Provincial heritage group hopes to save the Pioneer Mayor says condo project part of village revitalization
One of Quebec’s leading historical associations has added its voice to a local grassroots effort to halt the city of Pointe-Claire’s request to demolish the Pioneer bar, a 117-year-old building formerly known as the Pointe-Claire Hotel. In an open letter sent to the city ’s Demolition Committee on Friday, Clément Locat, president of the heritage committee for the Fédération Histoire Québec (FHQ), also stated a proposed condo project that would be built in its place does not belong in the heart of historic Pointe-Claire Village. Locat said the condo project has a “template and architectural features that disqualify it for this site that requires the greatest attention. The inconsistencies of today’s decisions will have permanent negative impacts.” The FHQ letter comes just as the city’s three-person committee is set to convene this Thursday to talk about whether to bulldoze the landmark building and replace it with a three-storey condo project, which also includes rooftop communal space that critics consider to be a precedent-setting fourth floor. Citizens are invited to attend the meeting at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Holiday Inn and Suites Hotel in Pointe-Claire. The demo controversy has caused a public uproar in PointeClaire and the West Island since it became known the Pioneer bar had been sold to a developer and the city had also sold the adjacent municipal parking lot for $730,000 as part of the deal. The Pioneer bar closed July 21, but almost 4,000 citizens have signed petitions opposing demolishing the building. Citizens also sent letters of complaint to the city after a demolition request notice for the building at 286 Lakeshore Rd. was posted in front of the Pioneer last month. While opponents of the demo plan have questioned why the city is green-lighting a luxury condo project in a village full of quaint but modest heritage buildings, Pointe-Claire Mayor John Belvedere said the project is a step toward commercial revitalization of the village. Belvedere has previously said the proposed condo/commercial project also meets the building requirements set out in the city’s new village code, but Locat pointed out that demolishing the historic property runs contrary to the code’s overall emphasis on preserving the village’s unique history, character and heritage. “It is clearly stated that we must act ‘in a spirit of protection, development and development of the many assets of the village, including its architectural treasures, its scale human and traditional village character ... while respecting built heritage,” Locat wrote. Locat also cited recommendations from a Patri-Arch’s 2005 expert report, which recognized the building at 286 Lakeshore Rd. had a “historic and architectural value and recommends to keep it and give it back its missing architectural elements.” That 2005 report, however, contradicts a more recent architectural assessment of the building that recommended the Pioneer be demolished. A 2018 architectural heritage assessment of the Pioneer building, commissioned by the city but paid for by the developer, found little heritage value left from the original structure, built in 1901 as Hotel Charlebois. Locat said the building is worth restoring, even though it “suffered deteriorations and unfortunate interventions over the years ... the architectural elements that characterized it can be put back in place and restore its magnificence.” Claude Arsenault, who recently resigned as head of the PointeClaire Heritage Preservation Society over the demolition plan, welcomed the support of Locat and the FHQ.