The 2021 plan for expanding the Samuel Holland complex on Ave. Ernest-Gagnon by Cargo Architectes.
Image from Cargo Architectes
Peter Black
Local Journalism Initiative reporter
peterblack@qctonline.com
After nearly four months of ignored and deflected inquiries with the city and the property owner, the QCT has learned a major project to expand the Samuel Holland housing complex in the Saint-Sacrement district is either dead or indefinitely on ice.
The property is currently a fenced-off field adjacent to Holland Elementary School on Ave. Ernest-Gagnon. Snow now covers vegetation that has grown and thickened in the two years since contractors demolished the building that used to be on the site, the former Quebec City RCMP headquarters.
The owner of the field, according to the city’s tax rolls, is officially registered as Samuel Holland Holdings Company, with an office listed in Halifax. That company is a division of Toronto-based CAPREIT (Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Trust), one of the country’s largest rental property landlords.
CAPREIT had acquired the Samuel Holland complex in July 2012 from GE Capital, which had in turn bought the six-building site from the real estate wing of insurance giant SSQ (now Beneva) in 2007.
According to media reports, in 2002 SSQ had proposed building a 150-unit housing project on the site, incorporating the former Mountie building, but abandoned the plan in the face of objections by occupants of the nearby Holland apartment complex concerned about losing their view.
When CAPREIT took over, it revived the project on Ave. Ernest-Gagnon, submitting a plan in 2017 to the city which exceeded zoning height restrictions. In August 2021, CAPREIT returned with a revised project for 168 units of housing, with a row of two-storey townhouse units along the street and an eight-storey building in the back.
This version, according to an August 2021 report in Le Soleil, conformed to local zoning bylaws.
In that Le Soleil report, CAPREIT president and CEO Mark Kenney said, “CAPREIT is refining the details of the project design with its team of consultants and expects to submit its construction permit application in early 2022.” He estimated the cost of the project as “between $40 and $50 million.”
In September 2021, demolition work began on the former RCMP building, which had been abandoned in 1995 and was badly deteriorating. Since then, apart from the installation of a fence around the 2,400 square-metre property, there has been no activity.
Inquiries with the city, beginning in August, revealed that no building permit had been issued for the site and that any inquiry about the status of the project was to be referred to the property owner.
The QCT contacted Cargo Architecture, the Quebec City company that had drawn up the plans for the Samuel Holland expansion, and was told they were no longer involved in the project and were not aware of its status.
Numerous calls and emails to CAPREIT officials, including Kenney, received no response. A receptionist invited the QCT to contact the company’s investor relations or media service, neither of which responded.
On Nov. 8, CAPREIT executives convened a conference call with reporters to discuss company quarterly results, during which the QCT’s request to ask a question was somehow not registered. Afterward, a media relations representative returned a call, apologized for the missed question and promised to look into the Samuel Holland situation.
Two weeks and two more inquiries later, CAPREIT’s anonymous media team sent a response. It said, “We have no development plans currently for this property, and as such, will not be providing additional comment at this time.”
In the absence of more information, official or otherwise, what happened to the 870 Ernest-Gagnon project in the CAPREIT boardroom between August 2021 and the present is open to speculation.
In the Le Soleil interview, Kenney made comments about the obstacles to development, especially zoning regulations slowing down construction projects. “The problem is we need more housing.… The desire to build is there, but it takes years and years because it is a municipal responsibility,” he said.
He also said real estate developers face rising material costs, such as the increase in land prices, so they must be able to build bigger projects to make their investments profitable.
In an August opinion piece in the Hill Times, Kenney wrote about Canada’s housing situation, “The legacies of this era of inaction are many: more burdensome zoning laws, higher development costs, more aggressive and successful “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) interests and fewer Canadians with access to housing that meets their needs and budgets.”
The Ville de Québec had not responded by press time to a request for comment on the icing of the Samuel Holland expansion project.
Including the Samuel Holland complex, CAPREIT has 2,777 units in its Quebec City rental portfolio. Overall the company has $16.5 billion in assets, including 64,500 rental units in Canada and the Netherlands.
The former site of the RCMP building on Ave. Ernest-Gagnon, adjacent to Holland Elementary School, remains vacant as plans for a housing project are suspended.
Photo by Peter Black