Heritage activists pleased with Maison Alcan tower delay
Project would require zoning changes, demolitions
Heritage activists are applauding Montreal's decision to delay a proposed 30-storey downtown tower project at the site of the current Maison Alcan.
"We felt very happy that they took that courageous step," said Dinu Bumbaru of Heritage Montreal. "It's a wise move and a good gesture."
The project calls for the demolition of a building at 2010 Stanley, while all but the façade of the structure at 2055 Drummond would be demolished.
That abandoned structure was long known as the Winter Club, a former figure skating venue built in 1912.
The tower project would require a zoning change that would effectively increase the value of the land, which Bumbaru describes as a "speculative coup."
He feels the increased land value windfall would increase the chance that the project would not go forward following the demolitions, leaving a series of barren downtown lots, as occurred in such long-stalled Montreal projects as the Overdale block and the Queens Hotel.
The Maison Alcan project had been greenlighted at several previous administrative steps.
"It was a technocratic process that nobody can get a hold on what was happening. You had to know your civic numbers by heart to know what they were talking about," Bumbaru said.
Rio Tinto Alcan plans to move out of the current Maison Alcan into the newly-build Deloitte Tower near the Bell Centre next year.
The Maison Alcan was built in 1983 and was seen as a model for integrating old and new structures. It was since purchased by new owners including Guy Laliberté, founder of the Cirque du Soleil.