Laval’s Récréathèque to be demolished, condos built
MONTREAL - Laval’s Récréathèque, the sprawling family sports and entertainment centre where hockey legend Maurice Richard once played tennis, is to be demolished next year and reinvented as condos.
Opened in 1968, the centre where more than one generation of Montrealers spent their teens roller skating and bowling, could no longer compete for family entertainment dollars, following the introduction of in-home-gaming consoles like Nintendo’s Wii. Instead, the 300,000 square foot site – including parking – on Curé Labelle and Notre Dame Blvds. is to be transformed into 500 condos.
“We are very much relying on our location near major roads and public transit,” said Récréathèque owner Reza Sarshoghi, of his new Ava Condos project in Chomedey.
The 225,000-square-foot Récréathèque now has 80 employees, down from 140, when the centre used to attract 400,000 visitors a year, Sarshoghi said.
About one-third of the Récréathèque, which once housed bars, bingo and video terminals, is now empty and the centre’s indoor tennis and other sports sites will close by the end of May, he said.
“The building is old so just keeping it heated and air-conditioned is a big expense,” he said.
Competition from home gaming has been a challenge for family entertainment centres, which have been forced to reinvent themselves. Sarshoghi said he is now searching for a new Laval site for the Récréathèque, which would be smaller and focused on more modern activities like laser games.
Initially constructed in the early 1960s as a discount shopping centre, the site was transformed into an entertainment centre in 1968, said Sam Gewurz, now president of the prominent Nuns’ Island developer, Proment Construction.
At the time, Gewurz was a 27-year-old recent university graduate whose father had purchased the old shopping centre “for a bargain.” The Récréathèque was a learning experience for Gewurz.
Over the decades, he had to renovate the centre several times. For example, he introduced separate doors for the tennis players and roller skaters, who used to come in from the same entrances.
“Each sport had a culture of its own,” Gewurz recalled.
Sarshoghi, president of Aras Management, purchased the centre from Proment in 2006, just before the launch of the Wii at the end of that year. Although Sarshoghi didn’t initially envisage converting the Récréathèque to condos, he said the plan makes sense given Montreal’s recent low-interest rate fuelled housing boom.
A property owner and manager, Sarshoghi said he has experience developing strip malls and single family homes. But he will be partnering with a soon-to-be announced contractor on the Ava Condos project.
The project would begin with the development of 46 units within duplexes and triplexes by the end of 2012 on the Récréathèque’s existing parking lot. A 1,000 square foot condo in the first phase would cost $240,000 – a fraction of the price of a similar sized unit on Montreal Island, he said.
Future development in larger condo buildings would follow the demolition of the Récréathèque, he said.
Denis Pelletier, a Laval real-estate broker with Re/Max, said such a residential development would help gentrify the working class Chomedey neighbourhood. However, demand for Laval condos in recent months appears to be waning as the market becomes more balanced.
“We’re seeing a bit of a slowdown this year,” Pelletier said.
During the first quarter of 2012, housing starts dropped 59 per cent in Laval compared to the same period a year earlier, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. data show.
alampert@montrealgazette.com
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