While on the fire station side, he plans to build two six-storey buildings with 120 affordable housing units each, on the other side of the boulevard, to the right of the JR Auto store, there is talk of a building with 100 affordable housing units. The 33-year-old says he wants to help families.
“My goal is really to remove financial pressure from parents so that they have a good quality of life with their children.”
— Anthony Thériault
The 100-unit affordable housing building should be built to the right of JR Auto, where vehicles are currently parked. The wooded area behind should be preserved at 70%, assures the builder. (Stéphane Lessard/Le Nouvelliste)
On the JR Auto side: a wooded area appreciated by citizens
To build the 100-unit building, Mr. Thériault’s company purchased land last April on which the JR Auto store and a wooded area, which is much appreciated by the neighborhood, are located.
When the land was announced for sale in 2020 by a private owner, citizens had expressed their concerns in the media about the survival of the wooded area, which is located between Côte Rosemont and the Adélard-Dugré sector.
Mr. Thériault wants to be reassuring. Only one building will be built, on the edge of the boulevard des Chenaux, to the right of JR Auto, he maintains. He states that 70% of the wooded area will be preserved.
“70% of the wood will be kept behind. We have to enlarge the JR Auto parking lot and the parking lot for our 100 homes a little, but that’s all,” he assures.
The woodland is represented by the yellow part. The plan dates from 2020.
People will be able to continue walking there, he continues. “Our goal is not to barricade the area.”
On the barracks side
On the other side of the boulevard, his project is located behind the two buildings belonging to the Trois-Rivières Municipal Housing Office (OMH), near the fire station. He also purchased these lands from the OMH in 2022. His project, which is larger on this side, will be near two ecological areas, namely those of Chenaux and the Milette River.
Again, he assures us that he has done his homework. “We are keeping 40% of green spaces while the City is asking us for 30%. What is close to the Milette River, we want to leave it all in woods. It is such a beautiful environment, it is not true that we are going to start clearing that.”
On the fire station side, the NPO project includes two buildings with 120 affordable housing units (at the back on the plan). They should be located behind two OMH buildings (white rectangles on the plan), to the right of the fire station. Three other buildings not including affordable housing could be built by a private contractor. Everything would be done in different phases.
Not just affordable housing
The project does not only include affordable housing. Still on the barracks side, there is also talk of two four-story buildings with 40 units and another four-story building with 60 units. All of this would be carried out in different phases.
Mr. Thériault wants to focus on affordable housing through a non-profit organization. His business partner, Philippe Picory, would be in charge of buildings that do not contain affordable housing or these lands could be resold. Mr. Thériault says he receives several calls per month from developers in Montreal or Quebec who want to acquire these lands.
Here is a model of the project including the five buildings, two of which are affordable housing (at the back), on the north side of Boulevard des Chenaux.
Lüdiq, a non-profit organization
But the heart of the project is affordable housing, insists Mr. Thériault. It will be five and a half and six and a half. And to achieve them, he is in the process of creating a non-profit organization, a bit like UTILE. He describes it as a “creator of housing for children from all social classes.”
While we are used to seeing buildings springing up for the over 50s or single people, the 33-year-old entrepreneur wants to give a helping hand to young families, he says.
It is his own youth that inspires him in this project. His parents separated when he was 10 years old and his mother lived on a salary of about 20,000 dollars a year as a hairdresser.
“She was paying $385 for a nice four-and-a-half in a duplex in Sainte-Marguerite. That’s what led me to this reflection. Would I have become the person I am today if she had had the stress of paying $1,600 a month in rent and working more to make ends meet?”
With current construction costs, it cannot currently offer new housing at affordable prices, he laments.
This is what gave him the idea to create an NPO. “I was not comfortable when I met young families to give them the cost of rent. We have a minimum price like any business. If the bank tells me that to have such financing, I have to rent so much per month, I have no choice. We follow a framework. My only way out to be truly affordable is the NPO.”
With its affordable housing, the rent will be adapted according to the salary of its tenants. It will therefore not be a fixed price for all housing.
Furthermore, he does not want to stop at building only affordable housing. He plans to include in his project, among other things, an outdoor pool, indoor and outdoor play areas, a daycare outside of normal hours, a relaxation area for parents, a study room and a communal kitchen. “We don’t just want to create a standard apartment building. We want to create a living environment for children.”
Mr. Thériault has put online a web page on the future NPO Lüdiq. He also spoke about his project on the airwaves of 106.9 FM last week.
A fast lane?
The developer plans to complete his project quickly. He wants to start digging in May 2025 for the 100-unit building, for delivery on July 1, 2026. To do this, he hopes his file will be “on the top of the pile” at the City. “It’s an achievable goal if the City makes the zoning change within a reasonable time frame.”
To be able to benefit from a “fast track” as he hopes, he argues that the vacancy rate is at 0.4% in Trois-Rivières and that there is a lack of large housing for families.
“As a private builder who chooses to go to an NPO to help solve the housing crisis, I would appreciate it if the City would deal with our files with urgency. There are enough projects with rents of $2,000 and more per month currently under construction. It is therefore time to prioritize what the population really needs, which is real affordable housing.”
— Anthony Thériault
He also says that he has done all the necessary studies and even more. He also specifies that he has good collaboration from the City.
A meeting with the City
At the City, spokesperson Mikaël Morrissette specifies that a meeting is planned with the developer “to address certain points, particularly in relation to the overall development plan which is necessary given the targeted area.” The meeting will be held this Tuesday.
He explains that as far as zoning is concerned, for the moment, it is isolated single-family homes that are permitted in the targeted zone. “For a multi-unit housing project to see the light of day, […] a modification to the regulations ratified by the municipal council would therefore be necessary.”
The proximity of natural spaces will be taken into account in the rest of the file.
«[…] Natural spaces, including the Milette River ecological area, are of definite importance to the City and the community, both ecologically and socially. Trois-Rivières intends to pay particular attention to the potential impacts of any projects carried out near these locations.
— Mikaël Morrissette, spokesperson for the City of Trois-Rivières
