Libsyn Directory

Montreal Isn’t Dying: Local Landlords, Downtown Pride & CRE Opportunities with Luciano D'Iorio

Release Date: 11/14/2025

How to Survive with 18% Office Vacancy in Montreal | Concrete Strategies for Property Owners with Laurence Binette

Espace Montréal Podcast

Montreal’s office market is showing nearly a 17–18% vacancy rate. Landlords must offer more concessions, invest heavily in their buildings, and completely rethink their strategy. So how do you stay competitive in 2026? In this episode, Laurence Binette, Director of Brokerage at AlFID, explains how an integrated real estate group with more than 350 employees manages 32 commercial buildings, 2,000 residential units, and 1,000 student housing rooms while continuing to innovate in a complex market. We discuss major transactions, asset optimization, free rent concessions worth $100 to $125 per...

Is the Montreal Office Market Really Making a Comeback? What the Numbers Don’t Tell You

Espace Montréal Podcast

Is the Montreal office market truly recovering, or is it just a temporary illusion? In this episode of Espace Montreal, Axel Monsaingeon sits down with André Plourde, Executive Vice President and one of the most influential brokers in the Montreal market, to break down 35 years of real estate cycles, crises, and comebacks. From Cité du Multimédia to Place Ville-Marie and trophy office buildings, André shares a ground-level reading of the market, the mistakes property owners must avoid, the new expectations of tenants, and why some buildings are winning while others are falling behind. An...

Royalmount’s Comeback: The Leasing Playbook Behind Montreal’s Fastest Retail Turnaround

Espace Montréal Podcast

Royalmount is not just “doing fine” it is accelerating. In this episode sits down with , Partner at and SVP Leasing, to break down what actually drives a successful mixed use destination in Montreal. They explore how consumer habits are changed, why occupancy momentum matters more than first month headlines, and how the right tenant mix, events, and access strategy can reposition an asset quickly. You will hear the measurable results behind the Royalmount lease up, the expansion logic for phase two retail, why a hotel on site makes sense, and how Class A office demand is being reshaped...

How to Build a $1.2B REIT from Scratch — Lessons from BTB’s Founder

Espace Montréal Podcast

How do you go from being a tax lawyer to building a $1.2 billion commercial real estate portfolio? In this episode of the Espace Montréal Podcast, sits down with , President & CEO of , to unpack the real story behind one of Québec’s most successful publicly traded real estate investment trusts. Michel shares the risks, doubts, and hard lessons behind launching a REIT before most people even knew what one was — including capital raising, surviving the 2008 financial crisis, navigating COVID, and maintaining discipline in volatile markets. This conversation is a masterclass in...

Why Buyers and Sellers Finally Moved in 2025, and What’s Next for Quebec CRE

Espace Montréal Podcast

Quebec’s commercial real estate market has changed fast, and the old “local only” playbook does not hold up anymore. , partner at , joins to unpack what appraisers are seeing before the headlines: how developers now chase opportunities across the province, why 2024 felt frozen, and what shifted in 2025 to bring buyers and sellers closer together. Louis also shares the real story behind PDG’s roots coming out of Desjardins, how the firm grew through acquisitions and mergers, and why a merger has to be “1 + 1 = 3” or it is not worth doing. They dig into PDG’s full-service model...

Montreal CRE 2026 Outlook: Office Comeback, AI, Housing Policy, and Where Capital Is Moving

Espace Montréal Podcast

Montreal commercial real estate is entering 2026 with a very different set of tailwinds and constraints. In this episode, Axel Monsaingeon sits down with James Papadimitriou, Senior Partner at and a long-time governance leader, to unpack what is actually changing beneath the headlines. They cover why “alternative” real estate is increasingly an operating business (hotels, senior living, data centers, student housing), how AI and automation could reshape industrial and construction productivity, and what programs like Canada Builds Homes could mean for financing, land, and delivery speed....

Persist to 2026: Why Net Lease Real Estate Is Winning in an Uncertain Market

Espace Montréal Podcast

The commercial real estate recovery everyone expected in 2025 did not arrive. Instead, investors are being forced to rethink risk, cash flow, and capital allocation heading into 2026. In this episode of the Espace Montreal Podcast, Axel Monsaingeon speaks with Marie-Claire Laflamme-Sanders, Senior Vice President and Practice Lead within ’s Québec Capital Markets Team, about why net lease real estate has become one of the most resilient investment strategies in today’s uncertain market. Drawing on insights from the Toronto Real Estate Forum and active transactions across Canada,...

Commercial Real Estate in Quebec Is Splitting Into Winners and Losers: What 2026 Will Reward

Espace Montréal Podcast

2025 was a turning point for Quebec commercial real estate, and the gap between winners and losers is getting wider. In this end-of-year conversation, Axel Monsaingeon sits down with Andrew Cross to unpack what actually shifted across office, retail, and industrial, and what smart owners, investors, and tenants should watch as 2026 begins. They talk about why strong malls keep winning despite the e-commerce narrative, why lower-tier office stock is being forced into conversion or repositioning, and how innovation like automation and robotics is reshaping industrial demand. The episode also...

Retail Is Back in Quebec: What’s Driving Near-Zero Vacancy and the Mixed-Use Shift

Espace Montréal Podcast

Quebec retail is outperforming expectations. Triple-A centres are running near-zero vacancy, rents are stabilizing, and consumers are spending more time in places that feel like destinations, not just shopping stops. In this episode, Axel Monsaingeon sits down with retail real estate leader Manon Larose to break down what is actually working right now: why retail is no longer “online vs in-store,” how the tenant mix is shifting toward food, fitness, beauty, and entertainment, and why mixed-use is becoming the default playbook for major sites like Carrefour Laval and Royalmount....

Redeveloping Carrefour Laval Into a Mixed Use District (Parking, Transit, ESG, Returns)

Espace Montréal Podcast

Cadillac Fairview has been shaping downtown Montreal for decades, but the next chapter is about turning legacy retail land into full neighborhoods. In this episode, Axel Monsaingeon sits down with Jeroen Henrich, Senior Vice President of Development at Cadillac Fairview, to break down the shift from condos to rentals, why underutilized parking fields are now some of the most valuable real estate in Quebec, and how mega-sites like Carrefour Laval get redeveloped without hurting retail performance. They dig into master planning as “3D chess”, transit and infrastructure constraints, ESG...

More Episodes

Is Montreal really “in decline”… or are we just stuck in a negative narrative?

In this episode of The Espace Montreal Podcast, host Axel Monsaingeon talks with Luciano D'Iorio, Regional President of CDNGLOBAL Québec, about why he’s so relentlessly positive about Montreal’s future – and what he sees on the ground every day in commercial real estate.

They dig into:

The real stories behind downtown landmarks like Peel Street and the Sun Life Building
How local landlord families went from one building to owning major downtown portfolios
Why relationship-based ownership still matters more than AI, data and distant asset managers
What makes it so hard to lose a good tenant—and so easy if you neglect them
How small and medium businesses drive the downtown ecosystem
Elections, policy, safety, homelessness and cleanliness as core CRE issues, not side topics
The tension between heritage preservation and development (from churches to silos and conversions)

If you’re in commercial real estate, urban planning, brokerage, investing or entrepreneurship and you care about downtown Montreal, this conversation will give you a nuanced, optimistic and practical perspective on where the city is headed – and how to create value in it.

📌 Timestamps
0:00 Montreal’s negativity problem & why Luciano started telling positive stories
3:45 Peel Street, the NHL, Sun Life Building legends & downtown fun facts
8:00 Local landlord families, long-term portfolios & relationship-based leasing
13:30 Tenants, employees and the “upmarket” office race
17:10 Elections, downtown priorities & building a business-friendly Montreal
21:40 Pride, cleanliness, safety and the “broken windows” effect
24:30 Heritage vs development: churches, silos and conversions
25:50 Why real estate is the most dynamic “static” asset class
29:00 Final thoughts: why you should still bet on Montreal

Get in touch with Luciano D'Iorio on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Visit https://www.e5pace.com for more resources, market guides, data, and advertising opportunities.

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