Latin Quarter | “Our best year in 35 years”

It was the kick in the shins that the traders of the Latin Quarter would have done well without, at the start of 2025.

You may have seen this happening last week. The extremely sensitive intersection of Saint-Denis and Ontario streets will be closed for at least two weeks due to unplanned work by the City of Montreal.

Bar and restaurant owners learned the news a few days’ notice.

Armed with signs, they shouted their anger during a press conference organized next to the construction site – a pretty forest of orange cones and metal barriers. Some fear they will not recover from this umpteenth obstacle.

Nothing to make you want to take a look in the area…

Between the closures of long-established businesses, the ravages of homelessness and the proliferation of fast food chains, the former mecca of Montreal’s French-speaking cultural life has lost much of its luster in recent years.

The reputation of the Latin Quarter is in the depths.

I myself have documented this discomfiture in several columns. One of them earned me a courteous, but firm, email from Michel Lavallée, owner and founder of the L’Île Noire pub.

His message: yes, there are problems, but everything is not that bad.

My answer: shall we have a beer to discuss it?

Our meeting finally came to fruition last Thursday. We covered a wide range of topics in front of two specialties from his establishment: a pint of Black Velvet (half dark beer, half cider) and a glass of scotch, selected from the hundreds of bottles he keeps in reserve.

Michel Lavallée is in a way the soul and memory of the Latin Quarter. He opened his pub there in 1989, one of the few businesses of the time to have survived, along with its neighbor Bistro à Jojo.

First surprise of our interview: his business is good.

Excellent, even.

“We had the best financial year in our history, in 2024,” the 65-year-old told me.

Michel Lavallée thus explains the recipe for his success: his establishment has managed to maintain a “strong image” in a neighborhood in decline. He managed his finances tightly. And he was able to adapt to the new needs of customers, for example by organizing themed evenings (quizzes, humor, etc.).

The spirit of the place – a comforting pub offering a wide range of beers and scotches – helps retain regulars. Its timeless character also attracts a new clientele, partly made up of French people and other newcomers.

As if L’Île Noire constituted a landmark in a neighborhood – and a city – which has changed a lot in recent years.

Because Michel Lavallée recognizes it: the Latin Quarter no longer has much to do with its glory days of the 1990s and early 2000s.

Most of the independent restaurants and bars that gave it its charm (Pèlerin Magellan, La Sila, La Paryse, Saint-Sulpice, etc.) have closed. They have given way to soulless chains (PFK, Tim Hortons, Subway, Burger King, etc.).

So many businesses where it is increasingly difficult to be served in French, notes Michel Lavallée. The Plante administration’s plan to rename the sector “Quartier de la francophonie” makes it very circumspect.

But the owner believes, or at least hopes, that the arrival of several new cultural and institutional organizations will change the situation. That it will restore its letters of nobility – initially French-speaking – to the neighborhood.

It’s hard to visualize when walking around rue Saint-Denis today, where overflowing trash cans rub shoulders with orange cones and boarded-up storefronts. But in three to five years, the Latin Quarter will look very different. Several projects totaling at least $150 million are planned.

Two groups have increased their land acquisitions since 2021: Gestion Georges Coulombe (GGC), specialized in the restoration of heritage buildings, and the Société de développement Angus (SDA).

GGC alone is leading three projects.

He is leading the construction of a building that will house the National School of Humor, he will erect the new headquarters of ADISQ and will also carry out the next phases of renovation of the St-Denis Theater.

To these projects will be added the upcoming transformation of the magnificent Saint-Sulpice library into the House of Song and Music. An investment from Quebec valued at nearly 50 million.

And I learned of the existence of another major project: the SDA acquired a building, where the Végo restaurant is located, to set up new offices for the Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec (ITHQ) . The projected investment will exceed 40 million, if the financial package is completed.

These projects, with a strong cultural emphasis, will bring hundreds of new workers and students to the neighborhood. The newcomers will consolidate their links with the institutions already present, including UQAM, the Cinémathèque québécoise and the Grande Bibliothèque.

Real movement, very concrete.

All this could make it possible to restructure a very central district, located on the edge of the city center and a few minutes’ walk from two metro stations.

“What is appreciable is that there will be projects delivered every year, in 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028,” Alain Milette, director of development and projects at GGC, pointed out to me. It will really bring vitality to the sector. »

In this same positive vein, the City of Montreal will shortly announce the identity of the group selected to redevelop the Voyageur block. The project, straddling the Village and the Latin Quarter, should have at least 700 housing units – whose occupants will be potential customers for local businesses.

Despite the promise of a sunnier tomorrow, we cannot minimize the problems that still afflict the Latin Quarter, Christian Yaccarini, president and CEO of the SDA, points out to me.

Among these: the low interest of many businesses that have a storefront there, like all these retail brands. fast-food. “The challenge is the commercial framework: what do we offer, and how do we bring different clienteles together, including the issue of homelessness? »

The other problem is the one I spoke to you about at the outset: the lack of coordination in road work.

The general director of the Latin Quarter commercial development company (SDC), Julien Vaillancourt Laliberté, gave me a striking example. The day before its press conference to denounce the impromptu closure of Saint-Denis Street at the corner of Ontario Street, merchants learned that the City would also close the Saint-Laurent–Ontario intersection… until March 31 !

According to an SDC study, pedestrian traffic increased by 16% last December in the Latin Quarter, compared to the previous year.

After my drink on Thursday afternoon at L’Île Noire, I returned to rue Saint-Denis on Friday evening and you could feel it. There were people there and some restaurants were crowded.

In this context of improvement, merchants have every right to ask that the City redouble its efforts so as not to harm the recovery.

Let her coordinate her construction sites and empty the trash cans, at a minimum.