The Montreal baseball group might do everything to calm things down, and behind the scenes, the Bronfman clan is busy further developing the baseball stadium construction project.
In the past few days, Newspaper I got site plans for a future stadium to be built in the target industrial area in the Point Saint Charles neighborhood, known as Wellington Basin.
The plans were drawn up by Alberta engineering consultancy Stantec, and show the scale of the upcoming project, the direction of the 440,000-square-foot stadium, the exact location it will be built on, and the land and buildings likely to be used for expropriation.
Among them, no doubt, the massive multifunctional Loto-Québec Center, in front of the Costco warehouse on Bridge Street, appears to be among the most at risk.
Those plans, signed by Stantec, are dated April 27, 2021, indicating that far from dormancy, the Bronfman clan’s-led professional baseball team project continued to function well this past spring, while the county was just beginning to dismantle it.
Radio Silence of the Parties
Stantec’s senior management has not responded to our numerous interview requests in Montreal and at its head office in Edmonton, over the past few days.
For the record, Albertan bought the remains of Dessau in 2014, whose reputation was seriously damaged in the wake of the Charbonneau Commission.
But an independent source working within the consulting firm confirmed to magazine That this plan, which bears Stantec’s signature, clearly reflects part of the work the professionals have done on the Montreal stadium profile.
The same silence from Claridge, the investment firm of Stephen Bronfman, the son of a Montreal billionaire and ex-Expos shareholder, Charles Bronfman. The company’s CEO, Pierre Boivin, did not respond to our request for an interview to discuss the plans.
Finally, the Baseball Montreal Group (GBM) did not wish to discuss the plans obtained or confirm that it had given an engineering mandate to Stantec to produce these site plans.
Discussions continue
Shortly after the Le Journal contact, GBM issued a four-sentence press release, in which it indicated that it would continue to “work on developing the Sister Cities Project” with Tampa Bay, as well as with several representatives from among other – constituencies Architectural and economic development.
“We must continue our approach rigorously so that we can share a comprehensive and comprehensive vision that will garner support from the community,” said Stephen Bronfman. The latter took the opportunity to deny the information that an announcement by the promoters was scheduled for the day after the municipal elections in Montreal. “The project is not expected to be announced” on November 7, “or in the following days or weeks,” the statement said.
The site chosen, known as the Wellington Basin, is a vast industrial and commercial area in Pointe Saint Charles, surrounded by the Lachaine Canal and railroad. Thousands of passengers cross it in the evening and morning to reach the Victoria Bridge, which connects Montreal and the South Shore.
According to Stantec’s plans, the massive Loto-Québec multi-function center and 350,000-square-foot multi-level car park, in front of a Costco store on Bridge Street, appears to be at risk of expropriation. The same is true for a portion of the facilities of Canada’s largest grain and flour producer, the P&H Milling Group, whose grain elevators and warehouses lie at the end of Little Oak Street, which are also in danger of disappearing under the future stadium.
It is said that the construction costs of the latter may exceed one billion dollars. Quebec is studying the possibility of contributing to the project.
– In collaboration with Jean-Louis Fortin
