Centre is in the very heart of downtown, and the developers’ market in this case is not families but young single professionals and couples. Schools, parks and knowing the neighbours are not their priorities.

 

So, given this abundance of virtues, what could possibly be questionable about these projects?

 

One of the good things about highrise living is the views, and it’s worth asking what the concentration of so many towers in a single neighbourhood would do to many residents’ panoramas of the mountain and the river. Making this Manhattanization all the more dense would be the immediate proximity of numerous existing towers (1250 René Lévesque Blvd., the CIBC building, the Sheraton, Le Crystal, La Cité du Commerce Électronique).

 

Also, wouldn’t the highrise forest block a lot of sunlight? Won’t it create pedestrian-harassing winds? A senior Ville Marie urban planner assures me that studies by the developers discount such problems, but you have to wonder.

 

Also, there’s the question of architectural quality. With rare exceptions, such as Place Ville Marie and 1250 René Lévesque, downtown’s post-1960 buildings are banal. Some of the planned projects have promise: Icône’s two towers show imaginative spark, and the Windsor office building is to be designed by the firm that did 1250 René Lévesque. Colleague Mike Boone, however, had the mot juste for the Canadiens’ tower: “Stalinist.” Montreal city hall needs to put more pressure on the real-estate industry to pick up its game.

 

Finally, there’s the ultimate question: How many of these towers will get built in the first place if the PQ wins the next election?

 

When asked that, the developer of the Icône project, Michael Dickey, said, “Good question. I’ll leave that as a question mark.”

 

At least one project, the Canadiens’ tower, would not be imperilled, according to Cadillac-Fairview, a partner. Local people, drawn by the Habs’ cachet, would buy condos no matter what the political winds. The company expects foreign investors – speculators – to buy 10 per cent to 15 per cent of the units.

 

But some of the other projects count on foreigners for about half of their sales. “Foreign investors,” says one developer who asked not to be named, “would sway off in the event of political uncertainty – and without them the projects wouldn’t have the money to be built.”

 

One more reason why the outcome of the election expected for September matters to Montreal.

 

P.S. I’d sure like to hear city council opposition leaders Louise Harel and Richard Bergeron explain how they can reconcile sovereignty with Montreal’s economic development.

 

mail:haubin@montrealgazette.com" TARGET="_blank">haubin@montrealgazette.com

 

© Copyright © The Montreal Gazette

 

 

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Condo+developments+Montreal+2012/6957815/story.html#ixzz215Z9sdCI

[MtlMan]

Aubin, c'est pas lui qui chiâle tout le temps contre les tours trop hautes?? Pis là, y chiâle pcq l'élection du PQ "risquerait" d'empêcher leur construction? Lol.....

[gars du new jersey]

Psssh. What a crock of shit. The Gazoo is a notch above the Suburban in terms of journalistic integrity - competence, actually - and editorial vision*. (Not that La Presse isn't racing to the bottom, either.**) Henry Aubin is especially myopic in his West Island bunker mentality and backwards urban thinking. Here's a gem:

 

Also, wouldn’t the highrise forest block a lot of sunlight? Won’t it create pedestrian-harassing winds? A senior Ville Marie urban planner assures me that studies by the developers discount such problems, but you have to wonder.

 

Okay, asshole. Why would one take the word of a study based on empirical observation when you could rely on your gut hunch? Wouldn't want too much wind or shadow, otherwise our downtown might be as uninhabitable as, say, midtown Manhattan.

 

Jackass.

 

I wish Quebec would separate if only to shut people like him up.

 

P.S. I’d sure like to hear city council opposition leaders Louise Harel and Richard Bergeron explain how they can reconcile sovereignty with Montreal’s economic development.

 

P.S.: I'd sure like to hear Henry Aubin explain how he can reconcile having a column in a newspaper with his being a complete hack.

 

*Except for Andy Riga, who handles their metropolitan/transportation blog. I like him!

 

**Le Devoir is really the only decent daily, and its site is behind a paywall.

Modifié 19 juillet 2012 par gars du new jersey

[gars du new jersey]

Oh, and this is a nice touch:

 

 

The Beautiful Mouth

[Habsfan]

Aren't you a little Harsh on aubin? I know that usually he,s against highrise projects, but I thought he was Ok in this article. He didn't complain too much!

[djsteph]

C'est quoi le projet sur le no 8 sur la plan, le projet avec Cadillac-Fairview? Ce pourrait-il que ce soit lié avec la rumeur de la plus haute tour de Montréal à Griffintown?

[bxlmontreal]

A quelle époque vit il??

 

Pour le reste le lot no 8 semble intéressant,je ne me souviens plus de détails annoncés le concernant(nombre d'étages,de condos et

de p2 pour la partie 'office'..commercial?).

 

Sinon il a aussi oublié de citer au milieu de l'article:TOM, le Marriot/vue,l'Altitude et l'Altoria.

 

''Indeed, several other residential towers, outside the immediate vicinity of the Bell Centre, would add further life. (For example, the 34-storey Peterson tower is planned for the Quartier des spectacles, an 18-storey project is planned for 1430 de la Montagne St. and 1220 Crescent St. could get an eight-storey building. The 450-unit Seville project, near the Old Forum, is already well under way.)''