Montreal’s newest megamall has finally opened its doors to the public, much to the delight of the throngs of shoppers and curious visitors, but concerns remain about even more traffic in the area and a lack of housing at the site.
Stephanie Jance was among the first of those who came to the opening day of Royalmount on Thursday. In the past few weeks, she had seen the final touches put on the sprawling centre, which sits at the corner of highways 15 and 40.
“We’re happy now to see it,” Jance said. “I live across (from it), so it will be very practical for me as a new mom.”
Royalmount boasts enough space for 170 stores, including more than 60 restaurants and coffee shops, as part of its first phase. The centre spans over 824,000 square feet and is decked out with more than 60 pieces of art in the form of murals, sculptures and photos. It also has an outdoor space.
Andrew Lutfy, the CEO of developer Carbonleo and lead investor of Royalmount, described it as “one of the most exciting places to visit in Montreal for all generations” in a statement ahead of opening day.
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For now, visitors have access to a retail section that has more than 50 stores in operation, with the rest expected to open in the next 10 months. Royalmount is a mix of luxury brands, such as Versace and Louis Vuitton, and more affordable options like Dynamite.
The shopping mall section is just the first step of what could be as many as 20 developments on the site. When developer Carbonleo presented its plans to city officials in 2018, the vision included hotels, office buildings, an aquarium and housing.
The developer’s original plan of building 6,000 housing units was then reduced to a proposed 4,500 units. But so far, the Town of Mount Royal has yet to sign off on the residential section of the project — a major sticking point for the centre city.
“Of course I’m disappointed and I’ve said it so many times,” Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante told reporters earlier this week.
“And hopefully the City of Mount Royal will kind of get it that they are part of a bigger place. Like, they are on an island where the housing crisis is important, congestion is important, so we need to everything we can as elected officials.”
There are also concerns about an increase in traffic in the already congested area. Royalmount developers spent millions of dollars to widen the connecting service road and built a skybridge above the Decarie Expressway to connect the mall to the Montreal Metro’s de la Savane station to encourage shoppers to take public transit.
“The area, there’s only so much real estate there in terms of land to accommodate traffic and it’s going to be problematic,” said Rick Leckner, a Montreal-based traffic expert. “Particularly on an already terrible Jean-Talon and Decarie intersection. Standby for that congestion.”
Despite concerns, shoppers were just pleased to finally see the site up and running after years of waiting and anticipation. David Robitaille described Royalmount as “beautiful, rich in colours and taste.”
“It’s really big, really modern,” Robitaille said, adding he would be interested in possibly buying a home at the site one day.
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