It may not be a big breadwinner, but the most prominent office-to-residential conversion in downtown Montreal was worth the investment, says George Armoyan Jr., developer of the 211-unit Le Samuel.

The building at 1245 Sherbrooke St. W., at the corner of de la Montagne St., was completed in 1962 and served as the headquarters of the Standard Life Assurance Company. It stood vacant for seven years until the Armoyan Group of Companies purchased it in June 2023.

“Financially, it’s not going to be our highest return on a project but there’s a lot of intangibles with this project that make it definitely worth it,” Armoyan said. He cited lessons learned for future conversions, noting “the first one is always going to be the hardest.” 

The cost for the conversion was about the same as building a new multifamily building from scratch, he said.

Armoyan spoke about the conversion of the building into rentals at the Quebec Apartment Investment Conference, held in Montreal in February.

"Incredible" Golden Square Mile location

“It’s a legacy asset,” Armoyan said, noting the Halifax-based company has put its Quebec office on the second floor. “We want to have it in the family. We saw it and we thought this will be a good project.”

The building has an “incredible” location in the Golden Square Mile, across from the Ritz Carlton Hotel. After touring the property, “We said ‘It’s the kind of property we want to own.’”

Armoyan, who is also vice-president of G2S2 Capital, noted the building’s 12,500-square-foot floor plate mirrors what would be seen in a new build. Its rectangular configuration maximizes light, and there are nine-foot ceilings.

It also benefitted from having a steel frame and beams with holes in them through which mechanical systems could be run. In addition, there were no columns in the middle of the floor plate. The exterior pink granite was in excellent condition.

“It had all the elements that made this a good candidate for conversion.”

While the city does not allow balconies on Sherbrooke St. downtown, units are larger than average, Armoyan noted.

Leasing pace accelerates

The building is currently one-third leased, but leasing demand is starting to pick up, as the building will be completed in March, he said. Le Samuel’s mature clientele “don’t want to live in a construction site. But “we’re seeing a lot of positive absorption now.”

One-third of the luxury units are leased, and incentives of one-month free rent and no rent increase for 24 months are being offered to tenants.

Founded in 1982 by Armoyan’s father George, the company has also done hotel-to-apartment conversions in London, Ont. and Saint John, N.B.

In Montreal, the company built Le George, a 732-unit apartment building at 1001 Lucien-L’Allier St., near the Bell Centre that was bought from a previous developer. It was delivered in 2024.

Armoyan recently bought the historic Balfour Building, a 10-storey office building at 3575 Saint-Laurent Blvd. that was built in 1929, and the similarly sized 4410 Saint-Laurent Blvd., both of which are in Montreal’s Plateau Mont-Royal borough.

The company also plans to build 500 to 600 rental units in St-Jovite, near Mont Tremblant.

In Alberta, the company has invested heavily in office space in the past two years, having purchased 4.7 million square feet, mostly in Calgary, from institutions. The buildings are currently being maintained as office spaces. 

Quartier des Lumières

Also at the conference, partners behind two major projects east of downtown Montreal described how they will create two new neighbourhoods within the next 10 years.

The Quartier des Lumières, built around the site of the former Radio-Canada/CBC headquarters west of the Jacques Cartier Bridge, will attempt to rebuild what is “probably downtown’s most destroyed neighbourhood,” said Daniel Arbour, vice-president development for major projects at Groupe Mach.

About 2,000 residents were displaced for the construction of the CBC/Radio-Canada headquarters more than half a century ago.

Quartier des Lumières will see 2,000 residential units, 500 social housing units and 200 affordable units. In addition, Devimco plans to build about 2,000 units on land it bought from Groupe Mach at the edge of the site.

It will also include a 70,000 square foot public space, equivalent in size to Place Jacques Cartier in Old Montreal. 

The former 24-storey Radio-Canada/CBC tower will be maintained and its massive underground space – far larger than the tower itself – will include uses “that you don’t normally see downtown,” namely large surface stores with parking (about 700 spaces).

There will be 215,000 square feet of underground retail space with five or six medium and large surface stores.

Arbour said 250 residential units will be built this year and a new project will be launched every year until 2034.

Quartier Molson

The nearby Quartier Molson, to be built at the site of the former Molson Brewery plant and headquarters, will see the construction of 5,000 residential units.

It will be built by developer Montoni and financial partner, the Fonds immobilier de Solidarité FTQ.

Much of the former plant will be preserved, including the main tower, chimney, clock and Molson sign, said Arnaud Duchêne, director of investments at the Fonds immobilier de Solidarité FTQ. 

The development will provide the public with access to the riverfront. It will also seek LEED and zero carbon building certifications.

Sophie Rousseau-Loiselle, executive director of the Société d’habitation et de developpement de Montréal added that 350 social and affordable units will be built on the site in collaboration with Montoni and the Fonds, in towers of about 20 and 10 storeys.

Decontamination at the site is underway, Duchêne said.