Who knew that posh Westmount would become home to one of the city's nastiest blights?
The long stretch of buildings on St. Catherine Street just west of Atwater, across from Alexis Nihon Plaza has been partially demolished and the rest left to fall apart, as nets guard pedestrians from falling bricks.
But something might be in the works.
The office of the property owner of the vacant spot next to the old McDonald's building, when contacted today, said a sorta suspiciously formal "we have no information to share at this time about the future of the land."
Those developers had originally promised an 11-storey mixed use condo thingy at that spot to be completed by the end of 2018 but it still sits as an empty hole.
As for the other project, the lengthy adjacent structure was meant to be razed and replaced by a medicine and science center for Dawson College but Premier Francois Legault axed the funding for that project - not for reasons of budgetary responsibility, as he's spending crazy money on frivolous and counterproductive projects.
Westmount appears to be on the verge of considering a different project as one councillor told Coolopolis that he cannot "provide any information on any project that has not already been made public by Westmount council."
The longtime McDonald's restaurant at the corner has been recently sold.
The lengthy dilapidated structure with its netting for falling bricks is currently owned by Fiducie Familiale Tehrani, whose patriarch has a long history of legal issues.
A possible future development could stretch from Atwater - including the old McDonald's - right through to the unambitious low-rise Staples office supply store and its adjacent parking lot, which measure something like 110 meters by 33 meters or so, that's 3630 square meters.
The project would be staggeringly large and profoundly change that landscape.
Here at Coolopolis we like it when they build 'em big. A project of say, 10 storeys, could house hundreds and form a gentrified pincer movement along with the recent Childrens Hospital condo projects against the decay and dilapidation in the area.