Buyer wants to bring back Provisions Inc. as grocery
Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
peterblack@qctonline.com
Those longing for the return of the popular Provisions Inc. grocery store on Ave. Cartier may get their wish.
Although the deal is not yet signed and sealed, the would-be buyer of the building, rental property owner Jean-François Picard, is talking about his plans. He told the Journal de Québec, “We really want to revive what it was and everyone is converging towards the same thing.”
Picard said, “There were citizen surveys, merchant surveys. I did my homework and [decided] a grocery store will go there.”
Picard, who lives close to Ave. Cartier, said he was a frequent patron of the store. “It brought life; it brought a beautiful magic too because it was very family-oriented. That’s what we want to revive.”
The Drouin family ran the store until the fall of 2022, when cousins Vincent and Bruno Drouin sold it to a couple from France. Stéphanie Bouillon Guessas and Christophe Bouillon operated the store until January 2024 when it was suddenly closed. The building was put up for sale by the National Bank following the couple’s default on the mortgage. Meanwhile, the Drouins are suing the couple for some $450,000 still owing on the purchase.
The three-storey building has two apartments above the grocery. The equipment to operate the store, such as refrigerators, shelves and cashier counters, remains intact.
Picard said he is now looking for a partner to run the grocery. “It’s realistic to think that well before Christmas, we’ll be in operation,” he said. Picard also said he hopes to work with for- mer employees of the grocery to get it back up and running.
The website for his company, Picard Immobilier, describes the business as “proud to be a Quebec company that is 100 per cent manager and owner of its buildings” with “nearly 700 apartments of all styles in the Quebec region.”
Among the company’s holdings are several buildings in the Montcalm district.
The impending purchase of Provisions Inc. was raised at a meeting of the Montcalm neighbourhood council meeting last week. Attendee Paul Mackey told the QCT Picard “may attend the next neighbourhood council meeting at the end of October to discuss his plans, if the sale is formalized.”
Hugo Asselin, the real estate agent who handled the deal, said it might take a few weeks for the sale to be processed by a notary. The listed price for the building, zoned for a variety of uses, was $2 million.
The QCT was not able to contact Picard before press time.