Multiple initiatives resulting from bridge-building between public, cultural and economic actors have enabled the city center to hold its own despite the critical pandemic context. In order to keep up this momentum, Montréal centre-ville has created an Alliance aimed at crystallizing this mobilization.

The Alliance is a collaborative initiative led by Montréal centre-ville and its partners to sustain the collaboration that was established during the pandemic by stakeholders involved in developing the downtown area.

“The concerted work of downtown’s key stakeholders over the past two years is bearing fruit, but we need to keep up the pace. With …. the significant mobilization of several leaders in economic, cultural and academic sectors, we have demonstrated that there is a real desire to continue on this promising path of collaboration. This Alliance will be an important asset in our mission to continue elevating and promoting downtown – and by extension, all of Quebec – well beyond the pandemic,” said Glenn Castanheira, Executive Director of Montréal centre-ville.

THE OBJECTIVES

• Coordinate downtown stakeholders and align our efforts
• Deploy collaborative initiatives
• Reinforce downtown governance
• Pool downtown resources

THE ALLIANCE IN CONTEXT

There are many players actively involved in the economic, commercial, tourism, cultural and social development of downtown Montreal, all of which have a role to play in ensuring and streng­thening the vitality of the downtown area.

Despite the challenges caused by the pande­mic, the downtown area never ceased to be active. Unprecedented efforts were mobilized to maintain its strategic assets, to keep it vibrant and to encou­rage both Montrealers and tourists to return.

It is precisely because of this collective action and exchange of expertise and resources that downtown Montreal came out of it so well.

Now, it’s important to expand and sustain this enga­gement to continue to invest in the strategic assets, to face challenges, and to make sur that the city centre continues moving in the right direction. This is why it’s important to build a Downtown Alliance.

THE ALLIANCE’S MANDATE

The Alliance is a standing committee made up of member organisations whose representatives have decision-making authority. The target orgaisations are active stakeholders in the develop­ment of the downtown area.

The objective is to prioritize concrete colla­borative initiatives and solutions that contribute to the vitality of the downtown and to actively participate in their implementation.

STEERING COMMITTEE ROLES

Each steering committee will meet twice per year to discuss the challenges, projects and possible solutions they could work

• The Corporate Headquarters Steering Committee will be tasked with highlighting how important head offices are to a downtown’s vitality. The commit­tee will discusses outreach projects and ideas.
• The Real Estate Steering Committee contributes to the vitality of the downtown area by working on solutions for urban planning and development issues.
• The purpose of the Business Steering Committee is to share information and coordi­nate efforts to support business development in the downtown area.
• The Exposure Steering Committee focuses on promoting the downtown area and its features by proposing projects and solutions that would enhance its appeal.
• The Showcase Steering Committee focuses on creating art and light installa­tions, as well as upgrading existing lighting infrastructure.

The Alliance supports and complements existing initiatives. As a space for dialogue and engage­ment, the identification of issues and priority actions for each Steering Committee will be done with the direct participation of its members.