Podcast: Royalmount in Montreal Announces 1st Luxury Tenants

As a follower of Montreal’s real estate and urban development scene, I want to thank you for this podcast which was just catnip for me. Again, I must ask how Andrew Lufty and Carbonleo managed to persuade these high-end brands to come to Montreal. For years we have been used to hearing that the market just wasn’t there, that the demand in Montreal, though present, was insufficient. Montrealers in the meantime had to settle for the concessions at Holt Renfrew Ogilvy (frequently without the breadth of offering at their counterparts in Toronto or Vancouver) or a few scattered upmarket retailers (usually local) around town in Vieux Montréal, de la Montagne, or Rue Laurier. I think the critical difference had to be Carbonleo’s partnership with L. Catterton, an affiliate of LVMH. Carbonleo was able to offer LVMH brands the investment in the made to measure, custom-built environment that the fragmented ownership, and relatively disorganized, penurious business organizations in the Golden Square Mile couldn’t pull together. It’s a blow and a failure of downtown business leaders that those prestigious first to market retailers are not opening on Sainte Catherine, Crescent, de la Montagne, or Sherbrooke. Novelty alone will make Royalmount a hit for at least the first few months. The crowds will descend upon the place as they desert Centreville and nearby centres such as Rockland for this glittering palace of commerce. As you suggested, the situation should settle after the first few years, and that should also determine how downtown will respond. About the only good news there currently is the growing residential component. By far, most of the tall towers, as well as smaller scale projects under construction in Downtown Montreal are residential instead of commercial or institutional. The centre city is in a state of transition as offices downsize and residents move in. As the Golden Square Mile comes full circle and transitions more to affluent residential as it was in the late 19th-early 20th century, perhaps, it will develop its own constituency, helping it to rebound from the Royalmount and other outlying vortices of conspicuous consumption.

P.S. : I notice you said “…when Tiffany [the one at the Ritz-Carlton on Sherbrooke] closes…” not if. That’s right.

Interesting podcast; however, you failed to mention that an LVMH-related company (L Catterton) is a co-owner of Royalmount. Surely this has influenced the decision for LV and other LVMH brands to locate there, and may make them less likely to remain in downtown Montreal? I’d love to hear your comments on this.