| The neighborhood’s name is derived from the name of the government-subsidized office complex built in its core. Cite Multimedia is the result of a vast real-estate project launched by the Quebec government in the late 1990s which redeveloped abandoned 19th century industrial buildings into a tech and design cluster. A decade later condos and apartment buildings became the main redevelopment use of the neighborhood as surface parking lots and light industrial buildings were repurposed. Cite Multimedia is similar to other American neighborhoods located close to the Downtown areas that gradually redevelopment old warehouses and industrial spaces. Some good examples include Pittsburgh’s Strip District or Denver’s Union Station neighborhood. Cite Multimedia doesn’t have the most sense of place as its a rather gradual and haphazard redevelopment of available warehouses and industrial space, but it is surrounded by some great neighborhoods including Vieux Montreal to the north, Downtown to the western and Griffintown to the south. Cite Multimedia is also a very mixed-use district in its own right with quality bike infrastructure and public transit access. The only real room for improvement is redeveloping the final surface parking lots that remain. |
Click here to view my Cite Multimedi album on my Flickr Page
URBAN STRENGTHS:
* Great access to Vieux Montreal and Dwtn Montreal.
* Excellent Density.
* Infill is generally quality urban form.
* Lots of diverse condo and rental options.
* Goo access to the Square Victoria-OACI Subway station.
* Excellent Promenade park along Autoroute 10, the southern edge of the neighborhood. Also a wonderful promenade along the Vieux Port and seperated two-way bike path.
* Good array of food and beverage bizs especially along the northern border (McGill Ave). Not many other cultural amenities in the neighborhood but plenty in neighboring Vieaux Montreal.
* Good retail amenities here including lot of remaining warehouse type stores (camera store, wholesalers, office supply, computer stores, etc.), several specialty grocery stores, several gyms and dessert stores,.
* Good array of dedicated bike lanes.
URBAN WEAKNESSES:
* Not much sense of place. Cite Multimedia feels mostly like a place to live in a high density urban neighborhood to live or good to work close to Vieux Montreal.
* Crime is pretty low and limited blight.
* Decent amount of quality historic buildings remain in the neighborhood.
* Generally good sidewalks but half the curb cuts are not up to modern ADA standards.
* Still some surface parking lots.
Evaluating our Urban Communities [with a focus on America] 