Technopôle Angus and the Art of Neighborhood Revitalization

Technopôle Angus is a mixed-use development mixing office, retail, restaurant and residential uses situated in Montreal’s Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie neighborhood. Proximity to transit and open space, as well as a mix of uses and advanced sustainability features, have enabled the project to thrive since redevelopment began in the 1990s. The project started after the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) Angus Shops closed in 1992, resulting in significant job losses in the neighborhood.

Société de développement Angus (SDA), the project’s developer, was put in place to help generate local employment and revitalize the area. The SDA acquired a variety of CPR lots, eventually becoming the owner of the 46 acres previously owned by CPR.

To date, 16 properties have been built for a variety of uses such as residential, retail and office. Focused on designing a human-scale neighborhood, the SDA limited building heights at Technopôle Angus to six stories.

“The objective was to consolidate the development to make it denser and to create a neighborhood that is lively at every period of the day, as well as the weekend, and [one] that has many uses,” explained Marilou Hudon-Huot, vice president of commercial rentals and residential development at SDA.

About 30% of the 75 businesses established in Technopôle Angus are in the health industry, including medical clinics CLSC de Rosemont and Clinique médicale Angus. Fifteen to twenty percent are in the media and video game industry, like Ubisoft and MELS.

To date, two residential buildings have been completed. The first to debut was Cité Angus Phase 1, where most of the 120 units contain three or four bedrooms. Many of those units sold for about 400,000 Canadian dollars (US$290,708) in 2020 to meet the City of Montreal’s affordability criteria. “It allows families to raise their children in front of a big park [Parc Jean-Duceppe] at a reasonable cost,” said Hudon-Huot. Phase 1 was completed and has been fully occupied since January 2021.

The second residential building to be completed was Rose des vents, an affordable 122-unit student housing building developed by UTILE, a non-profit organization that also operates the project. The CA$25.5 million ($US18,643,412) and 67,500-square-foot (6,271 square meters) facility opened in the summer of 2022. The building is 100% occupied with units leased to students at below-market rates.

Two other residential properties are planned. The first, Cité Angus Phase 2, features mostly three- and four-bedroom units that have all been pre-sold at market rates. The 88 units in Cité Angus Phase 2 should be delivered during Winter 2023, according to Hudon-Huot.

The second is a 79-unit affordable housing project developed by the SDA in partnership with non-profit organizations Habitations communautaires Loggia and Bâtir son quartier as well as architects Raymond Labossière.

The most recent development at Technopôle Angus is an eco-district, which the SDA describes as an “urban village” mixing retail, office and multifamily uses. It is located across from Jean-Duceppe Park and 25% of its area will feature green spaces, including two public squares, an urban woodland and sustainable walking trails.

Buildings will be linked by an energy loop that recycles HVAC between the office and residential components of the development. “The goal of the loop is to discharge the overflow of hot and cold air produced by buildings. It performs well since the hours of operation and peak times in residential units and offices are different,” explained Hudon-Huot. The loop reduces the energy consumption of the buildings by approximately 40% and also lowers greenhouse gas emissions.

Additionally, 95% of rainwater in the eco-district’s retention basins is recycled and reused for landscaping and other applications. The layout plan was created by Provencher Roy in partnership with landscape architects NIPPAYSAGE.

Bilingual private school Giant Steps Autism Centre, for students on the autism spectrum between the ages of 4 and 21, will move from Montreal-West to Technopôle Angus and is expected to open its doors during Summer 2023. Costing almost CA$50 million (US$36,353,060), the project will also integrate an adult education center, a resource center and an autism spectrum disorder research center.

Six commercial properties are also planned to be built by 2027. Further adding to the diversity of the neighborhood, SDA is focused on finding anchor tenants in the biotechnology and life sciences sectors for these new properties.

Dubbed the Innovation Zone, the initiative is aimed at driving development “in the biotechnology industry to ensure available treatments are accessible,” according to the Technopôle Angus website.

Montreal currently has a deficit of laboratory space estimated at more than 2 million square feet, said Hudon-Huot. Technopôle Angus represents “an opportunity to roll out laboratories in a central location,” as well as in a mixed-use neighborhood, she said.

SDA develops its properties with a focus on balancing the residential, retail and office components. Because of its not-for-profit status, SDA can offer more flexible terms to its tenants, even helping them to create a new tailor-made building, as is the case with LG2. “We are not part of a huge multinational structure, so each project can be adapted to the clients’ needs,” explained Hudon-Huot. “For us, what’s important is not only the diversity of uses, but the diversity within these uses.”

This emphasis on bringing together a broad variety of retail tenants has been a feature of the project since its inception. The retail leasing strategy brings together complementary retail uses like a coffee shop and a bakery rather than competing uses like two coffee shops. This variation offers some security for retailers who set up shop at Technopôle Angus because their business segment is protected. “We won’t duplicate the offer,” added Hudon-Huot. “We will try to find good complementary options, so while there is a Pizzeria NO.900, we won’t open another pizzeria next door.”

That diversity might be why, unlike other similar developments, Technopôle Angus was not particularly affected by the pandemic. “The property portfolio is 98% to 99% leased, which is very different from what is happening downtown,” said Florent Dubois, advisor in rental and residential development at SDA.

The SDA also requires that all retail tenants at Technopôle Angus hail from Quebec. Some members of the current retail roster include a restaurant, Hoogan et Beaufort; a bakery, Mamie Clafoutis; a gym, Locomotion; and a spa, Escale Santé.

A microbrewery, La Chope Angus, and a convenience store, Toutes les choses parfaites, recently opened their doors in Cité médicale Angus, a large white building on William-Tremblay Street. This structure also houses a medical clinic with a variety of services, including seven operating rooms from Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital.

Since the project is located near the center of Montreal, accessibility to public transport is crucial. Prefontaine metro station, on the green line, is a short walk away, and many bus lines, like 29 Rachel and 25 Angus, are also close by. For active transit, there are BIXI bike-sharing stations, as well as indoor and outdoor bicycle racks inside the buildings. Two bicycle paths, one along Molson Street and the other on Rachel Street, allow for safe bicycle rides to and from the development.

Technopôle Angus received the LEED-ND v4 Platinum certification, which recognizes outstanding sustainable design at the neighborhood level. For the upcoming buildings and outdoor areas, the SDA team and architects Provencher Roy are working towards carbon neutrality and decarbonizing the site.

Laurent Lévesque, general manager and co-founder of student housing developer UTILE, said that the proximity of Technopôle Angus to outdoor spaces is a major attribute. “One of the greatest things about the neighborhood is that we are facing a public square and a park, so people have access to outdoor space,” he said. “We are in a mixed-use neighborhood where people can access many services at walking distance. It’s attractive for the quality of life that we can offer our tenants.”