PUR Immobilia could do more to help respond to Montreal’s strong demand for rental housing if the wheels of bureaucracy would grind faster, says Philippe Bernard, co-president and founder of the Montreal developer.

“The market is extremely vigorous in Montreal,” he says. “The demand is there for rentals, obviously. If the cities could go faster, we’d be able to respond to the demand.”

PUR IMMOBILIA has kicked off its latest rental project, the $110-million Le Bosco in the city’s Notre Dame de Grâce neighbourhood. Claridge and Félix Langevin-Péladeau of DACC are also partners in the development.

Located at Décarie Blvd. and Crowley Ave., and across from the McGill University Health Centre’s (MUHC) Glen campus, the development will consist of 239 one- to three-bedroom rental apartments in two buildings, one of six storeys and the other of 12 storeys. It’s scheduled for completion in July 2026.

Le Bosco construction to begin in August

Bernard says the choice of buildings of six and 12 storeys stems from the fact the development will take up almost an entire city block and the city wanted to maintain site lines, thus two buildings of varying heights.

The site once housed a garage and duplexes that had been abandoned for several years. Demolition is almost complete, and excavation will start in late August.

Le Bosco (meaning woods in Italian) was originally planned as condos “but because of the current market we decided a year ago to switch to rentals.”

Bernard is hopeful many of the employees at the nearby MUHC hospital will become tenants. Leasing of the units will start in fall 2025, seven to eight months before construction ends.

Located near the Vendôme metro and train stations, the development will aim for LEED certification. Common spaces include a rooftop lounge atop the 12-storey building, pool, gym, and a co-working space.

PUR Immobilia, and other projects

Le Bosco is just one of several residential developments by PUR Immobilia. 

Bernard founded PUR in 2008 and built a few small condo projects until 2016. That year, co-president Yann Lapointe joined as partner and the firm began to build larger residential projects, such as Lum Pur Fleuve in Brossard on the South Shore of Montreal.

Lum Pur Fleuve consists of one rental tower and two condo towers, completed in 2020, on the last available riverfront parcel of land in Brossard.

PUR’s other major developments include Le Market in the Chomedey neighbourhood of Laval, with 436 rental units and 216 condo units, and Labo with126 rental units at 3555 Saint-Antoine St. W. in Westmount.

Currently under construction is Le Walt in Dorval on the West Island, with 255 rental units close to a lakefront bike path.

Still to come is Oakville, one of the largest real estate development projects in Saint-Lambert, on the South Shore. 

The multi-year project is located at the end of Oak St., less than a 10-minute walk from downtown Saint-Lambert. It will encompass the site of a former Dare plant that made Whippet cookies and a former Rona hardware store. It is planned to include about 750 units of townhouses, stacked townhouses, triplexes and other multi-residential housing. 

“It’s a very big project for Saint-Lambert,” Bernard says.

Also to come is a rental development on Place du Commerce St. on Nuns’ Island, about 300 metres from the new light-rail REM station. It will have about 600 units and will replace an office building that is currently about 50 per cent leased, with leases running to 2025. The development is currently in the zoning change process.

PUR's focus is on residential

Aside from a few ground floor stores in developments like Le Walt – a requirement of the city of Dorval – PUR Immobilia has maintained a residential focus. “I just did residential as a general contractor and continued to do residential when I became a developer,” Bernard says.

He has a 30-year career in real estate.

For his part, Lapointe began his career co-owning and managing a major residential development and later became vice-president of operations at CAPREIT from 2006 to 2012.

PUR manages its own apartments, which Bernard says makes sense given his general contractor background and Lapointe’s experience in building management. "We united our strengths.”

As for the company name, PUR stands for Perfect Urban Redevelopment, while Immobilia means real estate in Spanish. “We found PUR Immobilier (real estate in French) only had a so-so ring. We preferred PUR Immobilia,” Bernard says.