Trudel Corp. will invest $1.5 billion to “build a city within a city” as part of a project to reshape the 1960s-era Fleur de lys shopping centre in the Vanier borough of Quebec City.

The project, which will roll out over seven to 10 years, will include 3,500 residential rental units, 700,000 square feet of commercial space, 300,000 square feet of office space, a 150-room hotel, a university campus, parks and green spaces.

“The magic word at Fleur de lys is mixity,” Jonathan Trudel, executive vice-president and founder of Trudel Corp., told RENX.

“There is nothing comparable in Quebec to our project,” he said, noting the “enormous” three million-square-foot site is much larger than several other shopping centre densification projects.

Trudel says Trudel Corp. is the only investor in the project, for which Desjardins is providing financing. The Quebec government-owned Investissement Québec invested $43 million last year into Trudel Corp.

“We’re providing a good return (to taxpayers),” Trudel said.

Trudel and his brother William, president, CEO and co-founder of Trudel Corp., acquired the shopping centre in 2018. Opened in 1963, “it was built in another era when consumer habits were not the same as today’s,” Jonathan Trudel said.

While people used to be willing to travel long distances to obtain their goods, people today want products and services much closer to home.

Plans for the Fleur de lys site

The first of several planned residential towers is now under construction, a 10-to-12 storey building with 480 units that will be ready for move-in at the beginning of 2025. The residential towers will have ground-floor retail.

Units will range from 500-square-foot studios to three-bedroom units of more than 1,500 square feet. There will be 78 affordable units and 10 per cent of the units will be adapted for disabled persons.

Trudel Corp. will manage the rental units through its residential management branch. “We’ll be the builders, operators and managers of the site,” according to Jonathan Trudel. 

Trudel Corp. is in “very advanced” discussions with a hotel banner whose name should be announced in the fall. Construction of the hotel should begin once the banner is confirmed.

About 100,000 square feet of the planned 300,000 square feet of office space is rented. One of the tenants is architectural firm Groupe A\Annexe U, which is working on the Fleur de lys project.

Plans also include an entertainment component at Fleurs de lys. It includes Préski, the first indoor sliding centre in Quebec for downhill skiers of all levels, which opened this month.

The site is also home to the 6,000-student Quebec City campus of the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR). 

There will also be a nearly 108,000-square-foot public park and more than 2,500 newly planted trees. 

In addition, Trudel Corp. has acquired two parcels of land adjoining Fleur de lys, currently serving as a parking lot and snow dump site, that could accommodate an additional 1,000 housing units. 

Extensive research behind the project

When Trudel Corp. bought Fleur de lys, the company organized a trip with architects and urban planners to see 30 projects in Mississauga, Toronto, Vancouver and Portland, Ore., that have changed vocations.

“We saw projects that have worked really well and projects that haven’t worked as well,” Jonathan Trudel said. “We were inspired by best practices.”  

Trudel Corp. started demolition work on part of the mall two years ago and temporarily moved 25 retailers. The mall will continue to operate for the duration of construction and tenants will be moved as needed in a musical chairs-style operation.

“No tenant will be evicted due to the work,” he said. “All commercial tenants that want to stay can stay.”

Trudel says when the company bought Fleur de lys in 2018, it committed to consult with area residents to understand their concerns.

The company undertook a “vast” consultation process involving 2,500 residents, 60 community groups, 70 retailers in Fleur de lys and the Vanier neighbourhood, and 15 major institutions.

As a result, the Fleur de lys project benefits from an extremely strong social acceptance, Jonathan Trudel said, noting there was no opposition to zoning changes at the site.

Public sentiment influenced design

Several suggestions from the public consultations were integrated into the project, including a decision not to demolish the nearly 200,000-square-foot building in the mall that housed a Sears store.

Jonathan Trudel said people found the architecture of the building was of importance and had sentimental feelings about the old store, with memories of parents meeting there, grandparents working, or having breakfast with an aunt in the restaurant.

Residents also said a school of higher education was lacking in the neighbourhood. 

That led to discussions with UQTR to house its Quebec City campus in the former Sears store. “It’s an excellent result that came directly from the public,” Jonathan Trudel said.

Trudel Corp. is carrying out similar consultations for potential redevelopments of its two other Quebec City-area shopping centre properties which it acquired in 2019, Galeries Charlesbourg and Place des Quatre-Bourgeois, and has spoken to approximately 3,000 people about each project.

Founded by William Trudel with about $1,500 in the early 2000s, Trudel Corp.’s primary objective is to build a real estate portfolio worth more than $3 billion by 2030.