Published January 15, 2024

The Ville de Québec plans to convert the Foyer Nazareth building, at left, and the former Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague school in Vieux-Québec into housing.

Peter Black

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

The city has reached a deal to purchase a former boys school and a one-time boys orphanage in a prime spot in Old Quebec, and convert both buildings into housing.

The two buildings, situated on a large lot at the intersection of Rue Richelieu and Rue des Glacis, are the former home of private boys school Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague and the once-associated orphanage, whose last vocation was as Foyer Nazareth, a seniors residence operated by the Sisters of Charity.

Both buildings were built in the 1800s and are considered of high heritage value.

The city made an offer of $8.275 million to purchase the 14,164-square-metre property from the Centre hospitalier universitaire de Québec (CHUQ), well below its $9.460-million municipal valuation. Neither building had been occupied since 2010, although a hair products supplier is listed as an occupant of the former school.

In a Dec. 1 news release, the city said, “By restoring the two buildings, more than 150 housing units could be created, which corresponds to approximately 225 to 250 new residents.”

Coun. Mélissa Coulombe-Leduc, city executive committee member and councillor for the Cap-Aux-Diamants district, said, “This acquisition will also make it possible to give back to citizens one of the most interesting green spaces in the area, the former primary school courtyard. The land could also accommodate other projects dear to citizens, including a community garden.”

The project is part of Mayor Bruno Marchand’s administration’s plan to bring in more residents and improve the quality of life in the Old City. Figures from the city and Statistics Canada show the residential population within the walls of the Old City is in free fall. In 2006 there were 5,278 residents; according to the latest figures, there are 4,600.

The city revealed no details on how it would proceed with the conversion of the two buildings, or the parameters of the proposed project.

The city’s acquisition of the prized site comes in the wake of a project aborted in 2022. The GM Development company had proposed a plan to preserve both buildings and add a 12-storey building on the site, creating some 250 housing units in total. The project was iced when the CHUQ decided, in the middle of the pandemic, to hold onto the buildings.

The school building became vacant in 2009 when Académie Saint-Louis, a subsidized private school, acquired École Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague, and the two schools merged at the latter’s facilities in Lebourgneuf. Académie Saint-Louis moved from Ave. des Érables in Montcalm in 1995.

The structure had been built in 1898 as a boarding school for boys and had been expanded over the years. Foyer Nazareth, situated on the site of an embankment fortification built by the French army, was built by the British army as quarters for married soldiers and their families.

When the British garrison left the city in 1871, the building was handed over to the Sisters of Charity, who turned it into an orphanage for boys. It was enlarged twice by raising the roof and adding an extension. The orphanage closed in 1915, and the building later became a seniors residence. It was operated by the sisters as Foyer Nazareth until 2010 when it was acquired by the CHUQ.

The city announced other measures to boost residential life within the walls. One is “a complete inventory of buildings located on Rue Saint-Jean and Côte de la Fabrique with the aim of analyzing the sector and improving existing subsidy programs to stimulate the creation of housing in vacant spaces.”

The subsidy for such conversions, provided through a provincial program, can reach $85,000 per unit. The city says the program could create about 30 new housing units.

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Photo by Peter Black

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