Griffintown

The fight to keep Devimco from turning Griffintown in Montreal into a bland developers nightmare continues.

The proposed mega-development planned for Griffintown would rob the area of its unique character and turn it into another generic suburban development, a residents group has warned.

Chris Gobeil, a Griffintown resident and part of the committee for sustainable development in Griffintown, said the city should take the time to make a proper plan for the site rather than allowing one company, Devimco, to dictate what the area should look like.

"I can't say enough that I am totally in favour of redevelopment, but this plan of Devimco's just doesn't make any sense to me," Gobeil said.

The group held a brainstorming session last night to come up with alternative plans for the development to counter the Devimco project.

Of course Devimco has it's defenders...

"I think there is an advantage for one person to look over the whole project to make sure there is cohesiveness throughout, so you don't have one building with red bricks and a building next door with pink bricks"

Read more here. Read about a rather suspicious plan for a private U.S. hospital in the area here.

Hummmm...

Seems they see Griffintown as already a done deal...

Development of Griffintown is inevitable, Hakim [one of the developers] said.

"The downtown core has to expand and the only place it can expand is farther south," he said.

"This will become the new downtown core."