The Canada Lands Company has decided to be more proactive in responding to the housing crisis and has undertaken to accelerate the implementation of certain real estate projects on its properties in the greater Montreal area. Its CEO, Stéphan Déry, wishes in particular to quickly begin the first phase of real estate development on the former ONF site, in Saint-Laurent, and at Pointe-de-Longueuil.
The Canada Lands Company (CIS) owns more than 430 hectares of land for development across Canada and has four strategic sites in Greater Montreal.
CLC was a dormant company until 1995, when the federal government began purchasing land that belonged to CN when the rail carrier was privatized.
“We value Canadian government real estate assets that are no longer used, whether it is a former military base, contaminated land or buildings that are no longer in use. Our mandate is to provide added value by revitalizing these assets,” summarizes Stéphan Déry.
A federal civil servant for 30 years, Stéphan Déry was assistant deputy minister, responsible for real estate services at the Department of Public Services and Procurement Canada, when he was named CEO of CLC last April.
The advent of teleworking and its generalization in the federal public service are leading the government to reassess its real needs for office space and the CEO of the SIC believes that the housing crisis is forcing all levels of government to get involved. dough to find solutions.
“What are we going to do with the surplus federal buildings? The SIC will be there, we want to be proactive and part of the equation to solve the housing crisis,” suggests Stéphan Déry.
In Greater Montreal, CLC owns 900,000 square feet (ft2) in the Wellington Basin (Peel Basin for some), 530,000 square feet at the former site of the National Film Board (NFB), 1, 7 million square feet at Pointe-de-Longueuil (near the metro, near the future downtown Longueuil) and nearly 800,000 square feet at Pointe-du-Moulin, in the Old Port of Montreal, where Grain elevator #5 is located.
The Wellington Basin and Pointe-du-Moulin sites are not yet ready for immediate development, because there will be decontamination and infrastructure work to be carried out before they can move forward.
“We want to reintegrate these sites into Montreal life, so that they have a social impact. In the Wellington Basin, we want to give citizens access to water, have parks, develop an interesting living environment with small businesses, a grocery store and even maintain an artisanal industrial vocation.
“In all our projects, we want mixed residential use with at least 20% affordable housing,” specifies the CEO of the SIC.
Even if the SIC only completed the acquisition of the former National Film Board site in December 2022, Stéphan Déry believes that it is feasible to quickly launch a first phase of development by working with the borough of Saint-Laurent. The ONF site is located 500 meters from a Réseau express métropolitain (REM) station.
“We haven’t yet done all the consultations on the future development of the site, but we know that there is an urgent need for housing. We could make a first phase of around a hundred units by transforming an office building and building units in the residential zone.
“For the rest of the development of the former NFB, we want to involve community organizations and perhaps plan a cultural component by transforming the former studios of the Office,” submits Stéphan Déry.
Same thing in Longueuil, where the SIC has a huge site of 16 hectares (1.7 million square feet) to develop along the river where we could start a first phase of a residential complex.
The SIC is working with the municipality of Longueuil to accelerate the real estate component of the project where, again, we want to establish a social mix with at least 20% affordable housing.
In addition to its real estate development mandate, CLC is also responsible for certain attractions that it has inherited over the years, notably the CN Tower and Downsview Park in Toronto, as well as the Old Port and the Science Center in Toronto. Montreal.
“We have two lines of business, the enhancement of attractions and real estate development, but it is the attractions that mobilize the most labor. Of our 1,100 employees across the country, there are more than 800 people who work at attractions.
“We had difficult years during the pandemic with the closure of the CN Tower and the Science Center, we were in deficit, but things have since recovered,” underlines the CEO of the Canada Lands Company.
