ANNUAL REPORT 2018 ANNUAL REPORT 2018 - DESTINATION CENTRE-VILLE OF MONTREAL SUMMARY A WORD FROM THE PRESIDENT AND THE 01 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 02 SDC DESTINATION CENTRE-VILLE 03 MISSIONS 04 ANIMATIONS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 05 OUR PARTNERS 06 PROMOTION OF THE CITY CENTRE 07 INTERNATIONAL INFLUENCE 08 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS EXCERPT BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND 09 MANAGEMENT 2 01 A Word from the President and the Executive Director We are pleased to present this activity report on all the actions implemented by Destination Centre-Ville in 2018. In this report, you will find a brief summary of each of these actions. But beyond our actions, it is important for us to draw attention to the transformation of our sector. The city centre was once again in the heart of several real estate projects, both residential and commercial. Many major upgrade projects have also begun in 2018, such as the renovation of Place Ville-Marie, the Eaton Centre and the Complexe Les Ailes. The construction of several large-scale residential projects also continues, such as 1111 Atwater, Union sur le Parc, Drummond Phase 2, not to mention the many projects led by the Brivia Group (Yul, Stanbrooke, Nest) and it is not over yet as there are several other projects on the drawing boards for 2019. We are very happy with this craze for our business district which augurs very well for the next decade. Carlos Ferreira Chairman of the board of directors These new constructions are encouraging and demonstrate the dynamism and attractiveness of our business district for investors. These new constructions are encouraging and demonstrate the dynamism and attractiveness of our business district for investors. 2018 was also marked by technology. Of particular note are the openings of The XVI XVI, the first restaurant to be equipped with a robot bartender and The Monville, the first and only hotel in Canada to provide room service using an autonomous delivery robot that carries orders directly to guest rooms, in record time. Finally, a major change for our organization was certainly the recruitment of a new Executive Director. Emile Roux was indeed hired at the end of the year. We wish him all the best at the head of Destination Centre-Ville. André Poulin Enjoy your reading! Executive Director 3 ANNUAL REPORT 2018 - DESTINATION CENTRE-VILLE OF MONTREAL 02 SDC Destination centre-ville PORTRAIT Founded in 1999, the commercial development Both a place of business and a tourist destination, association Destination centre-ville is a non- downtown Montreal stands out for its diversity of profit organization. It brings together nearly 5 000 offerings: there are thousands of shops, but also members located between Atwater Avenue and museums, restaurants, hotels and many activities. Saint-Urbain Street and between Sherbrooke Street Every day, more than 300,000 people, including and Saint-Antoine Street, making it the largest tourists, workers, residents or students, crisscross commercial development association in Canada. Its the streets of the city centre. goal: to contribute to the development, animation and promotion of downtown Montreal. 4 GREAT PROJECTS FOR 2019 REVITALIZATION WORK OF XP_MTL: A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE IN SAINTE-CATHERINE STREET WEST THE CITY CENTRE STARTING IN 2019 In February 2019, the City of Montreal undertook In 2019, XP MTL stormed the city centre to offer major work for the renovation of the infrastructure of free, open-to-all events and cultural programming, Sainte-Catherine Street West. Lot 1 of the first phase which will be held throughout the year on our of the work, located between De Bleury and Robert- territory. The program will encompass four Bourassa streets, will continue until the fall of 2019. themes: sports, music, holiday season and travel. The objective of this project is to rehabilitate all the Destination centre-ville is proud to be a founding underground infrastructure of the most commercial partner of this project which aims to maintain the street of Quebec and to make it innovative, attractive dynamism and traffic of our neighborhood. and enjoyable. Destination centre-ville plans to take concrete actions to minimize the impact of this project on merchants, visitors and residents of the city centre. REM PROJECT BY THE CDPQ – CONSTRUCTION OF A STATION ON MCGILL COLLEGE AVENUE A major metropolitan express network project is currently being implemented by the CDPQ. This automated light-rail project, expected to cover 67 kilometres, will greatly transform the transportation network to downtown Montreal and its suburbs. In 2018, construction began in downtown Montreal with the construction of the McGill station, which will eventually become the busiest REM station, linking the city centre to the main cities of the North and South shores. 5 ANNUAL REPORT 2018 - DESTINATION CENTRE-VILLE OF MONTREAL 03 A CLEAN AND SAFE Missions CITY CENTER OUR CLEANING BRIGADE AT WORK YEAR-ROUND A FLOWERED CITY CENTRE As a Commercial Development Company, The embellishment of the city centre is a major task Destination centre-ville has always placed the for our organization. This is done in particular through cleanliness of the city centre at the heart of its the installation of flower planters and baskets in the priorities. This is a real challenge for our businesses, main streets of our territory each year in May. From residents and occasional visitors. We put a lot of Sherbrooke Street to René-Lévesque Boulevard, via De energy into making the city centre a clean and Maisonneuve Boulevard and Sainte-Catherine Street, pleasant place, especially through our cleaning as well as their cross streets, there are more than 700 brigade, which cleans the streets of the city centre ground baskets, 400 hanging planters and 14 greening daily. Between thirty and forty people clean the bins that beautify the downtown area until September. streets of the city centre daily according to the We also set up plantations made of herbs and other seasons. Destination centre-ville has a recruitment edible products around two parking areas: these are our policy that promotes social reintegration. “Jardins urbains”. 6 THE CITY CENTRE LIGHTS UP FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON In November, just before the Santa Claus Parade, more than 700 luminous deco- rations are installed to beautify the city centre (Sherbrooke, De Maisonneuve, de la Montagne, Crescent, Sainte-Catherine, Robert-Bourassa and René-Lévesque). Garlands are also hung in the trees on the edge of 4 churches (Cathedral Ma- rie-Reine du Monde, St Andrew and St Paul’s Church, St. Jax Church and St. George’s Anglican Church) and in 3 parks (Dorchester Square, Phillips Square and Cabot Square). These decorations illumi- nate the city centre until early March. TRAVEL THE CITY CENTRE SAFELY Each year, Destination centre-ville renews its agreement with the SPVM, which makes it possible to hire a team of cadets to increase the feeling of safety and reduce incivilities in the city centre. 7 ANNUAL REPORT 2018 - DESTINATION CENTRE-VILLE OF MONTREAL REPRESENT THE INTERESTS IN THE PRESS OF OUR MEMBERS As a spokesperson for its members, Destination centre-ville has intervened regularly in the press in 2018. Our interventions included work on Sainte- Catherine Street and parking issues. We also promoted our annual events, such as Sainte-Catherine Street Celebrates, the Montreal centre-ville Awards and the Santa Claus Parade. IN LOCAL LIFE Destination centre-ville communicates with many elected officials, particularly within Ville de Montreal and Ville- Marie borough, to discuss projects related to economic development, urban development, business services, events, transportation, traffic, culture, public works, parking, signage, beautification, cleanliness and international relations. Destination centre-ville also regularly intervenes during public consultations on mandates that concern downtown Montreal, particularly in terms of urban planning and land use planning. In 2017, we participated in the file concerning the redevelopment of Avenue McGill College. 8 DIALOGUE PROJECT INVOLVEMENT IN SEVERAL The Dialogue project is a YMCA pro- ORGANIZATIONS AND gram that we have been supporting NETWORKS financially for fifteen years now. The main goal is to help homeless people reintegrate into society. The team of street workers assigned to it is now composed of five people. ASDCM (ASSOCIATION DES SOCIÉTÉS DE DÉVELOPPEMENT COMMERCIAL DE MONTRÉAL): TABLE DE CONCERTATION DU QUARTIER DES GRANDS JARDINS As a commercial development association, Destination This group of thirty businesses, centre-ville is part of the Association des sociétés de organizations and institutions développement commercial de Montréal. Its members works for the organization and meet every three months to discuss the progress of development of this dense and central files relating to the various SDC, and to develop joint district, bounded by Sherbrooke, actions to contribute to the attractiveness of Montreal. Atwater, Bishop and the Ville-Marie The ASDCM is composed Expressway, and which faces of 20 SDC members. Our important sociocultural, economic and Executive Director has heritage issues. Destination centre- been its chairman from ville has been a member since its March 2015 to October creation in 2012 and our Executive 2018. Director contributes as a member of the executive committee. MMFIM (MOUVEMENT POUR METTRE FIN À L’ITINÉRANCE À MONTRÉAL) : GBD INNOVATION CLUB : Formerly known as the RIQA (Réseau International des Quartiers d’Affaires), The MMFIM is a coalition the Global Business District Innovation from diverse backgrounds - Club brings together different private, community, scientific representatives of international and public - committed to business districts to share knowledge working in a planned and and exchange best practices. collaborative manner to Destination centre-ville is a member of overcome homelessness in this network along with the business Montreal. As a founding member, Destination centre- districts of Chicago, Guangzhou, ville is very active in this movement and its executive Beijing and the Quartier de la Défense committee. Our Executive Director has been in Paris, which has been president of president of the board of directors since 2016.