Student apartment project set for Jeffery Hale clinic site
Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
peterblack@qctonline.com
Amajor student housing project is in the works that will transform an already busy sector of Saint- Sacrement.
Construction is expected to start in January on a 234-unit building on the site of the former Jeffery Hale Medical Centre on Chemin Ste-Foy. The structure is adjacent to the building that houses the offices of organizations serving the English-speaking community and the Jeffery Hale Hospital.
The as-yet-unnamed build- ing is a project of UTILE (l’Unité de travail pour l’implantation de logement étudiant), a Montreal-based non-profit organization that already has 13 projects built or in development in Montreal, Sherbrooke, Rimouski, Trois- Rivières and Quebec City.
The group’s first project in the capital is called L’Ardoise, a 205-unit building on Chemin Sainte-Foy across from the Université Laval campus. Completed in 2023, the facility was an instant success, according to Maxime Pelletier, UTILE’s assistant director of public affairs.
Rents in L’Ardoise range from $618 per month for a studio to $1,600 per month for a four-bedroom apartment. When units become available, the group said, there is a flood of applications.
Pelletier said UTILE chose the site on the Jeffery Hale property because of its access to transportation and other amenities in the Saint- Sacrement district, plus its proximity to Laval.
The group bought the land for $3.45 million from the owner, Sobeys, the food and real estate giant. Pelletier said construction will begin in the new year once zoning issues are resolved with the city and financing secured for the new project.
Regarding the zoning, Pelletier said, “The main exemptions required for our projects are regarding the height of the building, which is slightly higher than what is currently permitted, as well as the parking-to-units ratio (since many students do not own a car and we want to encourage active and public transit, we have fewer parking spots in our projects).”
Pelletier said he is confident discussions with “multiple levels of government” will secure the financing for the new building. Once construction begins, he said the building should be ready to accept tenants for the 2026 fall semester.
Pelletier said the goal of UTILE is “to provide afford- able housing to students be- cause increasingly housing is the main source of financial debt and stress for students and therefore we believe that providing students with an adequate place to study that is affordable will improve their well-being as well as their capacity to concentrate on their studies.”
The group got its start as a result of the 2012 university student strike, Pelletier said, when there was a movement for a student organization to take over a corporate housing project in the works in down- town Montreal. The takeover didn’t happen, but the move- ment created UTILE, which launched its first project in 2017 in Montreal.
Pelletier said UTILE pours some of the rental income from existing buildings back into new projects but is committed to keeping rents affordable.
As for which students will be granted a lease on an apartment, Pelletier said priority goes to students in the most financial need.
The soon-to-be-demolished Jeffery Hale Medical Centre building currently has only one tenant listed, a dental clinic. The building opened in 1964, a project of five doctors, according to city records: Samuel L. Pollack, John W. Kelly, Peter E. Kozak, Denis Gendron and Ian C. Wilson.
The city inventory of buildings describes the structure as of “little heritage interest … [that] corresponds to a time of multiplication of medical clinics linked to the demographic boom.”