The Garment District (french: Cité de la Mode) is a

neighbourhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; American and British English spelling differences, see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community ...

in the city of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada. It is located primarily along Chabanel Street in the

Ahuntsic Ahuntsic (; French pronunciation ) is a district in the northern part of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Originally an independent village, Ahuntsic was first annexed by Montreal in 1910, then merged into the borough of Ahuntsic-Cartierville in 2002. ...

neighbourhood of the Ahuntsic-Cartierville

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

. The

Chabanel Station Chabanel station is a Commuter rail in North America, commuter rail station operated by Exo (public transit), Exo in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It serves the Saint-Jérôme line. Its name comes from Chabanel street, the street that the station is l ...

(train) is located close by.

History

Montreal's Garment District was originally located downtown on

De Maisonneuve Boulevard De Maisonneuve Boulevard (officially in french: boulevard De Maisonneuve) is a major westbound boulevard located in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is named after the founder of Montreal, Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve. It is a one-way stre ...

between

Berri Street Berri Street (officially in french: rue Berri) is a major north–south street located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Berri Street links De la Commune Street in the south and Somerville Street in the north. The street is interrupted between Rosemont ...

and

Saint Laurent Boulevard Saint Laurent Boulevard, also known as Saint Lawrence Boulevard (officially in french: boulevard Saint-Laurent), is a major street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A commercial artery and cultural heritage site, the street runs north–south through ...

. Furriers such as the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

and warehouses lined the streets in this area at the time. The Garment District later moved to the

Mile End Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...

neighbourhood in the northernmost edge of the borough of Le Plateau-Mont-Royal. The massive 1960s buildings built by the fur traders along De Gaspé Street still stand today. It has since moved again to its current location, along Chabanel Street. From 1964 to 1985 and running from Saint-Laurent Boulevard in the east to Meilleur Avenue in the west, eight large multi-storey buildings were built along Chabanel. The first address is 99 Chabanel (500,000 sq. ft.), followed by 111, 125, 225
333
433 and 555 Chabanel followed. The largest of the buildings is 333 Chabanel (approximately one million square feet) which boasts the second largest floorplate on the island of Montreal (110,000 sq. ft.) after

Place Bonaventure Place Bonaventure is an office, exhibition, and hotel complex in Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada, adjacent to the city's Central Station. At in size, Place Bonaventure was the second largest commercial building in the world at the time of its ...

. The total square footage of the buildings along Chabanel is estimated at five million. The street is still considered the centre of the fashion industry in Canada, with several hundred companies and thousands of employees operating from Chabanel addresses. However, in recent years with manufacturing moving offshore due to the G-8 policy of "trade-not-aid" for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) Market Access Initiative, contraction in the industry and vacancy rates increasing, there has been a move t
promote the area
to other industries, and one of the buildings (125 Chabanel) has been slated to be redeveloped as a residential condominium project.

Chabanel in Literature

The nove
The Rent Collector
b
B. Glen Rotchin
which was a finalist for the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award is set at 99 Chabanel.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Neighbourhoods in Montreal Garment districts Textile industry of Canada Ahuntsic-Cartierville