This article written in french by Stéphane St-Amour was automatically translated using ChatGPT
A chapter in history turned this month as the House of Commerce succumbed to the wrecking ball. Its days had been numbered since May 6, 2020, when the City transferred the building to real estate developer Aldo Coviello Jr. as part of an out-of-court settlement related to the largest lawsuit in the history of the City of Laval. It is worth remembering that Mr. Coviello’s project to build two skyscrapers of 28 and 30 stories on the shores of the Le Commodore marina in Pont-Viau was rejected in 2014, a project initiated in 2008 during the Vaillancourt era.
Inaugurated in 1988
Under the leadership of Jean Rizzuto, then-president of the Laval Chamber of Commerce, the House of Commerce was launched in the spring of 1988 and inaugurated in the fall of that same year. Located at the corner of Rue des Châteaux and Boulevard Chomedey, just a stone’s throw from City Hall, this one-stop shop brought together all the economic stakeholders in Laval at the time, including the Laval Economic Development Corporation (CODEL, later Laval Technopole), the Laval Office of Tourism and Congress Development (now Tourisme Laval), the defunct SME Financial Center, the regional offices of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Technology, and, of course, the association of business people, now renamed the Laval Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Housing Project
On the site, the developer planned to construct a housing complex with over 700 rental residential units, which would also extend to the adjacent land currently occupied by the Multicultural Library. The library is set to be relocated to the Alain-Grandbois Center by March 31, 2025. It is important to note that this municipal building was also part of the transaction in the out-of-court settlement that occurred in the spring of 2020.
Let us recall that in the fall of 2021, this project, then valued at $300 million, found itself at an impasse when the developer’s site planning and architectural integration plan (PIIA) was rejected by the executive committee, notably due to deemed insufficient greening measures.
What is the status of the project today? The question remains open for now, as our inquiries to the City and the developer have gone unanswered at the time of publication.
