Construction of a two-storey commercial/office building is now underway at Cartier Ave. and Highway 20, bringing long-awaited new life to the undeclared gateway to Pointe-Claire Village.
After more than two years of negotiations, Pointe-Claire city officials have given the property’s owner, Beaconsfield developer Guy Barré, the final go-ahead to develop the southeast corner lot.
The $3-million project will feature about 5,000 square feet of office space on each of the building’s two floors. ReMax/Royal Jordan, now located on Amherst St. in Beaconsfield, has signed on as the sole tenant.
The pre-cast concrete slab and aluminum building at 201 Cartier Ave. is expected to open early this fall.
“It has all worked out in the end,” Barré said. “They (ReMax/Royal Jordan) will be taking over the whole building.”
The southeast corner of Cartier Ave. and Highway 20 was the former site of an Olco service station, which dated to the 1950s. Since the service station’s demolition in late 2012, the site was decontaminated but has sat vacant and become overgrown with weeds.
Pointe-Claire city officials have been focused on how best to revitalize Pointe-Claire Village. And building permits for development on Cartier Ave. have been hard to come by as city-funded consultants have been conducting surveys and public consultations on the village revitalization.
Signalling that things were moving again, city officials gave conditional approval back in January to building plans submitted by Barré for development of the 21,493-square-foot lot.
This week, Barré said, he was pleased that an agreement had finally been reached with the city’s planning department on a revised version of that plan.
Some minor variants were required but they were approved by Pointe-Claire council at the July 2 council meeting, confirmed Marie-Pier Paquette-Séguin, a city spokesperson.
Claude Cousineau, the Pointe-Claire city councillor for District 1, which includes the Village, said he was pleased that “things are getting into gear.”
As for the new tenants, Caroline Salette, a top-selling agent working out of the ReMax/Royal office on Amherst St. in Beaconsfield, said the move will bring greater visibility to the company.
Since 1983, she said, the ReMax/Royal office has been located in “the red-roofed building that looks like a Pizza Hut,” but few people seemed to know where they were.
ccornacchia@
montrealgazette.com
