City approves Îlot Dorchester hotel with reduced height

Peter Black

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

The city has approved the Îlot Dorchester project thanks to a “compromise” entailing trimming three storeys from the project’s centrepiece hotel.

Mayor Bruno Marchand announced, before the Feb. 27 city council meeting, he had given the green light to a revised plan with a 17-storey rather than 20-storey hotel anchoring the major development in what is now a huge parking lot in the heart of the Saint-Roch district.

He told reporters because of significant housing needs in Saint-Roch, “it would have been hard to say no. We need this project and we are going for it.”

Some residential groups had opposed the project on the grounds of housing density and the height of the hotel. The developer, Groupe Trudel, had submitted several versions of the project, each addressing local concerns including green space and social housing. 

The current development plan for the sector of Saint-Roch has a maximum of 10 storeys for buildings, although there are several structures higher in the immediate neighbourhood. Ilot Dorchester will require an amendment to the zoning plan.

Public consultations will be held “in the coming weeks,” Marchand said, and no referendum is required to approve the zoning change.

Groupe Trudel president William Trudel explained in a Radio-Canada interview the company was able to maintain the profitability of the tower structure by moving the hotel component to the larger lower part of the building.

“We reached an agreement in the last few days with the major (hotel) brand that accepted this compromise. It allows us to lower the building to 17 floors, which was not possible before,” Trudel said.

The debate over the project, valued at about $300 million, has caused a six-month delay in the planned start of construction, now slated for late spring. The complex, comprising 400 housing units in four separate buildings, a large surface grocery store, the hotel and various green spaces, is expected to be completed in 2028.

The property, bordered by Rue Saint-Vallier, Rue Dorchester, Rue Sainte-Helene and Rue Caron, was once a busy industrial block, with tanneries and factories related to shipbuilding. Groupe Trudel bought the site in 2022 after managing the parking lot for two years.

Îlot Dorchester is the fourth major combined commercial and residential project the company has in the works. The others are redevelopments of Place Fleur de Lys, Galeries Charlesbourg and Place des Quatres Bourgeois.