Ubisoft celebrates 20 years in the area
In the 1990s, the streets of eastern Mile End were mostly deserted, populated by artists who had moved into old derelict factories and warehouses, to live and work alongside some of the last remaining sweatshops of Montreal. Then came Ubisoft. Over the next two decades, the video game giant would grow from 50 to 3,200 employees and take up a lot of space — literally and figuratively — as cafés and restaurants and hipster clothiers followed in its wake.
As it celebrates its 20th anniversary in the neighbourhood, starting with an all-day blowout Saturday, the company says it is also a product of the hyper-creative Mile End “eco-system” — and wouldn’t change a thing.
“When we started, people said, what will you do? This is a dead area — textile factories shutting down, and a bunch of artists’ lofts, but there was no real thinking of what would come next,” said Cédric Orvoine, Ubisoft vice-president for communications and human resources. “But the fact we grew here and not downtown had a big impact on us.”
Assassin’s Creed for instance — Ubisoft’s action-adventure video game series, taking the player through 3,000 years of history — would not be as rich and unique an experience, said Orvoine. Perhaps Just Dance would be a little less funky, too, to name another monster success that came out of what is now the world’s biggest video game production studio.
It’s hard to say just how different Mile End would be without Ubisoft.
The company has played a role in the gentrification of the neighbourhood, pushing out some of the artists, in part to make room for Ubisoft’s offices and studios but also because rents and property values have grown alongside it.Pied Carré — an organization of artists and cultural workers that has successfully lobbied to reserve about 20,000 square metres of space for artists in the vicinity, for 30 years — has provided a partial solution to the problem.
But rents certainly have gone up for everyone. A sign on Esplanade Street this week advertised a onebedroom apartment for rent for $1,990 per month.
Chain stores opening on St. Viateur Street — like David’s Tea and Lululemon — have also raised the hackles of residents worried about too much gentrification.
But longtime Mile Enders, like Vince Spinale, seem to take the new additions in stride — as long as there remains a balance between local shops and chains.
As for Ubisoft, Spinale, who was born and raised in Mile End and was a barista at Café Olympico when Ubisoft employees starting pouring in, says it brought youth and vibrancy to the neighbourhood — and that’s good for everyone.
“Ubisoft brought a lot of young people and energy and created a lot of business,” said Spinale, who now runs Les petits enfants de Felice café on Parc Avenue where Navarino’s café used to be. “They support a lot of small businesses in the community . ... It’s not them building up the neighbourhood. They came in, the street became busier and more popular, people liked it, that brought in families, and rents starting going up. It’s not Ubisoft that created the whole rise of the Mile End — it helped but it’s not their fault.”
Whatever symbiosis was happening, Mile End has been variously named the “hippest” and “most creative” neighbourhood in Canada, with the largest concentration of artists and musicians.
As a gesture of appreciation, Ubisoft, in partnership with Sun Life Financial, is setting up giant games, murals and “creative picnic tables” to last all summer along a two-kilometre path through the area, roughly bounded by Rosemont Boulevard and Fairmount Street, Parc Avenue and de Gaspé Street, including a giant Boggle game near St-Viateur Bagel. A music stage has also been set up at the corner of St-Dominique Street and St-Viateur, where a number of bands will play Saturday starting at 2:30 p.m.
Orvoine’s favourite part are the “game boxes” scattered throughout the area, modelled on the book boxes that invite Montrealers to take a book and leave one — only in this case with games, of the analog variety.
“We wanted to come up with something original, relating to our core business — playing. It’s a language everyone knows. And this neighbourhood is full of kids.”