Development site at 1455 De La Montagne St., Montreal (Image courtesy of CBRE)

Carttera has acquired a prime downtown Montreal site at 1455 De La Montagne St. which will mark its third development on the thoroughfare.

“We think it’s probably one of the best, if not the best, locations in the whole city,” Carttera founding partner Jim Tadeson told RENX. “We’ve had great success on De La Montagne.”

The two earlier projects are: L’Avenue, a building with 393 residential units, 84,000 square feet of office space and 34,000 square feet of retail that was developed with Broccolini and occupied in 2017; and Arbora Residences, a two-phase development with 434 rental and condominium units in three buildings being built in partnership with Oxford Properties.

Thursday’s latest acquisition, for $48.5 million from 630745 Ontario, is a 31,750-square-foot surface parking lot with flexible mixed-use zoning on the corner of De La Montagne and De Maisonneuve Boulevard West.

The site is near the Vogue Hotel Montreal Downtown, the new Four Seasons Hotel Montreal and high-end retail.

“It’s zoned for up to 203,000 square feet of density, which we’re going to take advantage of,” said Tadeson. “Our vision for the site is a condominium project with some retail.”

Since there is no demolition required and no heritage issues to contend with, Toronto-based Carttera plans to move ahead quickly with the luxury project.

It’s in the concept design phase and Tadeson said it could take six months or more before it’s prepared to make a submission to the city.

CBRE executed the deal

The transaction was executed by Scott Speirs, executive vice-president of CBRE’s national investment team, and CBRE senior associate Guillaume Jacob.

“1455 De La Montagne represents one of the last remaining vacant lots in downtown Montreal and one of the premier development sites in the country,” Speirs told RENX.

“The demand for the property was exceptional despite COVID, which is a testament to the outstanding quality of the site and the continued resurgence of Montreal.”

A deep pool of potential purchasers included a mix of institutional investors and local developers, according to Speirs.

“I think we won it on price and I think we also won it on certainty of execution that we were actually going to close,” said Tadeson.

“We have a proven track record not only in Montreal but here in Toronto. We have financial strength to be able to be not conditional on financing.”

240 Markland Drive acquisition

Carttera also acquired 240 Markland Dr. in Etobicoke in August for just over $50 million.

The 3.25-acre site across the street from Markland Wood Golf Club includes an existing 10-storey, 113-unit apartment building and is Local Planning Appeal Tribunal-approved to develop an additional 190,000 square feet of residential space.

“The original scheme was to do it as a condo, but we’ve rethought that and now see it as more of a rental site, so we’re going to build it as a rental,” said Tadeson.

“It will be a symbiotic project between the existing building and the new one.

“We’re also going to invest about $6 million into the existing building to improve it and make it more environmentally friendly and cosmetically friendly.

“The previous owner had owned it for decades and hardly put any money into it, so we’re going to bring it up to institutional standards since we plan on holding it long-term.”

Carttera will reposition the existing building before starting on the new one.

Tadeson said Carttera is “always in the market to buy, and we have offers out on a couple of other projects right now. We’re active players in the market and always are.

“Hopefully we can announce other things soon since we’re definitely working on more — not only residential, but we also do industrial and office.”