Chateau Viger, a former Canadian Pacific Railway station, was designed 115 years ago by Bruce Price - Date/Photographer unknown.

8 February 2012

Chateau Viger to Anchor Project

Montreal Quebec - The ChAteau Viger, the historic former hotel and train station located east of Old Montreal, and its surrounding lands, are to be reinvented as a $450-million multi-use project with 700 rental apartments, developers said Tuesday.
 
Directors of Montreal based real estate firms Jesta Group and PUR Immobilia recently acquired the six-acre site on St. Antoine St. E., for $26.5 million. They purchased the site from a holdings company with Homburg Canada Inc. listed as the majority shareholder, land registry records show.
 
Indeed, their plan to begin work this year on a new urban neighbourhood with retailing, office space, and apartments appears to be a new version of a $300-million "multi-use upscale urban development" project announced by Homburg Canada in 2006.
 
How the new project would reinvent the Chateau Viger, the former Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. station built 115 years ago by Bruce Price, the same architect who designed Quebec City's Chateau Frontenac, isn't clear. The developers appear to be counting on demand for homes and services expected to be generated with the completion of the nearby Centre hospitalier de l'Universite de Montreal (CHUM) in 2016.
 
Detailed plans for the site will be revealed at a later date, a spokesperson for the project said.
 
The 100,000-square-foot former station, which included a hotel and restaurant, ceased its activities in 1951.
 
It was then acquired by the city of Montreal, which renovated the building for administrative uses until the sale to Homburg Canada and partners in 2006.
 
Allison Lampert.
 
Editor's Note:  Article abridged.