22 November 2007
Worries Over Hotel Makeover
Montreal Quebec - A $400-million
redevelopment plan for the former Viger Station in Old Montreal was picked over by a variety of constituents last night, some of whom
said it would smother the neighbourhood's historic charm.
"Big-box stores don't have a place there," Marlene Casciaro, head of a St. Christophe St. condominium owners'
group, said during a hearing held downtown by the city of Montreal's public consultations office.
Developers plan to convert the former station, built for the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1898 in the spire-rich Chateau
Frontenac style, into a 250-room hotel. The project includes three towers - one of them 18 storeys high - underground
parking for 1,600 vehicles, residential units, and offices.
Covering more than 267,000 square feet, roughly the size of Complexe Desjardins, the project has been touted as the biggest private
real-estate venture in Montreal since Place Ville Marie opened in 1962.
Casciaro estimated such a project would need to rely on large-scale commercial tenants, which she said are anathema to Old
Montreal's character.
Advocates for the poor worried the project will exclude low-income residents of the Ville Marie borough.
At least 30 percent of the project's housing units should be set aside for low and moderate-income residents, said Eric
Michaud, a spokesperson for Habiter Ville Marie, a coalition of community groups.
"The kind of (high-end) residents that will be living there tend to come and go a lot," he said. "It would
be good to have more stable (lower-income) residents there."
Cameron Charlebois, general manager of the project, said construction would start next summer if city councillors approve the project
early next year.
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