Changes to 955 Grande Allée residential project get city approval

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Six years after buying the former Loto-Québec building on a prestigious site on Grande Allée, the family-owned development company appears to have the green light to transform the property into a housing complex.

It took three revisions of the initial plan, but according to Karine Simard, vice-president of Immeubles Simard, the city now seems ready to endorse the 145-unit project.

“We hope to obtain the change to the PPU (plan particulier d’urbanisme or urban development plan) in the spring and begin construction of the project in the fall. Look- ing forward to it,” Simard said in an email to the QCT.

The latest changes were unveiled at a Feb. 25 public consultation session. According to city documents, the zoning changes will be voted on and presumably approved by the end of April. The changes pertain to residential usage, maximum building height, the number of parking spaces and the amount of green space. The essentials of the plan are to build a residential building on the parking lot in a U shape behind and beside the existing building, located on Grande Allée between Ave. de Laune and Ave. de Mérici. The key to the city’s approval was the addition of green space between the buildings and the street, as well as the reduction in height of the building along Ave. de Mérici Sud from four to three storeys.

The cedar hedge that currently runs along that section of Ave. de Mérici will be preserved and all but six of some 80 mature trees on the property will be retained. Simard said the changes are “the result of several compromises that will allow Grande Allée to retain its beauty.”

The original building, opened in 1958 as an insurance company office, served for many years as the head office of Loto-Québec. The structure would stay essentially the same under the development plan, although it would be renovated to accommodate office tenants and a daycare centre.

Fifteen per cent of the units would be reserved for affordable housing; the entire project has sanction from the city based on its plan to increase the number of residential units.

Besides the 955 Grande Allée project, Immeubles Simard has several other projects under construction or in development around the city.

It was involved in two major projects in the Montcalm district in recent years, the Le Vitrail complex incorporating two historic villas on Chemin Sainte-Foy, and Les Étoiles on Grande Allée Est, a project on the site of a former monastery.