City Councillor Slams Controversial Montreal Mega Mall Plan

In a Gazette op-ed yesterday, Projet Montréal's city councillor for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce used strong language to denounce the Quinze40 mega mall plan slated for the southwest corner of Highways 15 and 40: "This may sound alarmist, but evidence from cities like Detroit, and memories of hard economic times in Montreal in the 1990s, show how quickly commercial decline can start and spread. And the last thing Montreal needs is less dynamic shopping streets, less desirable neighbourhoods and a shrinking tax base."

Peter McQueen added that with the advent of a project like Quinze40 "we would drive easily to a new mall with the latest U.S. retailers and dining and entertainment trend[s] — at least for the next 20 years until a new mall concept comes along and the Quinze40 suffers the same fate as Cavendish Mall and Decarie Square."

ICYMI, the proposal by South Shore developer Carbonleo to clone Brossard's behemoth Quartier DIX30 on 280,000 square metres of Town of Mount Royal land was also denounced by Plateau-Mont-Royal mayor Luc Ferrandez. TMR mayor Philippe Roy, however, supports the development: "It's excellent news not only for [TMR], but for the whole region. A major investment like this is only good news."