A private Montreal investor has paid $39 million to buy a 21-storey apartment tower in downtown Montreal that served as an apartment hotel until the pandemic.

Built in 1970 as an apartment building, the 151-unit La Tour Belvedere at 2175 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W., near Atwater Ave., was transformed into a short-term rental in the late 1990s. It had maintained that model until the COVID-19 pandemic virtually eliminated travel and the apartment hotel market.

Starting in 2021, units were converted back into apartments with traditional leases according to Mark Sinnett, principal, executive vice-president and head capital markets, Quebec at Avison Young, the brokerage that handled the transaction.

“When we took it to market in late 2025 it was effectively as a multifamily with mostly studios and one-bedrooms with some furnished units,” he told RENX during an interview at this week's Montreal Real Estate Forum.

“There would still be key card swipes on every door. It still had a reception that was more like a hotel reception.”

Longtime local ownership group

La Tour Belvedere was owned for more than 30 years by a consortium of private local investors, including the Luger Group, he said. It’s located near the Atwater metro station, Concordia University and Dawson College in downtown’s Shaughnessy Village area.

“Our positioning of the asset when we took it to market was really to demonstrate that someone could really finish the conversion by turning it into a boutique downtown 21-storey apartment building, clearly demonstrating that with renovations and with a proper apartment program, there was a lot of opportunity.”

The buyer is a private Montrealer who owns about 800 units, including a large portfolio of three-bedroom townhomes in suburbs in the West Island of Montreal and Greenfield Park on the South Shore. 

Family-style townhome rentals “are very unique and very highly sought,” Sinnett said, noting rentals with backyards are rare. “This is his first foray into the urban, high-rise environment.” 

Avison Young took the property to market last September and took bids in late October. The deal became firm in February.

Per-unit price of $258,000

The property attracted strong interest due to its downtown location, proximity to major institutions, and value-add repositioning potential. The transaction price represents a per unit cost of $258,000. 

Most of the one-year leases in the building are held by students and young professionals. The building housed many temporary foreign workers until the federal government tightened immigration rules.

Twenty units are currently vacant, representing a 12 per cent vacancy. The purchaser intends to renovate the vacant units.

The city of Montreal assesses the 102,354 square foot property at $11.693 million.

Sinnett noted the building, like much of Montreal’s real estate, was built around the 1976 Olympic Games which were held in the city. Most building systems have a useful life of 50 years or less so, while the building’s elevators, hallways and underground parking are in good shape, the front balconies and brick and concrete must be redone. 

La Tour Belvedere “would have been a very high-end product in the '70s and there’s still a lot of that character in the building but it’s 50 years later, so I think it needs a little TLC to get back,” Sinnett said. “There really is an opportunity here for someone to take this and bring it back to a much more elevated (level) by putting in capital. It is a value-add.” 

Multifamily still preferred Montreal asset class

Meanwhile, a new report by Roberto D’Abate, vice-president of financing at commercial real estate lender Peakhill Capital, finds multifamily remains the preferred asset class in Montreal’s commercial real estate market, representing 49 per cent of total investment volume in 2025. Investors are seeking comparably safer asset classes in resilient rental markets, D’Abate said.

However, vacancy rates are expected to rise to 3.5 per cent this year as deliveries remain elevated and rental demand works through existing supply, the report states.

Still, rent prices have continued to rise in Montreal, even for older, lower-cost units, he said.

Given that more than 63 per cent of Montreal residents are renters, almost twice the national average, the city’s structural demand remains intact, the report notes.