A beachfront recreation and tourism area, along with numerous homes and offices will be built on an industrial site near downtown Montreal if all goes right for Canada Lands' master-planned Wellington Basin-area project.

The federal Crown corporation plans to start selling lots next year for a project that includes 2,800 housing units on the Wellington Basin, south of Montreal’s downtown core, it said this week.

The project site sits at the mouth of the Lachine Canal and would see 3.2 million square feet of construction on a 1.5 million-square-foot site on the east side of Bridge St. between Wellington and Mill streets.

The former industrial site was long used by ships traversing the Lachine Canal, but that shipping traffic was diverted to the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1970. The land for the project would require decontamination and approvals from the city of Montreal.

The project would be fully completed within 10 to 15 years, according to the Canada Lands statement, though a representative said at a press conference the first residents could conceivably move in as early as 2027.

The area is best known for its bustling Costco outlet across the street and the nearby Victoria Bridge, traversed by over 30,000 South Shore motorists daily. It also sits partially on land once filled by the Goose Village residential area that was demolished in the mid-1960s and is in roughly the same spot as where a provincial casino was proposed in 2005 by the Cirque du Soleil and Loto-Quebec, a plan that was later shelved.

Canada Lands' Wellington Basin project includes a 40-floor tower near a proposed new REM transit train station as well as several other buildings ranging between four and 10 floors. Others would rise 12-16 floors, and a separate section would contain buildings reaching 20 to 26 floors. About one-quarter of the space would be reserved for offices in what is described as an innovation cluster.

Around 1,000 of the planned 2,800 residential units would be reserved for the categories of affordable and social housing, with price control measures to remain in effect for 55 years.

The project also would have a recreation and tourism component that includes three parks and 140,000 square feet of green space, as well as a 54,000-square-foot beach.

The project is adjacent to the Bridge-Bonaventure development, which has been stalled by municipal authorities after many years of planning and consultations. A City of Montreal representative told CoStar News last year that the long-planned project to allow developers to build 9,500 residential units would be put on hold until provincial transit authorities agree to add a REM transit train station along the line that passes through the area.

The Canada Lands Co. describes itself as "a self-financing, federal Crown corporation specializing in real estate and development, and attractions management." It sells, holds and develops land it purchases from the government after collaborating on a "consensus-based plan for the property," according to its website.

Canada Lands was founded in 1956 and has been led since April 2023 by Chief Executive Stéphan Déry. The Crown corporation is best known for its involvement with the CN Tower and the Old Port of Montreal, part of the 21 properties and four attractions it lists in its latest annual report that include two in British Columbia, two in Alberta, one in Manitoba, nine in Ontario, five in Quebec, one in Nova Scotia and one in Newfoundland.