Place Gare Viger, Old Montréal.

The Site

The Château Viger was built in 1898 as the Hôtel Place Viger and railway station, designed by Bruce Price — the architect behind Château Frontenac and the Banff Springs Hotel. Rail operations ended in 1911, the hotel closed in 1935, and the City of Montréal took ownership in 1950. The property was acquired by Habitus and its majority equity partners in 2012 and restoration began shortly after.

The mandate: give a century-old landmark a working future as a full mixed-use campus — office, residential, hotel, and retail — by celebrating the history of the site.

The Role

Habitus directed the development on behalf of the ownership group, working alongside architect Provencher_Roy and general contractor Magil Construction, through design, entitlement, construction, and lease-up across each phase of the project.

The Program

Office space in the restored Château plus a new 147,000 sq ft office tower; 321 residential apartments; the first Hyatt Centric hotel in Canada at 177 rooms; and ground-floor retail and dining built around a shared interior courtyard and pedestrian walkways.

Outcome

Lightspeed became the first tenant in the restored Château in 2015 — the space was later named "Most Beautiful Tech Office of the Year" by Fast Company. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada and Sony Canada joined as subsequent office tenants. Habitus successfully drove the sale of all of the office components in the project to Allied REIT.