Cadillac Fairview eyes high-density housing development
Plans are in the works to transform Fairview Pointe-Claire and its adjacent, privately-owned land into a living hub of sorts, with thousands of residential units, new entertainment, food and beverage possibilities, offices, hotels and an upgraded shopping mall.
The first step in the $90 million investment will be a $30 million renovation of the mall at the corner of Highway 40 and St-Jean Blvd. The interior will be modernized with new lighting, floors, balustrades and exterior entrances. A flagship Simons store will take over two floors of what was once the three-storey, 180,000 sq. ft. Sears store. The remaining floor will become a new food hall with food kiosks and restaurants.
The current food court will be demolished and retail outlets installed.
Cadillac Fairview senior vice-president development Brian Salpeter said the renovations should be completed by summer, 2020 and would not interfere with mall operations.
“We’re experts in minimizing the impact on shoppers,” Salpeter said. “The work will be done in phases.”
Cadillac Fairview has partnered with Ivanhoe Cambridge for the $60 million development of the 50 acres of vacant land Cadillac Fairview purchased in 2013. Details are still being worked out with Réseau express métropolitain CDPQ Infra. A REM light-rail station will be located along Fairview Ave. and with the busy bus terminal already in place at the mall, the project becomes a bonafide transit-oriented development, as defined by the Montreal Agglomeration Council’s Land Use and Development Plan which was adopted in early 2015.
Pointe-Claire Mayor John Belvedere said that the Fairview mall location was originally flagged as a TOD in the Land Use Plan because of the bus terminal, which meant densification quotas were already in place long before talk about the light-rail network began. And the mayor said work on a plan to revitalize what is essentially PointeClaire’s central commercial hub began two years ago, again, before the REM talk began.
“Nothing needs to be changed,” Belvedere said. “The densification numbers for the (Fairview location) are a minimum of 60 units per hectare.”
Densification numbers vary, depending on the location of the TOD. Pointe-Claire has three train stations. Any train-station development adheres to a minimum of 40 units per hectare. The Kubic condo development at the eastern entrance to the Valois Village — Sources Blvd. and Donegani Ave. — is an example of a 40-units-perhectare TOD.
Salpeter said the development project will work along the same lines as the CF Don Mills project in Toronto, although in that case, the residential units are all in condo towers.
“The Fairview Pointe-Claire project will be a mix of condos, stacked town homes and town homes,” Salpeter said. “We have a track record across the country for taking into account what is important to a community. (The mall) has been (in Pointe-Claire) since 1965. We are part of the local fabric of the community. Pointe-Claire had a vision of (the area) becoming the downtown of the West Island. It was in the city’s master plan to densify and diversify the (mall) area.”
Salpeter said the redevelopment of the vacant land is a “10-yearplus” project.
“The REM (station) will be a great offering,” Salpeter said. “And we already have a major bus terminal. Now we have to work with the authorities on how to best integrate it all. We need to have a proper master plan.”