The Rosdev Group is looking to sell Montreal’s Tour Jean-Talon, an office property which could appeal to both owner-occupiers or those looking to convert the 12-storey, 332,248-square-foot mixed-use building to residential use. 

CBRE is marketing the 48-year-old property, which spans an entire city block at 600 Jean-Talon St. E. in the city’s Little Italy area.

Bell was the primary office tenant but its lease expired in March and it vacated to consolidate its operations, leaving more than 250,000 square feet of space available for immediate occupancy.

“They looked internally as to what was ready to be sold and, given the existing vacancy, to lease that up was going to be costly in terms of tenant incentives and leasing commissions,” Nicolas Savoy, an associate with CBRE’s national investment team in Montreal, told RENX about his client's decision to sell.

The Rosdev Group and its affiliates own combined real estate holdings of more than 10 million square feet of gross leasable area, including hotels, industrial, retail, office and assisted living/nursing home properties. 

The buyer pool and what they’d get

“The target here is owner-occupier businesses or education or government uses,” Savoy said of potential Tour Jean-Talon buyers. “On the investor side, I think it's likely going to be a combination of private and developers.”

Tour Jean-Talon’s retail component is anchored by nationally recognized essential-service tenants, including RBC and Couche-Tard, providing a secure and reliable income stream supported by consistent daily traffic.

The building offers direct Metro connectivity from within the building and easy access to two Metro lines and multiple bus routes. It also has 104 parking stalls. 

Tour Jean-Talon’s prominent location is surrounded by established residential and commercial developments, driving strong visibility, steady foot traffic and long-term demand.

Redevelopment and conversion potential

With flexible mixed-use zoning in place, Tour Jean-Talon presents a prime opportunity for value creation through repositioning or redevelopment.

“The main one would be residential, likely apartment,” Savoy said of the potential for conversion. “I don't think people will be converting to condo.

“In and around Little Italy is a strong residential market with not a lot of vacancy, so you could definitely take advantage of those fundamentals and the retail is already there.”

No bid date deadline has been set for the property.

“It’s a great asset in a great location and somebody will definitely do something special with it,” Savoy said.

Two major Montreal office towers for sale

Tour Jean-Talon isn't the only major office property in the city being offered for sale. Cadillac Fairview’s 26-storey, 495,000-square-foot Tour Deloitte at 1190 Avenue des Canadiens-de-Montreal is the other large office building publicly acknowledged as being for sale, but Savoy said he's not able to discuss that property.

Tour Deloitte, completed in 2015, is one of Montreal's premier office properties, with anchor tenants Deloitte and TMX Group. It's certified LEED Platinium CS and is directly connected to the city's subway system via Windsor Station. It's listed as fully leased.

While premium properties in Montreal continue to perform well, some others have struggled. Montreal’s Q2 office vacancy rate was 19.3 per cent, a drop of 30 basis points and the first reduction in nine quarters, according to CBRE’s Q2 2025 Montreal Office report.

In downtown sub-markets, 57.5 per cent of available space was concentrated in 16.5 per cent of the inventory. This means 32 buildings accounted for more than half of the 8.8 million square feet available.

Much of that space is in older or lower quality buildings as many tenants seek high-quality properties to attract and retain talent.

The vacancy rate for AAA buildings was 8.7 per cent and hasn’t been above 10 per cent since Q2 2023. Since there are no new developments under construction, new supply won’t be the solution to this issue in the short term.

“The leasing market in general is getting stronger,” Savoy said. “We're seeing lots of new deals being done downtown and, as the AAA market fills out, there will be kind of a trickle-down effect to other sub-markets.”

Transaction volume is up by about 40 per cent over last year, according to Savoy. He noted there’s an appetite for acquisitions, but it’s deal-by-deal-dependent.