Montreal’s Voyageur block development, a residential real estate project that has provided spectacular high-stakes real estate drama over the past two decades, is back in the spotlight with its developer seeking permission to build above the height limit on the site.
Aquilini Properties, whose founder Francesco Aquilini is best known as owner of the Vancouver Canucks NHL hockey team, has owned most of the downtown property for 10 years after purchasing it for $45 million from the provincial government. The company completed a 10-storey residential project on a portion of the site in 2017.
Other sections remain uncompleted and Aquilini is seeking to finish the project by building structures taller than the height limit imposed by local authorities. Aquilini is asking Montreal's Projet Montreal administration for special permission, known in Montreal as a PPCMOI, to raise the height limit on a part of the property by 30 feet from the current limit of 16 metres (52.5 feet) to 25 metres (82 feet), which would likely represent three extra floors.
Local real estate veteran Brian Fahey, of Fahey and Associates, is representing Aquilini in its discussions with local bureaucrats. “We are at the very preliminary stages. In the past there used to be a PCMOI (special zoning permission) on it, which is expired, so we have to go back to the city and start discussing the project,” he said in a phone interview.
Fahey notes that the extra floors would help quench the thirst for housing in the area. “There’s a demand. It’s good for the area. We’re next to the university. I think it’s a good project."
Dazzling Odyssey
The discussion between the developer and city officials was not publicized by the parties involved but was, instead, uncovered after being spotted on a mandatory online lobbying disclosure site by a participant of an online Montreal urban planning forum.
The Voyageur project has been a dazzling odyssey of urban adventure since top officials from the nearby Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) sought to build a mixed-use project featuring student housing on the site in 2005. UQAM rector Roch Denis planned a $320 million complex with a 16-storey office tower, a university pavilion, many student dorms and other elements.
UQAM signed on with Busac, the Montreal arm of New York real estate giant JEMB, and quickly found itself overwhelmed with the immensity of the undertaking as the cost of the projects ballooned massively.
From 2006 to 2013 the skeleton of the project on its west side remained semi-built and was routinely described as an eyesore. The provincial government stepped in and bailed the project out at the cost of $225 million in the adventure although some other calculations saw the total loss as much higher. Authorities were so irritated at the boondoggle that they considered placing criminal charges on people involved in the case.
The Voyageur block is considered a local transit hub as it sits atop of the inter-city Voyageur bus terminal as is also near the Berri-UQAM metro station, where three metro lines converge. In 2018 the city of Montreal purchased the southern section of the block for $18 million with plans of building social housing and affordable housing as well as an office on the site. That plan has not advanced since that time.