Montreal's Peel Basin revitalization to proceed even without baseball stadium
09 Feb 2022
Major League’s Baseball proposed return to Montreal might seemingly be dead, but efforts to revitalize the Peel Basin area — which would have housed a brand new stadium — remain very much alive.
MLB’s executive council shot down the Tampa Bay Rays’ so-called “Sister City” plan to play half its home games in Montreal starting in a few years, team owner Stu Sternberg said Thursday. Sternberg and his Montreal partner, Claridge Inc. executive chairman Stephen Bronfman, both said they weren’t exactly sure why MLB rejected the concept.
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Since joining forces with Sternberg two and a half years ago, Bronfman has often discussed the idea of building a ballpark on the 40-acre plot of land near the Bonaventure Expressway known as the Peel Basin. The investor, whose father, Charles, was the original owner of the Montreal Expos, told reporters Thursday he would need to “let the dust settle” before considering possible next steps.
“Does the end of the baseball stadium project threaten the redevelopment of the Peel Basin? I don’t think so,” Michel Leblanc, head of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, said in an interview. “This is a site that’s so well located that there are inevitably going to be initiatives. Part of the stadium project included a plan to attract green technology companies to the area, and odds are that this will happen regardless of the stadium’s fate.”
The Peel Basin is among the areas being considered to host one of the new “Innovation Zones” that Quebec Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon is looking to approve this year. Innovation zones are designed to facilitate co-operation between businesses and universities.
While disappointed with Thursday’s news, Mayor Valérie Plante indicated her administration will pursue alternate uses for the land that had been earmarked for the stadium project.
“As mayor, I must take note of MLB’s decision and continue planning for the highly strategic area of the Peel Basin, which cannot wait any longer to accommodate the housing and businesses we need for the development of our city,” Plante said in an emailed statement shared by her office. “Our administration intends to work with the Canada Lands Co. and the federal government so that the redevelopment of the sector takes into account the needs of the population. Montreal is a baseball city and I am confident that it is only a postponement.”
Montreal-based real-estate developer Devimco Immobilier also said it remains committed to the Peel Basin area.
“We’ve always said that Devimco intends to carry out a multi-functional real estate project in the Peel Basin, with or without a baseball stadium,” spokesman André Bouthillier said via email.
The proposed stadium “was a community project,” Bronfman said Thursday during a Zoom press conference. “It was a grandiose project that included a sports component. I’m not a developer, I’m not Ivanhoé Cambridge. I don’t know what’s going to happen. One day I would really like to share the vision. Montrealers should see the beauty that we had. I’d like to share these images because they were strong.”
The Peel Basin “was the perfect site for a baseball stadium because it’s so close to downtown,” Leblanc said. “The sad part is, if Montreal does manage to get a baseball franchise in five or 10 years, the land will no longer be available. Montreal’s economy is continuing to grow, and there will be other investors.”
