The “high-quality, high-tech jobs in the new building will benefit the community and help fuel the stores on Center Street.” All these (workers) are going to lunch, they are going to do their shopping. ”
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It looks like residents of a condo complex on the Lachine Canal will have to get used to having Airbnb next door – not a short-term rental but the Montreal headquarters of the colocation service.
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On Monday, the Sud-Ouest borough is expected to approve a motion that will remove the last obstacle to developer Groupe Mach’s plan to build a six-story, $ 30 million office building in Pointe St-Charles.
Group Mach officials have told neighbors and city officials that Airbnb will be the tenant of the new building. Airbnb and its subsidiary Luxury Retreats are on a hiring wave in Montreal, with 22 vacancies as of Friday.
The borough’s approval would come after Groupe Mach modified its plan in an attempt to appease residents of neighboring Corticelli Lofts. They complained that the offices were too close to their homes and too close to seven mature maple trees.
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“From my perspective, I’m happy that we have at least a little more space between the two buildings,” said John Gutpell, board member of Corticelli Lofts, a former yarn factory that is between rue St-Patrick and the canal, next to the land on which Groupe Mach will build .
But he said some residents who live on the east side of Corticelli are still not happy that the new building eliminates their view of the canal and downtown Montreal. Some may ask the city to lower the valuation of their properties to reflect the reduced appeal of their units, Gutpell said.
In May, the Sud-Ouest borough said Groupe Mach’s plan complied with city regulations, but delayed voting on the project and asked the developer to adjust the design to make it more acceptable to the city. neighbors.
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In the new plan submitted to the borough last week, the developer moved two sections of the western walls of the Corticelli building apart – one about 2.5 meters, the other about 3.5 meters. The building will now also be 2.5 meters further from the maple trees.
Additionally, the company said it would reduce the amount of window space on the side next to Corticelli by 10 percent.
Groupe Mach said the building will be expanded in several other locations to keep the overall size at 148,000 square feet. Construction is expected to begin later this month, with completion scheduled for October 2019.
“We said to the developer, ‘Look, we don’t want to downsize your project, we just want it to integrate better with the surrounding environment,” said city councilor Craig Sauvé. “And they reworked it and we were able to get a good deal.”
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Héritage Montréal expressed concern about the impact of the building on the landscape of a historic district of the city. The building will face the Lachine Canal St-Gabriel locks , who help explain the history of Montreal .
But because the new building is a workplace, “what we do is part of the canal’s history,” said Christopher Sweetnam-Holmes, vice president of development at Groupe Mach.
He noted that the site has long been used by industry. An archaeological dig is expected to unearth the remains of a pumping station and a secondary canal that has long been covered, Sweetnam-Holmes said. Information boards should be installed describing the history of the site.
The new offices, which are expected to be used by several hundred workers, will be a boon for the neighborhood, according to Groupe Mach.
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“The comments we have heard are that the borough and the people of Pointe St-Charles no longer want condos on the canal,” said Sweetnam-Holmes. “They want jobs, they want jobs.
The “high-quality, high-tech jobs in the new building will be of benefit to the community and help fuel the shops on Center Street,” he added. “All these (workers) are going to have lunch, they are going to do their shopping.”
Built at the beginning of the 19th century, the Lachine Canal makes Montreal one of the main ports of entry into North America and helped spark an industrial construction boom. The canal, used for the transportation of goods for nearly 150 years, became obsolete when the St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959.
The Corticelli red brick building, completed in 1884, once housed the Belding-Corticelli silk factory , at one time employing hundreds of people producing over 2,000 types of yarn. The building was a factory until 1982 and was converted to open concept, high ceiling condos in the late 1980s.
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