Golf course, industry buttress Montreal’s Bois-Franc

Deep pockets of developer keep town, built on the site of a former airport, moving forward. Bombardier, the big Canadian manufacturer of trains, planes, and watercraft, has found a way to keep its 500-acre Bois-Franc development in Montreal financially afloat: A large portion of the land has been turned into a public golf course, and industrial buildings are being constructed on another part of the property. With more than 1,500 houses and apartments built since 1994, Bois-Franc endured a severe national recession in the mid-1990s and its finances have more recently spurred Bombardier to settle on ways of reducing the burden of long-term development. “If it hadn’t been for Bombardier and the deep pockets we have, we would have been under two or three times,” A.N. (Fred) Corriveau, president of Bombardier Inc. Real Estate Services, candidly admits. In June, 8.2 million square feet of the site in the formerly independent City of St. Laurent, now part of a consolidated City of Montreal, began operation as a high-end public golf course named Le Challenger. Building a public golf course (at a cost of $11.5 million Canadian) provided the company with tax advantages, Corriveau explains. “It’s a big savings for us.” In return for creating the golf course, the developer received permission to erect a million square feet of industrial buildings on a portion of the property that wasn’t ideal for residences, he says. Bois-Franc occupies the site of an airport and an aircraft parts manufacturing plant in the middle of the island of Montreal, a 15-minute car trip from downtown. public-facing golf course The golf course increases the value of the abutting land by 10 to 15 percent and enables builders to sell homes about 20 percent faster. “There is no housing backing onto the golf course,” Corriveau emphasizes. The course has streets along its perimeter, with houses rising on the opposite side of the street, facing the green turf – an arrangement popular in 1920s developments such as Coral Gables in Florida. If at some future point the golf course is converted into a building site, it could accommodate 2,800 housing units, according to Corriveau. Four years ago, projections called for Bois-Franc to eventually have 8,000 dwellings. Despite the reduction in residential plans, the first housing phase, containing 1,220 units, has sold out, and a second phase, containing 1,600 units, is under construction. “We should average about 200 units a year for the next five years,” Corriveau estimates. More than 60 percent of the housing consists of townhouses, selling for $200,000 to $350,000 Canadian ($130,000 to $230,000 US). Semi-detached houses sell for $400,000 to $500,000, and detached houses range from $600,000 to $1 million, reflecting escalation in Montreal real estate prices in recent years. More than 250 apartments have been built, and 275 retirement units are under construction. Corriveau takes pride on insisting that houses be built of clay brick on all four sides and on requiring garages in their basements. “I don’t like to see cars parked in front of a house,” he says. “I’m not saying to you that it’s been a success,” he acknowledges. “A lot of people park on the street.” Squares patterned on Savannah James Oglethorpe’s 1733 plan for Savannah, Georgia, has exerted an influence on Bois-Franc, where townhouses close to the streets face squares of about 40,000 square feet, much as in Savannah’s historic district. “We’ve done three squares. There will be a total of five in the first two phases,” Corriveau says, adding, “they’re not the most profitable, but I love it.” Daniel Arbour and Associates of Montreal planned the development. Large sums have been spent building four lakes, planting 20,000 trees, and making other environmental enhancements. To create a gathering place, the developer built the Grand Place, an $8 million center made up of three buildings of about 12,000 square feet each, containing a coffee shop, dry cleaner, hairdresser, and other convenience retail on the ground floor and offices and other services above. A clubhouse is in one building, and a fourth building is planned. The housing is denser than is usual in Canadian suburban development, and the community is served by highways, buses, Metro, and commuter trains. Corriveau clearly regards Bois-Franc as something of a personal project. “It’s become more of a hobby to the chairman and me. We’re the ones marketing the project and doing the quality control.”