Canderel wins IDU excellence award: business sector category

The project will soon be obtaining LEED certification. It has received numerous compliments for its use of sustainable development technologies, exterior landscaping, impressive size of the five buildings constituting the complex and finally, the rapid delivery of the project. It was known that it would take 17 months in total to complete a project that would become one of Montreal’s distinguished landmarks. The complex covers 1,400,000 square feet (of which 840,000 square feet will be for leasing or rental purposes) and was finished in the beginning of this year. Located in the gateway of Montreal and just a few minutes from downtown, the Bell head office is right in the crossroads of the Bonaventure expressway and the Champlain Bridge.

Canderel’s president, Jonathan Wener, was proud about this award. “We feel very honoured to have been granted this recognition by the IDU. It is the reward for the collaboration and hard work of hundreds of people in our team, and particularly for the great work of our architect, Brian Elsden Burrows, and the Reliance construction company”, he said. He took the opportunity to pay tribute to Samuel Gewurz of Proment Corporation saying that “he is a partner who played a key role in the planning and success of the project.” He also paid tribute to the City of Montreal and most especially to Verdun Borough for their assistance in resolving numerous problems that came up during the implementation. “This demonstrates that real projects can be completed in real time. I am extremely proud of the Canderel team who, under the leadership of Daniel D. Peritz, our vice president for Montreal, managed a myriad of complicated details; they completed this project skilfully and professionally”, he added.

For Canderel, the Bell project represented a unique chance to build a grand-scale office building in Montreal by a private sector company in the last 30 years. Maarika Paul, first vice president for general services of Bell Canada shared her comments: “We are extremely proud of our new headquarters in L'Île-des-Sœurs. A lot of people indeed contributed to the project’s success and our employees reacted positively to their new environment.”

IDU Quebec unveiled its 2009 awards for excellence in real estate to mark the Montreal Real Estate Summit. In its 10th year this year, 13 applications were submitted in two categories: the business / commercial category sponsored by Hydro-Québec and the residential category sponsored by the law firm of Bélanger Sauvé.

For the business/commercial category, four finalists were nominated. The winning choice – the Bell Canada campus of Canderel – was based on: the location of the site and its exceptional exterior landscape, the rapid delivery of such a grand-scale endeavour, its respect for the environment, and its positive impact on the City of Montreal.