A MUST-ATTEND BUSINESS INITIATIVE FOR THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY

Once again and for the 17th time, Greater Montréal will be well represented by a delegation of thirty-some firms and municipalities. With assistance from the City of Montréal's Economic Development Service (SDÉ), the Metropolitan Montréal Community (MMC) and Investissement Québec International, the delegation will consist of real estate developers and companies in the engineering, construction, technologies and service sectors.

Major Projects To Promote

"Our presence at MIPIM aims to showcase the know-how of innovative Québec companies, as well as our various economic hubs," said Dieudonné Ella Oyono, acting director of SDÉ. Promoting development opportunities among investors will be a major focus, as the City of Montréal wants to redevelop its economic clusters. "For example, the one-car-lotafter-another model of industrial park no longer meets today's needs," added Mr. Ella Oyono. "What we need now are more attractive environments with green spaces, public transit and diverse services.

We also need to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings."

To pursue those goals, the MMC will be attending the MIPIM event. "We want to promote our efforts to transform, densify and accelerate the ecological transition underway in our industrial spaces," said Sylvain Giguère, chief economist and head of metropolitan economic development. "It is a largescale project. A plan for the redevelopment of such spaces will be developed for each of the 14 regional municipalities in the surrounding area." It is vast territory encompassing 82 towns and municipalities that account for more than half the jobs and half the economy of Québec.

For its initial foray at the MIPIM, the MMC will be looking for ideas and contacts. "Many countries before us have faced a scarcity of industrial spaces and the pressing need to make them more appealing and greener," he added. "We want our elected officials and municipal leaders to establish contact with representatives from other cities so that we can learn from them and adopt best practices."

As for Investissement Québec, its main objective is to support Québec exporting companies in their marketing efforts abroad. "Our teams of experts organize individual meetings with architectural firms, contractors, real estate developers and municipal representatives attending MIPIM," said Marie-Ève Jean, vice-president, Exports. Last year, Investissement Québec organized 130 meetings with European principals for some 15 Québec companies.

"MIPIM is also a good place for a firm to position itself for possible contracts linked to the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 and Milan-Cortina in 2026," added Ms. Jean.

A Successful Venture

The property development and management company Carbonleo took advantage of its participation in MIPIM last year to meet with architectural firms from various countries. The goal was to select one to work on the redevelopment project at Quartier DIX30, in partnership with the Québec firm Lemay. Its choice was UNStudio of Amsterdam. "Collaboration between an international firm and a local firm is a game-changer that makes for spectacular projects," said Claude Marcotte, executive vice-president and partner at Carbonleo.

This year the firm hopes to attract major brands as anchor stores in the Quartier DIX30 project and also at Royalmount, which will open soon. "The Montréal stand at the trade fair is located in a high-traffic area that gives us great visibility," said Mr. Marcotte, who never misses an edition of MIPIM. "Not to mention that during meetings with potential partners, we can present visuals of our projects on its interactive screen."

The real estate lawyer Sylvie Bouvette is also a regular attendee. Her main objective is to meet with Investors looking for legal support when making large-scale acquisitions in Canada. "I can count on the help of the Montréal delegation's organizing team to get meetings with potential clients," she said.

Another reason why the BLG partner goes to Cannes almost every year is to meet with her peers: "I meet lawyers from international firms with whom BLG has ties, firms that sometimes even have the same clients we do. We discuss best practices, business strategies and current projects. Sometimes we also introduce clients to each other."

That business development work has proved profitable. "It allows me to make myself known and the encounters often lead, directly or indirectly, to contracts afterwards," noted Ms. Bouvette.

Mitch Strohminger is the CoStar director of market analysis for Québec, where he works in close collaboration with his colleagues to provide information on the Canadian real estate market. Prior to joining CoStar, he worked as a senior economist and then risk manager for Ivanhoe Cambridge. He holds two master's degrees, in urban policy and economics, from the New School in New York.