Financial Post:Step aside Toronto, the next housing boom is in Montreal

[mtlurb]

Step aside Toronto, the next housing boom is in Montreal

 

Karen Mazurkewich, Financial Post Published: Friday, January 11, 2008

 

 

 

 

Gordon Beck/Canwest News Service

 

What sets Montreal apart from other urban centers is the fact that it has retained its neighbourhood mosaic.

 

 

When Montreal architect Henri Cleinge purchased an old wine depot in Montreal's Little Italy district in 2002, he transformed it into a contemporary three-unit condo with polished wood and concrete floors, iron staircases and stainless steel kitchens. He then flipped two of the units for seven times the original investment of $200,000.

 

Mr. Cleinge had a few sleepless nights wondering whether the units would sell. He didn't have to worry. In Montreal, there's big demand for contemporary-design living.

 

Much has been made about Toronto's big museum projects and condo lineups, but Montreal is also changing its shape. Toronto housing prices have experienced 58% growth since 2000. The island of Montreal, however, has seen housing sales jump 50%, but the city itself has gone up 94%. In addition, a new concert hall and 28-storey condo tower is being erected atop Place des Arts metro, two mega hospitals are under construction and Sotheby's International Realty recently entered the market. As well, the largest private real estate investment in decades, involving 4,000 dwellings and a shopping plaza, is scheduled to get a green light from city hall.

 

Montreal's mojo is back. But its not the big urban projects that are redefining this city. What makes Montreal distinct from other urban centres is the fact it has retained its neighbourhood mosaic.

 

The most famous is the northeastern district known as Plateau-Mont-Royal. The Plateau has become the most expensive address in the city, with its average housing price jumping 105% in the past seven years. It's also one of the reasons Montreal consistently ranks among the top 25 cities in the world for quality of life. Like Greenwich Village in New York or Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, the Plateau is where culture and haute couture intersect.

 

In the 1980s, the Plateau was a string of shabby row houses. Owners lived on the main floor and rented the walk-ups. But the working-class enclave changed dramatically in the 1990s, when new legislation made it possible to subdivide duplexes and triplexes into condo apartments.

 

"Instead of a single owner, who would rent one or two of the other floors, now each apartment is owned individually and people are now willing to invest," says Susan Bronson, a Montreal heritage conservationist. The artists and architects that moved into the area with nothing in their pockets can now afford to invest. The hood became hip because it maintained "high bohemian index," she says.

 

Montreal's Mile End, a subsection within the Plateau immortalized by Canadian author Mordecai Richler, has seen the greatest upheaval. Gone are the icons: the discount grocery store Warshaw's, Simcha's Fruit Market and St. Laurent Bakery have closed. Instead, a slew of new high-concept design stores, including Interversion and Latitude Nord, have staked out Boulevard Saint-Laurent, turning it into the new fashion Mecca. Even the old rag-trade factories, religious buildings and empty lots have received a radical facelift.

 

Architect Eric Gauthier, who created the landmark Espace Go on Saint-Laurent, is currently constructing the all-new Théâtre de Quat'Sous on formerly grungy Avenue Pins. The firm Lepointe Magne has also made its mark on the Plateau, redesigning the public swimming pool Bain Lévesque and converting an old fire hall into the high concept Théâtre Espace Libre.

In Plateau's housing, one of the first innovations was Atelier Big City's 1989 Sept-Plex condominium project on Clark Street, which made creative use of the narrow street fronts and back lanes. Atelier Build reinvented the notion of infill with its 2004 "thin house" project along Avenue L'Hotel-du-ville. When she started her architectural company with partner Michael Carroll 12 years ago, Danita Rooyakkers of Atelier Build, says few others were betting on the Plateau. Political instability in the province was a deterrent for developers, but it was the perfect time for a young architect with modest means and big dreams.

 

Ms. Rooyakkers biked around Plateau in search of cheap empty lots and made her mark by eschewing the traditional walk-ups, where every family gets a floor, and subdivided the property so each owner has a front door, backyard and terraces. By opening up the walls and adding skylights, the architectural firm created a vertical loft. It won awards because it offered another prototype for high-density Montreal living, she says.

 

The design aesthetic in Montreal has been tempered by activism. The Plateau is not only governed by a planning advisory committee stacked with architects and landscapers, it has community watchdogs galore, including the Mile End Citizens Committee and Urban Ecology.

 

Every architect working here has had to face fierce town hall forums before building begins. "As educated local residents, we have both a sense of entitlement and empowerment," says Owen Rose, an architect and head of the Urban Ecology group, which focuses on urban green spaces. "It's easy to get involved in issues because we are constantly bumping into each other on the street in this urban village," he says, adding that community involvement has permeated the local culture.

 

As one of the first architects to help reshape the plateau, Mr. Gauthier was frequently forced to marry old facades with his slick contemporary style to meet the borough's strict guidelines. With Théâtre de Quat'Sous, he's been given an exemption: the historic synagogue in which the theater is currently housed didn't meet safety codes so it will be replaced by a showy new architectural structure.

 

Mr. Gauthier is concerned about a public outcry, but he's excited about the new design. "If you want to keep the city alive, you need to add new buildings and new layers." While the strict development guidelines built a "cohesive" neighbourhood, he says, "we've passed the point where conservation should now trump freedom."

 

Mr. Cleinge, the architect, is trying to exercise that freedom. In recent years he has revamped in his sleek industrial design look a microbrewery on Duluth Street as well as the Les Chocolats de Chloe of Roy Street East. He avoids wood stairs and plastered ceilings, preferring concrete and steel for urban living spaces. The look reflects the city's history, he says.

"Montreal is an industrial city with a large garment industry so it's appropriate language to use in a residential context," he says. Luckily for him, clients such as Stéphane Dion and Éloïse Corbeil, typical Plateau dwellers, are looking to restyle their 1880s duplex.

 

Ms. Corbeil's father purchased the building on Christophe Columb Street in 1996 when she and her brother needed a place to live while they attended university. Ms. Corbeil's brother has since moved to the United States, but the 33-year-old writer-filmmaker and her lawyer husband still love the mixed neighbourhood. They looked in the swank neighbourhoods of Westmount and Outremont after the birth of their two children, but decided to stay put.

 

"We didn't want to go to the suburbs because we like the diversity here," says Ms. Corbeil.

 

Conscious of their limitations but eager for a contemporary style, they hired Mr. Cleinge after seeing his work in a magazine. His mandate was to keep a portion of the "stacked wood" interior shell of the house, but rebuild the place from top bottom. He proposed a mezzanine open-style approach to filter more light into the home and create more space. Concrete floors and iron railings are part of the new plan.

 

For most young buyers, the Plateau is now untouchable - meaning overpriced. Its evolution, however, has created a ripple effect across the city and intensive gentrification is happening in the shabby districts of Point St. Charles and the Jean Talon market area. "The Plateau has matured," says Mr. Cleinge.

 

But the condoization of Montreal has only begun.

Financial Post

 

kmazurkewich@nationalpost.com

 

http://www.financialpost.com/magazine/family_finance/story.html?id=231679

[ChrisDVD]

Go Montréal go! Je croix que c'est des bonnes nouvelles!

[yul_love_mtl]

gigidy gigidy gigidy....

 

That's good news.

[Habsfan]

WOW, a positive article about Montreal in the national Post...Pigs will fly!

 

C'est quand même bien de voir que Montréal recoit de la bonne publicitée dans le National post!

[yarabundi]

But the condoization of Montreal has only begun.

It's not what the market is saying, isn't it ?

[ProposMontréal]

Je suis surpris que Calgary n'est pas mentionné, après c'est pas la qu'il y a le plus de construction en ce moment?

 

Anyway, Dugg the story from the page.

[jesseps]

Interesting read.

 

All we need now is for more businesses to setup shop in Montreal or return to Montreal.

[francely57]

"Step aside Toronto"...

Pour donner une idée de l'intensité torontoise, selon Emporis (qui n'est pas tout à fait à jour, mais mieux que les autres sources), il y a 104 buildings de 12 étages et plus en construction à Toronto, la très grande majorité étant des tours à condos...

Si Montréal atteint ne serait-ce que le quart ou la moitié de cette intensité, ça apporterait un changement spectaculaire à l'allure de notre ville! Il resterait juste à faire ce développement dans le bon sens, pour ne pas le regretter dans 30 ans.

[jesseps]

"Step aside Toronto"...

Pour donner une idée de l'intensité torontoise, selon Emporis (qui n'est pas tout à fait à jour, mais mieux que les autres sources), il y a 104 buildings de 12 étages et plus en construction à Toronto, la très grande majorité étant des tours à condos...

Si Montréal atteint ne serait-ce que le quart ou la moitié de cette intensité, ça apporterait un changement spectaculaire à l'allure de notre ville! Il resterait juste à faire ce développement dans le bon sens, pour ne pas le regretter dans 30 ans.

 

This is Quebec.

 

My father friend put it best "we build not for the future, but for the past"

[lio45]

Luckily for him, clients such as Stéphane Dion and Éloïse Corbeil, typical Plateau dwellers, are looking to restyle their 1880s duplex.

 

1880s duplex? Now that's very good taste. I think I've changed my mind about the guy and might even vote for him this year.