Montréal's territory includes several areas and buildings to be transformed, currently dedicated to non-residential purposes and largely underused. These areas permit an interesting opportunity to develop highly diversified living environments.

These areas and buildings come under four main categories: industrial areas, commercial areas, large institutional properties and non-residential buildings.

Industrial areas

Large underused industrial areas, such as the Outremont railyard, will be redeveloped for residential or mixed uses, including housing, retail activities and employment areas. Some of these areas will require detailed planning, including:

• The areas adjacent to the CP tracks, notably the Outremont railyard (see 4.2 );
• Lachine Canal (see 4.8);
• Griffintown (see 4.8.1);
• East Lachine (see 4.8.2).

Commercial areas

Despite the retail boom and renewal that has been observed in certain areas of Montréal, the vacancy rate of some local shopping streets is high, some sections are deteriorated and first-generation shopping centres are declining. Several of these underused retail spaces have the potential to be redeveloped and densified for residential purposes. Others constitute an opportunity to intensify land use by introducing housing as a complement to retail activity.

The conversion of some of these sites is already underway (such as Boulevard Shevchenko and the Cavalier de LaSalle shopping centre in the Borough of LaSalle).

Large institutional properties

Throughout Montréal, there are large institutional properties that could be converted, in whole or in part, to residential purposes. These institutions sit on large lots with few buildings and often present high-quality architecture and landscapes. The Louis-H.-La Fontaine project is an example of such conversion of a portion of a site to residential purposes. The architectural integrity of the buildings and the property is being maintained, while a new, quality living environment is being developed.