Montreal sees renaissance with luxury building boom, as stability returns to Quebec
Along the main shopping street in the area of downtown Montreal, known as the Golden Square Mile, Sonya Szczygiel and her husband, John Guinto, have sold beaded bracelets made of semiprecious stones for the past five years.
From their kiosk on Saint Catherine Street, near Montreal’s downtown Apple Store, the pair have had front row seats for a transformation playing out in the neighbourhood and throughout Montreal.
The view these days is full of cranes and construction vehicles busy at work. The largest of the developments is the new Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Montreal, a more than $200-million hotel and condo project that highlights the city’s renaissance as a business and luxury centre of Canada.
It is one of the many changes that Szczygiel welcomes.
“High-end hotels, stores and restaurants attract people with a higher disposable income,” she said. “That should obviously benefit us and other retailers.”
The current revitalization of the Golden Square Mile mirrors the larger comeback of Montreal.
During a period of political instability, starting in the 1980s and leading up to a referendum about Quebec leaving Canada in 1995, many companies became skittish of keeping outposts in Montreal. The Four Seasons, which had opened a hotel in 1976 called Le Quatre Saisons, stopped managing the location in 1994. As businesses left, retail and restaurants, particularly the high-end sector in the Golden Square Mile, suffered.
But over the last decade, after the city’s politics had stabilized, companies started to come back. New startups have popped up, for example, particularly in the fields of technology, artificial intelligence and gaming. Facebook just announced it is creating an artificial intelligence research lab in Montreal, and last fall Google said that it would open a similar facility there.
“The stable political environment in Montreal these last years, especially when we take into consideration the more unstable global environment created by Brexit and other elections in Europe, has made Montreal more attractive to business and leisure visitors,” said Denis Coderre, Montreal’s mayor.
The increase in businesses has helped spur the development of new office space, luxury hotels and related amenities for visitors. New restaurants are popping up, including Vladimir Poutine, which opened down the road from the new Four Seasons project in early 2017. The restaurant sells high-end versions of Montreal’s famous snack food: fries covered in gravy and cheese curds. Another popular spot for business and leisure visitors is Bota Bota, a floating spa with views of old Montreal on a former ferry boat that used to travel the St. Lawrence River.
“The Montreal economy is booming,” Coderre said.
He added that the unemployment rate had reached one of its lowest levels since 2010, the labour force was growing and investments were increasing. New taxes on foreign investors in Toronto and Vancouver also appear to have played a part.
But the city also has something else appealing to business, according to J. Allen Smith, the Four Seasons chief executive: “Cultural sophistication, European influences and storied history.”
Partnering with Carbonleo Real Estate, a Quebec developer and property manager, the Four Seasons project will include a 166-room hotel and 18 condos priced from nearly $3 million to over $12 million. The hotel will be connected to the flagship location for Ogilvy, a high-end department store that is undergoing more than $100 million in renovations and merging with Holt Renfrew, another luxury retailer.
Near the new Four Seasons, the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel just reopened its doors this July after a $114 million renovation.
The Ritz Carlton blazed the path for high-end hoteliers in Montreal. The hotel, which first opened in 1912, reopened in 2013 after renovations that cost about $200 million. Those changes added 45 condos, larger hotel guest rooms and now features Maison Boulud, the first Montreal restaurant of acclaimed French chef Daniel Boulud.
A surge of visitors to Montreal has helped supercharge the hotel boom. Montreal is on track to hit 11.2 million tourists by the end of 2017, up 20 per cent from 2013, according to the Conference Board of Canada and Tourism Montreal. This summer, as the city celebrated its 375th anniversary, Montreal had the most visitors it has ever had since it began keeping count.
Visitors flock to Montreal for business, bachelor and bachelorette parties, as well as music festivals and sports events, such as the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix car race. With four major universities, Montreal also attracts many students and educators.
The developers of the new Four Seasons in Montreal, which is set to open next year, expect the shopping to be a big draw. While many high-end hotels feature luxury boutiques on their street level, the Four Seasons will be connected directly to the 250,000 square foot-luxury Ogilvy/Holt Renfrew department store.
While Szczygiel and her husband have been upbeat about how the various new developments, along with Montreal’s many festivals and events, have made the city more dynamic and increased tourism, she acknowledged there is a downside.
“We are unfortunately in for a lot of construction,” she said. “But hopefully it will lead to long-term benefits for business owners.”