This remarkable public property, located within the protected Mount Royal heritage site, has been vacant since 2015. In 2018, the Government of Quebec mandated the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI) to develop a master plan for its redevelopment.
In 2023, it asked SQI and CDPQ Infra to study the proposal to transform part of it into an interuniversity residence complex, a promising idea put forward during the public consultations on the master plan. The government has just released their assessment, concluding that the project’s costs did not match its financial capacity. However, the published documents indicate that the interuniversity residence complex represents only a fraction of the overall work, estimated at $845M. The government will therefore have to cover a considerable amount in any case, whether for student housing or for condominiums.
In this context, why keep waiting and allow this public heritage to continue deteriorating?