This non -profit organization was born in 1995 around the development of the Angus technopole, a revitalization project carried out in an old industrial zone in the Rosemont district of Montreal. SDA has since deployed projects elsewhere in Quebec.
The Sherbrookoise agreement provides for exchanges between the parties and an exclusivity of 18 months, without “binding them definitively”. If the project is materialized, the city could “yield or sell” the land in SDA to deploy a “mixed living environment” at first north of the bridge of the Grandes-Fourches, on the site of the old Abénaquis bingo and up to the new roundabout.
A second phase is also identified south of the bridge to possibly operate the La Grenouillère and Webster parking lots.
Several elected officials shared an enthusiasm to go and test this partnership with the Angus development company, mainly due to the vision put forward in their projects.
“They have a vision, and a mission too, to create living areas. […] They will commit to revitalize the banks. They are able to guarantee us an affordability, “said a Latarte-Lavoie Laure openly” wrapped “.
It is “extremely rare” as a model, perhaps even unique, added the mayor Évelyne Beaudin, especially considering that they have “proven themselves” through several projects “here even in Quebec in a municipal context which is akin to ours”.
She admits to having been marked by her past visit to their project in Montreal and that the city teams have since been in contact with the Angus development company.
Advisor Danielle Berthold wished a “network” with the will expressed by the Museum of Fine Arts of Sherbrooke to move in the sector, especially as a cultural vocation would be completely in this project, which has the merit of “getting out of the box”, she greeted in passing.
Among the concerns, advisor Marc Denault clearly ruled that the city should not take charge of possible cost -effects related to decontamination. These fears are far from theoretical if we trust previous experiences in decontamination in the immediate vicinity.
Considering the value and efforts made by the city on these terrains, the Hélène Dauphinais advisor would have preferred to go and test the real estate market rather than “offer it to a group without playing the competition”.
She also believes that the arrival of additional sales premises “will harm the rest of the city center”, where a vacancy of 25 % is already found for this type of offer.
For Geneviève La Roche, the partnership, on the contrary, offers “the possibility of working in the way you want” to manage to create “environments that meet the needs of the population”, which a simple sale to the most offender could not have guaranteed.
With certain doubts, especially with regard to the second phase, Paul Gingues has not opposed, precisely because the “city only undertakes a collaboration” for the moment, he shared.
