Despite economic uncertainty, the heart of the city continues to change and evolve.
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The rise of telecommuting and the housing crisis are making it difficult to maintain the vibrancy of the city center, but now a new real estate project is emerging in Montreal.
Devimco Group’s Maestria project is currently building two huge towers connected by a pedestrian bridge, and our host Simon Philibert visited the impressive construction site.
“Maestria is huge,” says Marco Fontaine, vice president of development and marketing at Devimco. “The first 26 floors will be residential, then it will be condominiums. This makes it one of the largest, if not the largest, real estate project in Canada.”
The project includes two towers of fifty-eight and sixty-one floors, connected by a walkway.
Even though Montreal’s real estate market stabilized in August, prices remain high for buyers.
“Rentals in Maestria are currently going very well, we have achieved twice as much of the goal we had set ourselves,” explains Mr. Fontaine. “At the condo level, we are 87% sold.”
Rising interest rates and material costs also impact property developers.
“Currently we are nearing the end of construction, but for new projects we have to work very hard because when we run our financial simulation it is more difficult to predict profitability,” explains the vice president of development and marketing. “We have projects that will soon see the light of day, but it is more difficult than it was.”