Jason C. McLean

One of the stories I’ve been covering regularly for Forget The Box over the past few months  is the fight to save Cafe Cleopatra and other historic buildings on the Lower Main.

The Angus Development Corporation wants to raize the block of St-Laurent between Ste-Catherine and Rene-Levesque and put in a giant skyscraper to serve as offices for Hydro-Quebec.

This isn’t just about buildings, though.  There are many emerging artists who perform regularly on the second-floor showspace of Cleopatra (it’s a strip club downstairs).  Since this project is done as part of the Quartier des Spectacles (show quarter), it doesn’t make any sense to evict three performance spaces (Cleo, the Les Saints showbar and the Katacombes punk club) for an office building.

That’s what the Office de Consultation Publique de Montreal ruled at the end of July after a series of meetings held last June.  They said the project needs to be re-evaluated and now it looks like it’s going to be.

My latest piece talks about how Angus has agreed to go back to the drawing board…and just in time for a show/party/rally scheduled for Friday.  Here’s an exerpt:

Just in time for the party: Angus to re-think its plans for the lower Main

The Angus Development Corporation stated Tuesday that it would be rethinking its plan to erect an office tower on the west side of St-Laurent Boulevard between Ste-Catherine and Rene-Levesque. This comes over a month after the Office de Consultation Publique de Montreal (OCPM) released its report urging more reflection and a better plan for redevelopment of the area. “The OCPM has unequivocally stated that this whole project has to go back to the drawing board,” said Velma Candyass (read more)