A long-stalled initiative to build homes on a former bus station owned by the City of Montreal appears to be getting in gear. A pair of local firms are teaming up to develop the proposed 900 apartments near the Berri metro station.
Mondev, one of Montreal's more active development companies, has partnered with UTILE, a non-profit company currently tackling several student housing projects, to build the homes at the southern end of Montreal's Voyageur bus station.
The Montreal municipal administration has been seeking developers to redevelop the properties for many years. The project calls for at least 20% of subsidized social housing units and 20% of units that fall into the affordable housing category, with rents set below the median market in Montreal, as determined every year by the Société d'habitation du Québec.
Those requirements have proven challenging for some developers in other instances, as seen in the failure to launch the redevelopment of the massive Blue Bonnets former racetrack site in Montreal.
The administration may have found a match with Mondev and UTILE, a housing group that has thus far specialized in student housing. Their proposal calls for 30% affordable housing units and 20% social housing units.
The project remains in the preliminary stage, with both firms hoping to get rezoning approvals later this year. It entails a 19-floor tower containing market-rate units on the southern side, with the other social housing and affordable units set in a series of smaller adjacent structures.
“We believe that we have submitted an exceptional project and think that it has potential, since we surpassed all of the norms and are still within the urban master plan height limits,” Mondev’s Jordan Owen said in an interview.
The project's total cost is slated at $300 million, including $20 million to purchase the land from the city.
The plan is for Mondev to build the 500-unit, 12-storey tower while UTILE will build the 400 other units in the social and affordable category. Both firms will seek approvals to increase the total units from 900 to 1,000.
“It is a challenge to develop a site like that,” Maxime Pelletier, deputy director of public affairs for UTILE, said in an interview. “One thousand units is a big thing to swallow with the current cost of construction, so it makes a lot of sense for our two organizations to work together.”
The project is considered a transit-oriented development as it sits a short distance from the Berri metro at the confluence of two metro lines. It comes with a 40% parking ratio and will contain a shared space on the roof, a gym and a pool.
Both Mondev and UTILE have been among the more active builders in Montreal in recent years. Mondev is currently building a 176-unit project nearby on the south side of the same square, but the project was left in limbo after a tenant declined offers to move out.
UTILE meanwhile, has recently demolished a property at the southeast corner of Saint Laurent and Ontario and plans to build a student housing tower on the site.