Liza Frulla has had enough. The patroness of the Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec (ITHQ) can no longer contain her disappointment at the paralysis afflicting the redevelopment of her magnificent neighbor on rue Saint-Denis, the Institut des Sourdes-Muettes .
While the Avenue des Pins is getting a makeover and the Latin Quarter is struggling to recover from the pandemic, the project is more urgent than ever, she says. Montreal and Quebec must weigh on the accelerator, even if it means putting water in their wine, pleads the ex-minister.
“It comes to get me, she dropped in an interview with La Presse. With all this potential, I can’t believe that in Montreal, we let it waste away. I can’t believe this. And I don’t accept it either. »
“I can’t understand how this building – with all its square footage – isn’t the first project of the SQI [Société québécoise des infrastructures] and also of the City of Montreal,” she continued, without worrying about sparing his interlocutors. Their respective requirements and procedures are endless: “With all these objections, it does not move. And you see it deteriorating month by month, year by year.”
The Institut des Sourdes-Muettes, whose main building dates from the early 20th century, has been vacant since 2015. It is owned by the provincial government through its Société immobilière du Québec.
Like other large institutional complexes, the Institut des Sourdes-Muettes promises a splendid setting for the promoter who wants to find a new vocation for it, but also a bottomless pit of expenses. Add to the mix the social aims of the City of Montreal and the desire for profit of private promoters. Result: a real estate Gordian knot.
The SQI attributes part of the delays in the redevelopment of the Institut des Sourdes-Muettes to the hesitations of the City of Montreal.
The building was placed partially “in reserve” for the municipality in 2018, normally for one year. “At the end of 2020, the City finally confirmed to the SQI that it had no intention of acquiring the building,” reported Francis Martel, spokesperson for the organization, by email. The SQI refused La Presse’s interview request.
On the Montreal side, Valérie Plante’s office says it is following “with interest the work of the SQI for the redevelopment of the site”. “Its redevelopment is a priority for our administration,” said the mayor’s press secretary. We are committed to continuing our close collaboration with all partners so that this site serves the interests of families, workers, people in need and students. »
Because if it does not wish to redevelop it itself, the Plante administration developed and published in 2021 development concepts for the site, including a large place left for social housing.
For three years now, Ms. Frulla and her ITHQ have been advocating for the inclusion of student housing in the project that will be chosen.
“If we want to attract students from outside – who constitute the best immigration – to come and settle in Montreal, we have to house them. Because housing is made unaffordable,” she argued. Whenever Liza Frulla hears about the housing crisis in the public sphere, she thinks of “that beautiful space that we let wither.”
Regardless of the concept chosen, it must respect the heritage character of this magnificent institutional complex of gray stones, underlined Dinu Bumbaru, of Heritage Montreal.
The establishment welcomed deaf and dumb children until 1975. In 1979, it was bought by the real estate arm of the Ministry of Health. Until 2015, the Montreal Health Agency occupied premises there. A park located on the site has been transformed into a parking lot. The latter is still in operation, creating an illusion of activity on the ground.
Heritage Montreal fears abandonment more than retraining. “We have to find a way to bring this up to standard. […] There are certainly avenues,” Mr. Bumbaru said. “An abandoned building – especially in our climate and with vandalism – is a real threat. We often thought that the threat was demolition. It was true in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s a bit. But now, more and more, it is decommissioning. »
“It takes work to get that case unblocked, because it’s unlikely that a building like that […] would be neglected like that. A private developer wouldn’t do that,” he added.
