Office building may be first of many
Lots of demand for space, Vaudreuil board of trade says
Vaudreuil is about to get its first Class A office building, but from the looks of things, there are probably many more to come.
The $15-million project is being undertaken by area resident Mario Levasseur, who is an experienced building manager. The building, currently called 11 Cité des Jeunes, will be just west of the Honda dealership on the south side of the TransCanada Highway. Construction crews broke ground on the building about a month ago, and a press conference to unveil the project was held last Friday.
The building will be three storeys high, have 70,000 square feet of space, and house about 300 tenants. It will have outdoor parking space for 230 cars, and 62 indoor parking spaces underground. Levasseur said he’ll charge a base rate of between $16.50 and $18 per square foot with construction expected to be completed by next June.
This is the first building Levasseur has built, and he is doing it on spec, without any pre-construction orders from major tenants.
“But I’ve gotten a few dozen people calling to express their interest,” Levasseur said, adding he expects professionals, like lawyers, notaries, doctors and dentists to make up most of the tenants.
While it won’t be LEED-certified, the project will use environmentally friendly practices, like relying on a well for outdoor sprinklers so that it doesn’t tax the city’s already-strained water-filtration plant.
Martin Richardson, the president of the Vaudreuil-Dorion Board of Trade, said there is lots of demand for office space in the area.
“Right now, there is no office space in Vaudreuil,” he said. “There are places under construction, and most of them are two-floor buildings with commercial space on the ground floor.”
He said the building in question has a great location because of its visibility from the highway and its easy access from both the St. Charles Ave. and the Château Vaudreuil exits.
Richardson said he expects the building will fill up rather quickly even though the only other major office tower in the area — known as the Future Electronics building once owned by the Pointe-Claire-based electronics company — is mostly empty.
“This is a different type of building for people who want to be in a highly trafficked area, and who want to advertise their services (on the building’s façade),” he said.
Richardson said he’s excited about the project because there isn’t a lot of premier office space in the area. Most offices are currently renting space in converted homes.
He said in the next few years, he expects a new hub of office buildings to be built around the train station at De la Gare Blvd.