When Francis Gosselin and Gabrielle Madé told me they recently purchased a loft converted from a former car dealership building, they had my curiosity. Both very busy young professionals from the communication industry, they didn’t really plan to get on the market until they simply fell in love with this unit and quickly decided to make it their first buy.
Historical background
This year, car dealership Clermont Chevrolet-Cadillac would have celebrated its 100 anniversary of selling cars in Montreal. The company (closed in 2009) originally sold Ford vehicles, especially the Model T. They then switched to dealing Buick models after the founder Georges Clermont had a hot argument with no other than Henry Ford, the industrial legend himself. These were epic times, indeed.
Source : La Presse.
The original building conveniently located on the corner of Saint-Denis / Saint-Grégoire was commissioned by Georges Clermont circa 1925 to become a 4 story car dealership. It has been completely stripped down and rebuilt in 2012 by developer Mondev while the marketing team leveraged the Clermont dealership history to promote the project, naming it the Clermont Lofts.
Today, only the concrete skeleton remains, making it a very interesting historical feature inside the new lofts.
The spacious kitchen is obviously the central point of this unit, while the tall ceilings accentuate the openness of the loft.
Natural light fills the loft from the back windows (with no immediate neighbor) and allows Francis to have a fresh home office, surrounded by an impressive Lego collection.
Thanks to Francis, Gabrielle and of course Ratacat for allowing us into their home! If you have a tip or know someone we should pay a visit for a future story, contact us.
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