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Development likely for Standard Life building

 

Insurer thought to be looking at becoming lead tenant in a new tower

 

By Allison Lampert, Gazette Real Estate Reporter August 26, 2013

 

MONTREAL — When Standard Life Assurance Co. of Canada put its Montreal head offices up for sale this summer, the property was expected to attract potential buyers with a very different vision for the site.

 

While a deal has yet to be reached for the Sherbrooke St. site — with its combined 300,000 square feet of space spread over the office building, a coach house in the back, and property facing Stanley St. — the location is largely being looked at as a mixed residential development, real estate sources say.

 

It’s part of a gradual, but broader trend of Montreal corporate tenants heading south, below Sherbrooke St., leaving former office buildings behind in west-central downtown to be reinvented as hotels, or condos. The Standard Life properties are currently zoned for commercial and housing.

 

“Buildings go through many cycles,” one veteran commercial real estate broker observed. “I think this is all positive for the area.”

 

On the south side of Sherbrooke St. — just a few blocks away from Standard Life — Rio Tinto Alcan’s current headquarters is to be sold to a private consortium, following a July deal to move the aluminum giant’s head offices into a LEED platinum tower under construction by Cadillac Fairview Corp. Ltd. near the Bell Centre. While the Maison Alcan was originally envisaged by Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté — a partner in the consortium — as a hotel and entertainment complex, the site’s final vocation has yet to be announced.

 

While there are still office buildings on Sherbrooke St., between Atwater and Peel Sts., the transformation of Maison Alcan — formerly a hotel — and the Standard Life building away from offices would follow a trend in the area.

 

The Grammercy Residences, a luxury condo project located on Sherbrooke St. just west of St. Marc St., was once the offices of denim manufacturer Dominion Textile Inc. And the Sofitel luxury hotel on Sherbrooke and Stanley Sts. was once the Montreal offices of gas supplier, Air Liquide Canada.

 

Standard Life Canada spokesperson Geoffrey King declined to comment further on the company’s plan “to modernize its employee work spaces,” which would involve either renovating its Sherbrooke St. head office, or moving to another building in the downtown core. Private developers are said to be looking at the site for a mixed-use condo development with retailers on the ground floor.

 

Standard Life is said by multiple real estate sources to be in advanced negotiations with Ivanhoe Cambridge — the real estate arm of pension fund manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec — to become the lead tenant in a new office building at 900 de Maisonneuve Blvd., corner of Mansfield. The Ivanhoe Cambrdge project would be downtown Montreal’s second privately backed office tower in two decades, following Cadillac Fairview’s 26-storey building now under construction near the Bell Centre.

 

Still, with limited economic growth expected in Quebec — and the availability of technology like teleconferencing allowing office users to reduce their need for space — some observers question whether there is demand in Montreal for two new towers. According to second-quarter data from commercial real estate services firm CBRE Ltd., Montreal’s downtown vacancy rate crept up to 7.6 per cent in the second quarter, compared with the national average of 6.5 per cent.

 

“Is demand that strong, no? But the demand is there and supply (of new space) is limited,” said the broker, who spoke on condition that his name not be printed. “We are not talking about a building boom.”

 

Either way, King said, Standard Life “is committed to Montréal and intends to keep its Canadian head office in the city’s downtown core.”

 

alampert@montrealgazette.com

 

Twitter: RealDealMtl

© Copyright © The Montreal Gazette

 

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Standard+Life+building+expected+used+mixed+residential/8835496/story.html

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Enfin une bonne nouvelle de la part de la Gazette. Ça nous change de leur négativisme habituel. Si effectivement le projet se concrétise, on peut cependant croire qu'il sera la dernière tour à bureaux d'importance pour un bon moment. Mais encore là, la vie est toujours pleine de surprises, qui vivra verra...

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Si il ne change pas de design et qu'on doit choisir entre la tour QdS et celle-ci, tour QdS all the way! Mais tout de même, bien content que ce projet semble vivant! À chaque fois que je passe sur Maisonneuve devant ce trou béant, j'attends une annonce de l'avancement de ce projet!:)

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