For six years, the city of Montreal has been sitting on a vast piece of land that could help relieve a housing shortage, but private developers, whom the city needs to realize its vision for an affordable “eco neighbourhood,” have so far expressed little interest.

Montreal has an ambitious plan for the site, a former horse racing track turned into a vacant wasteland more than twice the size of the Chinatown neighbourhood downtown. But Montreal’s ambitions are expensive, says Pierre Boivin, CEO of investment firm Claridge, who co-leads a city-appointed group drafting a new development model for the property.

The initial development framework pushed by the administration of Mayor Valérie Plante made it impossible to turn a profit, he said. “At the current market price for land and construction costs and regulations around subsidized housing, the economic model doesn’t stand.”

As a housing shortage grips the city, critics say Montreal’s affordability goals and lack of a clear plan to extend public infrastructure have impeded real progress at the site, known as the Hippodrome. It’s one example of how Canadian cities are struggling to help low-income residents and defend social values while satisfying a need to boost housing supply.

Montreal plans for the Hippodrome to break ground on a new carbon-neutral, transit-oriented “eco neighbourhood” in 2025. So far, the Plante administration has awarded only one development contract, a deal with a non-profit organization to construct a 100-per-cent affordable housing complex, representing up to 250 of the 6,000 units the city wants to build at the site.

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