How Avenir Properties Is Revitalizing Montreal's Iconic Belgo Building Without Losing Its Cultural Identity

We had a great recipe in Chabonelle, the building 1 Chabonelle.

We acquired this building in 2019.

Much bigger, larger building, around 650,000 square feet with, again, about a third vacancy when we acquired the building.

And then COVID hit about, I don't know, under 12 months later.

But we were able to pivot and completely fill that building by creating an ecosystem of businesses that has synergy together.

So you're talking about Clickspace, so small businesses, 3PL, logistics, storage, some manufacturers, some...

some atelier, we created a nice office space at reasonable prices, we had a rooftop terrace, all that kind of services in order for building to create the cycle system of amenities.

Exactly.

Hello, and welcome back to the Espace Montréal podcast, a show dedicated to commercial real estate right here in Montreal.

And today, it's a pleasure to have Mr. Frédéric Lisotte, the vice president of leasing at Avenir Properties.

Hi, Frédéric.

Welcome to the show.

Hi, Axel.

Thank you for inviting me on the show today.

It's a real pleasure.

Well, I'm glad you're here.

We have lots to talk about.

Before I jump into it, thank you for sharing this episode with a friend, a colleague who could benefit from this conversation.

You know that commercial real estate is a lot about local knowledge, and here we strive to share as much as we can about the Montreal and the greater Montreal market.

So share this with a friend, and if you have any questions, comments, send us a note, and we try to respond to everything that we get.

Now, Frédéric...

It was announced a couple weeks ago that Avnia Properties closed on a large property downtown.

We're going to get into that.

But before we do, I just want to know a little bit more about yourself.