The PwC Montreal offices will go from 1250 René-Lévesque boulevard to Place Ville Marie. This is one of the most important transactions of its kind this year. What can we understand of this news?
Two AAA buildings
The PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) branch located in Canada includes more than 6,500 partners and employees. Its head office is in Toronto, and it has several offices across the country, including three in Quebec: in Montreal, Brossard and the capital.
Infographic the press
PWC moves barely 500 meters.
PWC has just signed a lease concerning an area of 95,500 square feet (8,872 square meters) in Place Ville Marie, just 500 meters from its current offices.
The two buildings concerned by this move are both in aaa category, that is to say that these are office spaces considered to be prestigious.
“We are talking about buildings that are in the two or three most prestigious rounds in downtown Montreal,” said Mathieu Turnier, associate vice-president at Colliers, a company specializing in commercial real estate, which itself has its offices in Place Ville Marie.
The 1250 boul. René-Lévesque, where the PWC offices are currently located, has in particular among its other PSP investment tenants, Air Liquide Canada, as well as the College of Physicians in Quebec. The 47-storey building is located near S2quare Dorchester and the Bell Center, between the Bonaventure and Lucien-lier metro stations.
Photo David Boily, Archives La Presse
The 1250 Boulevard René-Lévesque is among its tenants investments PSP, Air Liquide Canada as well as the College of Physicians of Quebec.
According to Real Estate News Exchange, in 2022, more than 98 % of the office space was rented. The building has belonged since 2019 to the Sun Life, which bought it from the retirement fund of the municipal employees of Ontario and to PSP, which manages the assets of the pension plans of federal officials.
The 1 place Ville Marie, where Pwc will set up, also includes 47 floors and is barely located half a kilometer to the east of the 1250 Boul. René-Lévesque. The building is notably recognized for the rotary light installed at its top, which can be seen in the night. Among its occupants, we find the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), IBM or Alcoa Canada.
Photo Martin Chamberland, La Presse
Place Ville Marie is notably recognized for the rotary light installed at its summit, which can be seen in the night.
The occupancy rate of this building, which belongs to the Caisse de Dépôt et placement du Québec, is 92 %.
Why go from one place to another?
As PwC refused the requests for The pressit is not possible to know precisely why the company has decided to change its tower.
Without commenting on this specific transaction, Mathieu Turbier, principal partner at Colliers, mentions that he observes in his customers wishing to modernize or modify their offices a tendency to move rather than undergo work.
For most companies, it’s really complicated to live in work, it can disrupt operations in a really important way. We are talking about large areas. Most companies will prefer to move.
Mathieu Turnier, main partner at Colliers
Prestige office spaces (AAA) suffer less from the loss of appeal from office spaces than other buildings. According to the most recent report from the Grand Montreal Office Market of Notice Young, in the second quarter of 2025, the availability rate amounted to 11 % in prestige buildings in the city center, compared to 19.5 % for the average of office spaces in this territory.
“There is the phenomenon of flight to quality [en français, fuite vers la qualité]which means that companies relocate in smaller areas, but in a higher quality building, ”says Mathieu Turnier.
Beneficial for the deposit box?
The Quebec Deposit and Placement Fund did not want to grant an interview to The press In connection with this news. “We will soon welcome the PWC team with great pleasure in our offices in Place Ville Marie,” said the organization in an email.
Did the cash register lost a tenant, freeing up space for PwC? Should it set up a particular strategy to find tenants, in the context where many companies need less office space than before the pandemic?
The cash register did not want to answer our questions about it.
In its 2024 annual report, the fund underlined that the office towers had drawn its assessment downwards, but specified that it was especially true in its portfolio of American buildings. “The year was more difficult in real estate because of our historic exhibition to the offices in the United States, faced with persistent issues,” read the message signed by the president and chief executive, Charles Emond.
In the office building sector, “we note through North America, especially in the United States, a marked drop in the use of office spaces compared to 2019 and significant reductions in the areas rented during the renewal of leases”, can be read further in the report.
Since 2020, the fund has transformed its real estate portfolio to increase the weight of sectors such as logistics and residential, identified as more promising. The proportion of offices increased from 30 % to 21 % in its real estate portfolio between December 2019 and December 2024.
The Caisse has 75 buildings in Quebec, for a total of 5.3 billion. Among these, there are only 6 office buildings, according to the 2024 annual report.