Site of old Montreal's Children's Hospital to become condos, social housing units

The City of Montreal says it's ready to go ahead with a proposal to redevelop the site of the former Montreal Children's Hospital.

The developer Devimco is planning a $400-million project that will include condos as well as rental and social housing units.

Seven buildings will be built on the site, ranging from 20 to 32 storeys.

There will be 1,400 housing units — 160 of them to be social housing units.

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There will also be offices, stores, a new municipal library, a hotel with 250 rooms, a community centre and a park.

The site, which is a 1.4-million square foot property, is situated downtown at René-Lévesque Boulevard and Atwater Street.

Executive committee member Richard Bergeron said the project will help attract people to live downtown.

"We're confident, and we need that density, that quality of project. We need a project with mixed-use, like this project has, to have the city that we want," Bergeron said.

Montreal's executive committee member responsible for housing, Russell Copeman, echoed that the city supports the project.

"We have rental housing, we have condominiums, we have a community centre, we have social housing on site. We have green space," he said. "This project corresponds to the conditions that we as an administration wanted to see."

Opposition party 'very disappointed'

The leader of Montreal's Official Opposition party Projet Montréal said she's "very disappointed" with the project.

Valérie Plante said she doesn't think it will draw more families to live downtown.

"Once again, we have a huge project that does not meet the needs expressed by current residents and that will not provide the infrastructure that is necessary to attract new families," Plante said in a statement.

She added that the units, which will be 700 square feet, will be too small to accommodate families.

"How can we fight urban sprawl when we are offering people only small dwellings, scarcely big enough for two people?"

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Plante added that creating a new school on the site should be a priority.

"We deplore the fact that the City of Montreal has not succeeded in obtaining from the promoter...a new school, which the Commission Scolaire de Montréal has been demanding and which is essential for this area."

The city said it could be possible to have a school on the site and is in the process of negotiations.

The project will go before a vote at city council on Monday. It will then be subject to public hearings, which are expected to start in early 2017.