Latest plan for Montreal’s Bridge-Bonaventure includes 13,500 homes – nearly doubling initial target

Montreal’s Bridge-Bonaventure neighbourhood, south of Griffintown, will have 13,500 housing units, the city proposed Monday in its latest development plan for the major commercial and residential project.

That’s nearly double the 7,500 units from the project’s early planning stages. Developers later upped that target to 9,500 units in a June 2023 update.

Half of the housing on the land owned by the Crown Corporation Canada Lands Company (CLC) — in the Wellington Basin and Pointe Saint-Charles — will be protected from real estate speculation, the city says. Construction on those sites, which are already served by infrastructure, could begin next year.

The entire development project could take decades to complete fully.

READ MORE: City of Montreal promotes creation of new downtown neighbourhoods as part of long-term development plan

The city wants at least 40 per cent of the 13,500 housing units to be off-market, meaning rental units intended to be offered at or below market rates.

“It starts with making sure people have affordable housing,” said Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante. “This is what we’re proposing on a golden platter. We’re putting all the pieces together.

“The housing crisis is hitting hard in Montreal and we’re not gonna let it go. We’re gonna continue to fight for Montrealers.”

The Vision Bridge-Bonaventure Consortium said it welcomes the increase in the number of housing units.

“This decision offers optimized development potential, demonstrating a thoughtful vision adapted to the current and future needs of residents in response to the current housing crisis,” the consortium wrote in a news release.

“The Consortium hopes that the search for financial solutions for the construction of non-market housing will in no way slow down the start of projects, and is open to contributing to this search. Moreover, from its initial vision, the Consortium supported social diversity within its projects by integrating housing that meets the standards of the Règlement sur une métropole mixte.”

Action-Gardien, a network of 26 community groups in Pointe Saint-Charles, welcomed the off-market housing goals but expressed concerns over the high density of the area.

“This is a unique opportunity for the many Montreal tenant-households who cannot find housing on the private market and desperately need truly affordable rents that are protected from evictions,” the group wrote, while calling on the Quebec and Canadian governments to help make the project a reality.

Bike paths, swimming area, REM station

The sector around Montreal’s iconic Farine Five Roses sign would also include 43 hectares of green space, including a riverside promenade, access to the St. Lawrence River and the Lachine Canal, and a swimming area at the Wellington Basin.

Also in the plan are 12 kilometres of bike paths and the addition of a Réseau express métropolitain (REM) station.

“To me this shows how serious we are, and as an administration it shows how much we believe that once you create a neighbourhood, everything needs to be thought of first: green spaces, places/locations for schools, out-of-the-market units, access to the water,” Plante said.

The plan includes 600,000 square metres dedicated to “economic and institutional activities to stimulate jobs, businesses, services and local commerce.”

“So the plan is well balanced between the needs to respond to the housing crisis, the needs for our businesses to be wealthy, but also to offer infrastructure of mobility in this sector,” said Robert Beaudry, the City of Montreal executive committee member responsible for urban planning.

Plante described the project as emblematic of what her administration has been working on since she was elected. She pointed to five other districts her office helped develop: Louvain-Est, Lachine-Est, Namur-Hippodrome, the blue-line extension sector and the Faubourgs sector.

“I feel like we’re giving both levels of government like the perfect project,” she said. “Like we’ve been doing with five other areas as well. And it’s for them to have the ambition to have a vision and to believe and to be connected to what our citizens are looking for.”

The latest development plan was applauded by the MNA for Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne, the provincial riding that covers the area in question.

“What great news for the Sud-Ouest,” said Québec solidaire’s Guillaume Cliche-Rivard in a statement. “While we are still experiencing a major housing crisis, it is absolutely essential that the Quebec government do its part to make this project a reality, particularly so that social and affordable housing can be built quickly.

“I will also be pressing the CAQ to ensure that it does not repeat the mistakes made during the construction of Griffintown: this neighborhood must be designed for families, with schools, green spaces, and real access to public transit.”

Details remain unclear on the financials of the project.

“I’m hoping that Montrealers are seeing like the ambition and division that we have on how the city needs to develop, and we don’t have all the answers,” Plante said.

“What’s important for us is to move the file.

“It’s a gift we’re giving Montrealers and I hope that people will stand behind it and in the future will say ‘that was the right thing to do.’”

–With files from Gareth Madoc-Jones