montreal is looking at redeveloping n.d.g.'s empress theatre. will it happen this time?
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it’s like déjà vu all over again for the old empress theatre in notre-dame-de-grâce, where municipal officials are again raising the prospect of a project to revive the boarded-up landmark.
the city’s real estate agency, the société d’habitation et de développement de montréal (shdm), confirms it’s carrying out a feasibility study on redeveloping the city-owned sherbrooke st. w. property into a project combining affordable, off-market housing and a cultural component.
the study, which is being done at the city’s request, will be completed this fall, shdm spokesperson elisabeth tremblay said.
“information regarding the project’s development will therefore be available at a later date,” she said.
the campaign for the nov. 2 montreal election kicks off in mid-september. successive mayoral candidates since the 1990s have promised to restore the theatre, and there has been huge response every time the city or the côte-des-neiges—notre-dame-de-grâce borough has called for public input on how to reuse the landmark.
“it’s good news to know that the empress file isn’t dead and there are still things happening,” said camille bédard, an architecture and art historian who has studied the former theatre, known in its later years as cinema v.
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“but it has been a very long time that the n.d.g. community and the artistic community have been waiting for the city to act so that a project is developed. i hope that this time it’s for real.”
developing a cultural component along with housing remains “fundamental because it will keep the memory alive of this artistic venue that will be turning 100 soon,” she added.
built in 1927, the empress theatre featured a 1,550-seat auditorium offering first-run movies and burlesque stage productions. it later had a stint as a dinner theatre before becoming a cinema in an altered interior. in 1992, a fire damaged the theatre and its owner decided to shut it down. the city bought the vacant building, which still features elements of its original egyptian revival exterior, in 1999.
municipal officials last publicly discussed the future of the landmark last fall when the interim director of the city’s real estate strategy department told public hearings on montreal’s 2025 operating budget that the city would “shortly” put it up for sale for redevelopment. mayor valérie plante’s office said at the time that at least 20 per cent of a future mixed-use project would be non-market housing.
but there was no word since then.
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previous efforts to rehabilitate the building came to nothing.
in 2020-2021, for example, the borough held a public process to solicit ideas for the landmark’s revival. citizens presented more than 100 ideas, many of which included a theatre or cinema. the borough said at the time it was considering a mixed-use project including artistic and community spaces, affordable housing and retail space.
“should we make the same comments that we made before?” heritage montreal policy director dinu bumbaru said when asked to comment on the latest talk of redeveloping the empress.
“it’s a derelict landmark right now, and it doesn’t contribute much to the life of the street. but it’s a matter of (the city) giving the ‘go.’”
he added that he hopes the shdm study will be made public and that the city’s arm’s-length conseil du patrimoine will be consulted for the study.
the city’s handling of the landmark, which it has allowed to fall into disrepair, is particularly worrying with the coming sale of the heritage villa maria estate, bumbaru said. the sisters of the congrégation de notre-dame have announced their intention to put it up for sale in 2031.
“it’s in the same borough,” he said. “if they (the city) are not able to deal with the empress, which they own, are we going to have to call the quebec government to intervene on the heritage future of villa maria?”
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bédard, who grew up in n.d.g., began researching the empress theatre’s architectural and social relevance for her bachelor’s degree in art history in 2009 and continued her research for a master’s degree in architectural history.
“i hope the city and the shdm will make the effort to consult the proposals that were made in 2020-2021 during the borough’s public consultations on the future of the empress,” she said.
“i also hope they meet the community again as well, because the needs have evolved since 2020-2021.”
needs have evolved because of the affordable housing shortage and because it’s harder for artists to find funding and rent studios, bédard said.
“so there’s a need for structures that can welcome artists at affordable prices.”
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