Groundbreaking is still a year away but the plan to build a massive new real estate project next to the Fairview shopping mall in Pointe-Claire in Montreal’s West Island is attracting a lot of attention.
Almost 50 hectares of land just west of the mall is slated to be transformed into high-rise housing, office towers, a boutique hotel and much more.
The $1-billion-plus project is supposed to attract new families, jobs and millions of annual shoppers to the area.
“We feel the time is right to now enhance and complement our existing roots in the community,” Jeroen Henrich, vice president, development at Cadillac Fairview, told Global News.
The project won’t happen overnight. It’s slated to be built in several phases and could take years to complete.
But with a new REM light-rail train station under construction at the same location, the mayor says this project is viable.
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“There is a need to be able to serve our citizens locally without having to drive downtown. So I think the idea is good,” said Pointe-Claire Mayor John Belvedere.
Another massive mixed-use real estate project is already underway in the Town of Mount Royal, called Royalmount, and the DIX 30 commercial and residential project is well established in Brossard.
READ MORE: Re-imagined Royalmount project billed as more environmentally friendly — but still has its critics
One marketing analyst says the project in Pointe-Claire risks siphoning off more shoppers from an already struggling downtown Montreal.
“The downtown core will of course be hurt as people are better able to shop and entertain themselves closer to home,” Robert Soroka, business professor at the John Molson School of Business, told Global News.
Currently, the Fairview shopping mall attracts more than eight million people annually according to Henrich.
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