Montreal sees start on $2-billion downtown development

The first private office tower to be built in Montreal in 20 years has its official groundbreaking ceremony on April 2. The Deloitte Tower is the first component in Cadillac Fairview’s plans to redevelop a vast area of land it has acquired around Windsor Station and the Bell Centre (formerly the Molson Centre), home of the Montreal Canadiens hockey team.

Cadillac Fairview acquired the lands in 2007 and wants to redevelop the area into a “vibrant urban landscape” of several million square feet, with plans on investing up to $2 billion over the next 15 years. Its plans are for two towers, one commercial, and one residential, and 5 million square feet of mixed-use development on land south of Saint-Antoine Street to make it a vibrant downtown neighbourhood.

The first tower, Deloitte Tower, will reach 26 storeys and have a total of 514,000-sq. ft. Scheduled to be completed by June 2015 as a joint venture between PCL Constructors and Construction C.A.L., it will be built to LEED Platinum certification, making it the first major office project in Montreal to reach that level of green design. The building’s 32-foot high lobby will face historic Windsor Court, an outdoor courtyard with a skating rink. A remnant of the station’s original rail platforms known as the Bush shed will be incorporated into the window line of the courtyard level lobby. The names of the architect and engineers for the tower have not been released.

To the west of the Deloitte Tower and directly adjacent to the Bell Centre will be a 48-storey condominium tower — the tallest in Montreal — to be known as the “Tour des Canadiens.” Located at the intersection of rue de la Montagne and l’avenue des Canadiens, it will have over 550 units, and access to the hockey stadium, the train stations and the metro. Cardinal Hardy and Martin Marcotte/Beinhaker are the architects, and Groupe IBI are the urban planners.