By Mario Toneguzzi

One of Canada’s first shopping centres, Le Boulevard, in eastern Montreal, will undergo a major redevelopment of 100,000 square feet which anchor Hudson's Bay will vacate in the fall of 2018.

Mitchell Moss, president of Crofton Moore, which manages the mall, told Retail-Insider the redevelopment is slated for completion in 2019.

“It is 100,000 square feet on two levels. We could do one 100,000-square-foot tenant on two levels which is possible or most likely there will be multiple tenants. Probably one or two on the second floor and three to five on the ground floor,” says Moss.

Le Boulevard, a 400,000-square-foot enclosed shopping centre, is located at the corner of Jean Talon Street and Pie IX Boulevard. The property benefits from major exposure on Pie IX Boulevard, with easy access to highway 40, and is just a short 20-minute car ride from downtown Montreal.

“We’re happy to invest. We’re happy to make it happen. We’re happy to bring in new tenants to the shopping centre,” says Moss. “It’s a huge positive.”

He says the property intersection sees more than 60,000 cars per day and more than 160,000 people live within 2.5 kilometres of Le Boulevard.

“We have a ton of traffic for a mall of this size,” he says, adding that the shopping centre has nearly eight million visitors per year.

Existing tenants include Canadian Tire, Metro Plus Supermarket, Urban Planet, Jean Coutu, SAQ (Liquor Store) Dollarama and Ardène to name a few.

The redevelopment consists of leasing possibilities ranging from 10,000 to 60,000 square feet.

Moss, who is a managing partner of the shopping centre with a financial partner, says possible uses for the redeveloped space include fashion, restaurants, fitness, home fashion.

“This is one of the first shopping centres in Canada. We bought it about 10 years ago. It was built in the late 50’s as a strip centre . . . It was enclosed in the early 70’s,” he says. “We bought this shopping centre and it was about 20 per cent vacant. We renovated the shopping centre and rented all the vacant space.

“It went from a mall that was okay with decent traffic but with lots of mom and pop tenants to a mall with around two-thirds being regional or national tenants.”

Crofton Moore has been active in the management, leasing, construction and development/repositioning of retail and office space in the Canadian real estate market for the last 20 years. The portfolio of properties currently under its management is about five million square feet which is concentrated in the Montreal and Toronto markets.

For more information, contact:

Abie Grunpspan, Vice-President, Retail Leasing, Crofton Moore

Tel: 514 845-4500 x 206, Email: agrunspan@croftonmoore.com.

[Redevelopment Website]

Mario Toneguzzi, based in Calgary has 37 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist and editor. He worked for 35 years at the Calgary Herald covering sports, crime, politics, health, city and breaking news, and business. For 12 years as a business writer, his main beats were commercial and residential real estate, retail, small business and general economic news. He nows works on his own as a freelance writer and consultant in communications and media relations/training. Email: mdtoneguzzi@gmail.com.

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web: September 18, 2017