Located in the downtown core, Montréal’s business district covers different areas that boast a mix of residential and commercial buildings:

• The Quartier des affaires (central business district)
• The Quartier des spectacles (entertainment district)
• Chinatown
• The Quartier international (international district)
• Old Montréal

Depending on your space requirements and your employees’ expectations, you could also look at other easily accessible neighbourhoods, where you will find all the services you need. Think Mile End: the neighbourhood, known the world over for its charm, has become a hotspot for leading VFX and video game studios. The Mile-Ex district, where AI is buzzing, could also be a great choice.

Industrial districts off the Island of Montréal are another option. They are places where companies and research institutes within the same industry come together. Take Laval’s Biotech City, for example. The hub employs over 5,000 people and hosts around 100 life sciences companies within a 3 km radius. On Montréal’s North Shore, another hub—Mirabel—is home to many aerospace companies, including Bombardier and Bell Helicopter.

The newest trend, however, is to build mixed-use urban campuses that feature a combination of living spaces and office buildings. Such large-scale developments are designed to be welcoming, smart and easily accessible. They are places where work and leisure belong together. Here are three examples:

• Espace Montmorency in Laval, connected to the subway and close to highways
• Place Gare Viger, steps away from Old Montréal, designed around a historic building built in 1898
• Redevelopment of the former Molson Coors brewery site, a mixed-use urban revitalisation project, by the St. Lawrence River