After years of uncertainty on one of Montreal's most prized and largest empty lots, there finally seems to be something big coming. On January 19, it was revealed that local developer Broccolini had completed Montreal's biggest land purchase ever, acquiring a 135,000 square feet lot at a cost of $100 million.

Location of the site at the intersection of Robert-Bourassa Boulevard and Saint-Jacques Street, image retrieved from Google Maps

The lot is located at the intersection of two downtown Montreal thoroughfares, Robert-Bourassa Boulevard and Saint-Jacques Street, formerly known as Montreal's financial district.

"It's a gigantic transaction. In terms of value, this has never been seen before," told Noémie Lefebvre, main real estate council at Altus, to La Presse. The lot formerly belonged to developer Magil Laurentienne, who pitched a few projects that never got past the planning stage, the last of which consisted of two office towers culminating at 31 and 19 floors, respectively.

To top things off, on January 23, National Bank announced the construction of its new head office on a portion the newly purchased site, in partnership with Broccolini. According to La Presse, the new office tower, which would be solely occupied by the bank, will consist of 36 floors and be completed by 2022 at a cost of $500 million, with a construction start next spring. Against average floor heights for modern office buildings, this would place the tower at over 160 meters, and make it the tallest office building built in Montreal since the 199-metre-tall 1250 René-Lévesque in 1992. 

Former proposal by Magil Laurentienne for the lost, image via Magil Laurentienne

"We are doing it to improve our office space, to make it collaborative, modern and technological. It's really for retention and recruitment of employees," said National Bank CEO Louis Vachon to La Presse. Vachon also declared that the bank's current head office at 600 de la Gauchetière would be put up for sale.

An official rendering has yet to be published, but the architectural design is expected to be finalized over the coming months through an invited design competition. With the new office building to occupy 85,000 of the total 135,000 square feet, Broccolini also plans to put up an additional tower on the lot.

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