The head of the MUHC project hopes the superhospital will reinvigorate the area around the Glen Yards.
Dr. Arthur Porter envisions a hotel, a convention centre, and multiple offices for doctors, pharmacists, and therapists in the region.
"I think you're going to see a change in the neighborhood," said Porter. "I think that on balance that change will be for the positive."
The biggest change will be the hospital building itself, an ultramodern structure that will take up one third of the site.
500 bright, single-patient rooms that will do away with the need to transfer to another ward for routine testing, since most tests will happen in a patient's own room.
Two-thirds of the area between Vendome metro and train station and St. Jacques will be landscaped as a park with a small lake.
Roads in the area will be re-routed, with part of Upper Lachine closed to cars, and a new east-west artery constructed for residents.
"Research buildings, pharmaceutical firms, one would even have doctor's offices, physiotherapy offices," said Porter. "All of that stuff starts to congregate around the medical centre."
The down side is that the area will soon be a massive construction area, with real building starting in June.
As for the old hospitals, the MUHC has just begun to look into selling the Royal Victoria and the Montreal Children's Hospital.
It's expected to be a long and complicated process.
