Downtown Montreal is picking back up, but it's still not what it used to be: report
Things are slowly looking up for Montreal’s downtown.
A City Centre Report shows foot traffic is up and more stores have opened – but the downtown core is still not quite back to pre-pandemic levels with office workers.
“What changed is that we got hit by a pandemic, and everybody realized that we really took downtown for granted for a very long time,” said Glenn Castanheira, with business development group Montreal centre-ville.
Thanks to its universities, dynamic economy, restaurants and nightlife, it was a sure bet Montreal would be back on the map.
“We’re not Toronto, we don’t only rely on finance. We’re not Edmonton, we don’t only rely on natural resources. We’re extremely diversified,” said Castanheira.
The challenge, though, is attracting office workers. Prior to the pandemic, the office vacancy rate was 10 per cent – it’s now about 17 per cent.
Companies are hesitant to rent downtown office space, said Luciano D'Iorio, a real estate agent with CDNGLOBAL.
“What I’m seeing is a lot of short-term leases, a lot of indecision, a lot of trying to buy time because employers are just not sure of what their employees want,” said D'Iorio.
The newly formed Alliance for downtown Montreal -- which includes local, provincial and federal politicians -- hopes, by improving the downtown experience, it will attract more workers back.
Among its initiatives, it’s planning to make downtown cleaner – and brighter.
As of this fall, it will illuminate three heritage sites, and is also planning more promotions for life downtown
“It is useless, even futile, to force people to come back to work if we’re not ready to give them a better experience,” said Castanheira.
Even though the success of many downtown businesses depends on office workers, Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon favours this approach instead of the one used by Elon Musk, who is forcing his employees back to the office.
“This is not part of the values of Quebecers,” said Fitzgibbon.
Downtown merchants say they’re still relatively lucky, pointing out that while in Montreal the office availability rate is almost 50 per cent higher than before the pandemic, in both Toronto and Vancouver that rate is more than 200 per cent.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'Looking over our shoulders': A killing looms large in a little B.C. town
Something shifted in the pretty little village of Lumby, B.C., after Tatjana Stefanski vanished. It used to be the sort of place where parents let their kids roam free or play in the local creek, but everything has changed.
Officer who arrested Scottie Scheffler is being disciplined for not having bodycam activated
The Kentucky police officer who arrested top-ranked golfer Scottie Scheffler outside the PGA Championship is receiving “corrective action” for failing to have his body-worn camera activated.
Toronto man falls off his chair after seeing $70M Lotto Max win in his bank account
A Toronto man who won $70 million in a recent Lotto Max draw literally fell off his chair when he saw the funds in his bank account – and the life-changing moment was caught on video.
Montreal-area high school students protest 'sexist' dress code
Students at Curé-Antoine-Labelle High School near Montreal are protesting after they say their school's administration started pushing what they call a 'sexist' dress code.
Air travel is expensive. WestJet wants the government to do more to change that
WestJet is asking the federal government to put measures in place to lower ticket costs for travellers, but questions remain on who would foot the bill.
Hundreds have applied for this 'adventurer' job in Banff National Park
Coined as Banff's 'ultimate summer job,' the Moraine Lake Bus Company says hundreds of people from across the world have applied for its adventurer position.
Dangerous brew: Ocean heat and La Nina combo likely mean more Atlantic hurricanes this summer
Get ready for what nearly all the experts think will be one of the busiest Atlantic hurricane seasons on record, thanks to unprecedented ocean heat and a brewing La Nina.
U.S. senators write to Trudeau asking him to meet 2% GDP defence spending commitment
A bipartisan group of 23 U.S. senators have written to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urging his country to live up to its commitment to spend 2 per cent of GDP on defence amid concerns that key members of the NATO alliance are not pulling their weight.
Potential tornado 'surreal' for residents who witnessed damaging storm in southern Ontario
Witnessing a potential tornado was 'surreal' for residents who caught a glimpse of the damaging storm in southern Ontario on Wednesday night.