A proposal to transform a three-unit apartment building into 22 residential units might expect to be met with a good deal of skepticism.
But Francois Bolduc managed to get his plan and permits organized to do just that in Montreal’s east end, thanks largely to a series of trade-offs that he undertook with city officials.
The proposed project began about four years ago when Bolduc, head of Narbo Construction, was introduced to the owner of the building at 2695 Pie IX Blvd., whose property had recently been heavily damaged by fire.
The building contained three massive 2,500-square-foot rental units, built for the large families that were common when the structure was built in 1932, decades before a metro station and Olympic Stadium were added to the nearby landscape in the 1970s, making the corner of Pie IX and Pierre de Coubertin a busy intersection.
Bolduc struck a deal with the owner of the fire-stricken building to rebuild the structure and receive payment for his work in the form of future rents collected from tenants.
Bolduc then entered into 18 months of discussions with city authorities, who expressed a preference to maintain aspects of the old structure, including stone insertions, wrought iron balcony railings, wooden door arches and old-style windows. Bolduc agreed to preserve the elements or replace them with modern elements that closely resemble the originals.
“If you look at the details of the original building, it’s absolutely magnificent, so during the demolition we’ll get those elements back, store them somewhere, and add them back in after,” Bolduc told CoStar News in an interview.
Bolduc told the city that he could not proceed with the costly and time-consuming work required to preserve such architectural heritage detail under his current budget.
So city authorities made concessions to make the project larger and more profitable.
The city approved Bolduc's proposal to expand the 7,500-square-foot property into a 17,000-square-foot building, with additions to the roof and the area behind the structure, creating 22 apartments, which range from 400 square feet to 2,000 square feet in size.
The city, however, cut Bolduc no deal for permit fees, which ended up totaling over $10,000 per unit after all of the various add-ons were calculated. They include park fees, demolition fees, infrastructure connection fees and others.
Bolduc expects to receive the final permits for the project within a few days, and once the permits are secured, he expects the project will take 12 months to complete.
Bolduc has been in the construction field for a decade and has been executing such turnkey projects since 2019 but he says that this and other such projects are not going to make him rich, as the profit margin is thin.
“Honestly, you need experience and courage to go through a process of developing and rebuilding a project like this,” he said.