A neighborhood in transformation in Verdun

A sector of Verdun, near the Atwater drinking water production plant, is beginning to transform. The patient deconstruction of an old building made it possible to open up views of downtown Montreal. This view will be preserved and new links with the surrounding neighborhood will be created, during the construction of approximately 500 housing units as part of the Quartier Atwater-Rental Housing project. In the same quadrilateral, 200 social housing units should also be built.

This is the first project that is part of the vision for the redevelopment of the Hickson-Dupuis sector, as defined by the borough of Verdun in 2021.

“This vision is the result of many steps with the community,” indicates the mayor of Verdun, Marie-Andrée Mauger. This sector, where there is a concentration of businesses associated with auto repair, needs love. But it’s a pinch because it’s a page in the history of Verdun that is turning. However, the signal for transformation of the sector was given a long time ago. »

In 2008, the zoning was changed to allow the construction of eight-story buildings.

The company District Atwater has acquired three contiguous lots, facing Duquette Park, where it will construct three buildings of six to eight floors, which will house more than 500 rental housing units, 20% of which will be affordable. A fourth building will be added independently within the same quadrangle, comprising 200 social housing units.

“We want to revitalize the site, which is really large, and offer housing, but also businesses and services to the entire community,” underlines Claudia Dupuis, co-owner of District Atwater with her partner, Alexandre Forgues.

They will go about this in different ways, for example by greening the site and creating meeting places where there will be entertainment. They also want to innovate, by offering around fifty loft workshops, where tenants can both live and receive their clients.

“We are creating a living environment in a place where there are no trees or plants and where the ground is 100% impermeable,” adds Alexandre Forgues. From year to year, by being managers, we will be able to continue to improve all the elements that will be created here. »

Obstacles and skeptics

Relations have not always been cordial between developers and the City of Montreal. When purchasing the three lots in 2021, the City exercised its right of pre-emption on one of them for the first time. Considering that the City was paralyzing the development of the entire site, District Atwater initiated legal proceedings, which led to an amicable settlement last June.

“We think we are a win-win, much more quickly than if the case had been brought to court,” said the mayor of the South-West district, Benoit Dorais, responsible for housing within the Plante administration. . “Justice is slow and we wanted to make sure we put social housing in this area. We were able to acquire land, which is not exactly the same, once the land register has been modified, but on which there will be 200 social housing units. District Atwater, for its part, can quickly get its project underway for 520 housing units, 20% of which will be affordable. There is also the percentage of housing for families that we want, with three bedrooms. The whole community benefits. »

Marie Frédérique St-Onge, coordinator of the housing committee of the Verdun Citizens’ Action Committee, deplores that the transformation of the sector leads to gentrification. “It caused havoc in our neighborhood and displaced our neighbors, particularly the elderly,” she says.

She is skeptical about the realization of the 200 social housing units, as part of the Quebec Affordable Housing Program (PHAQ), which replaced the late Accès-Logis program. “Decontaminating land like this, which has hosted commercial activities, we are talking about 25 million, and it is not the PHAQ which finances this,” she denounces. Right now, it’s hard to believe it. »

Developers Claudia Dupuis and Alexandre Forgues, who both grew up in Verdun and live there, carried out the symbolic removal of the first brick in October to signify the start of the deconstruction of the buildings on the site. In collaboration with Brique Recyc, also from Verdun, more than 100,000 bricks will be diverted from landfill and a portion will be reused. Two architectural agencies, Nós and TLA Architectes, are involved. Quartier Atwater-Rental Habitats should welcome its first tenants in 2027. It represents an investment of more than 100 million.