After years of development, luxury Royalmount mall opens Thursday

Article content

The sound of hammers, drills and the steady beeping of scissor lifts echo through the halls of the Royalmount shopping centre Tuesday morning.

Two days before its scheduled opening, Montreal’s newest mall was still a construction site, as workers in hard hats and reflective vests installed piping and plants, cleaned windows and put up signs.

But Andrew Lutfy, the CEO of developer Carbonleo and the lead investor in the project, was confident. While not everything will go right, he said, the workers will be finished for the mall’s opening on Thursday — the first step of what could be as many as 20 phases of development on the site.

Article content

“I promise you we’re going to get things wrong,” he told reporters Tuesday. “Ten years ago we were doing land assembly; here we are today, opening. I promise you 10 years from now, there will be thousands of people living at Royalmount. I promise you there will be Class A office towers, thousands of workers happier than hell, going up to the roof, hopefully playing basketball before work and doing a little gym workout.”

Toggle full screen modePrevious Gallery Image

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 

10. 

11. 

12. 

13. 

14. 

Next Gallery ImageToggle gallery captions

All 14 Photos for Gallery

Function Not Available

Full Screen is not supported on this browser version.

You may use a different browser or device to view this in full screen.

OK

Article content

Article content

Inside, some stores, like Lutfy’s own brands, Garage and Dynamite, look ready to serve customers, with clothing already laid out on display. Other stores, like Versace, Jimmy Choo, Mango and Uniqlo also look ready, with fully stocked shelves.

Around 50 per cent of the stores that will eventually occupy this first phase of the development are set to open on Thursday, Lutfy said, with the rest opening over the next 10 months.

Big-name luxury stores, like Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Yves Saint Laurent, are scheduled to open this month, while upscale home furnishings company RH is scheduled to open a store next summer.

“The interesting thing and the exciting thing is every time you come back, there will always be another new reason to come back for at least the next 12 months,” he said.

More than 90 per cent of the 800,000-square-foot mall has been leased, Lutfy said, with 170 stores, including 60 cafés and restaurants.

With concerns about traffic in the area, Lutfy said he hopes that two-thirds of the mall’s customers will come by métro, using an enclosed pedestrian skywalk from de la Savane station to cross the Décarie Expressway.

Article content

Asked about whether luxury shoppers will really take the métro, Lutfy said the young people of generation Z are interested in luxury goods and would rather spend their money on experiences than cars.

“If you think about it, the customers of today and the customers of tomorrow, they’re maybe not buying the most expensive thing in the luxury store, but the majority of them are quite young and these customers don’t have cars. They don’t want cars, they’re not interested in cars,” he said.

For those that do drive, the mall will be accessible from Côte-de-Liesse Rd., as well as from Décarie Blvd. and Royalmount Ave. There will be about 2,000 parking spots — including valet parking — at which shoppers can park for free for half an hour, those who download the mall’s app will get another half hour for free, and after that it will cost $2.50 per half hour, Lutfy said, adding that many retailers will also validate parking.

While the type of big-name luxury brands that get referenced in rap songs may draw attention, Lutfy said he wants to the mall to be “inclusive luxury,” centred around a park, which will have a skating rink in the winter that will attract more visitors who will come to see the art on display or go for a skate than luxury shoppers.

Article content

“When we talk about inclusive luxury, we really are thinking about everyone from all walks of life,” he said.

Charles de Brabant, executive director of the Bensadoun School of Retail Management at McGill University, said he thinks Lutfy is right that there is a pent-up demand for luxury retail in the greater Montreal area.

The city has four of Canada’s 10 richest neighbourhoods, attracts people with luxury hotels, restaurants, bars and its cultural industries, as well as attracting wealthy international students.

“These people are used to shopping in London, living in Singapore and for them, it’s totally unnatural that a city like Montreal would not have a luxury mall offering,” he said.

But he worries that with many stores yet to open, the mall’s first visitors will be underwhelmed.

“Everyone will be disappointed at the beginning, which I think is strongly unfair,” said de Brabant, who praised Lutfy for making the project happen.

And while he said he thinks there are shoppers looking for the type of goods that will be available at the mall, its location — and the traffic around the site — remains the big question mark around its success.

Article content

The new mall is only around eight per cent of the Royalmount site, Lutfy said. Future plans include an expansion, office buildings, as well as housing, which has so far been blocked by the Town of Mount Royal, where Royalmount is located.

“I’ve come to appreciate that ‘no’ is not ‘no,’ it’s just ‘no for today.’ This project is the sum of an endless amount of noes that somewhere along the way became a ‘yes,’” he said.

Article content

Article content