{"id":5575,"date":"2026-03-20T09:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T13:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lesamuel.ca\/?p=5575"},"modified":"2026-03-20T09:45:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T13:45:21","slug":"armoyan-groups-montreal-office-to-res-conversion-a-worthy-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesamuel.ca\/en\/armoyan-groups-montreal-office-to-res-conversion-a-worthy-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Armoyan Group’s Montreal office-to-res conversion a ‘worthy’ project"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Armoyan Group's Montreal office-to-res conversion a 'worthy' project<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Author of the article:Danny Kucharsky
Published Mar. 4 2026<\/p>

https:\/\/renx.ca\/index.php\/armoyan-groups-montreal-office-to-res-conversion-a-worthy-project<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Le Samuel is an office-to-residential conversion project being completed in Montreal by Armoyan Group of Companies. (Courtesy Armoyan Group)<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

It may not be a big breadwinner, but the most prominent office-to-residential conversion in downtown Montreal was worth the investment, says George Armoyan Jr., developer of the 211-unit Le Samuel.<\/p>

The building at 1245 Sherbrooke St. W., at the corner of de la Montagne St., was completed in 1962 and served as the headquarters of the Standard Life Assurance Company. It stood vacant for seven years until the Armoyan Group of Companies purchased it in June 2023.<\/p>

\u201cFinancially, it\u2019s not going to be our highest return on a project but there\u2019s a lot of intangibles with this project that make it definitely worth it,\u201d Armoyan said. He cited lessons learned for future conversions, noting \u201cthe first one is always going to be the hardest.\u201d<\/p>

The cost for the conversion was about the same as building a new multifamily building from scratch, he said.<\/p>

Armoyan spoke about the conversion of the building into rentals at the Quebec Apartment Investment Conference, held in Montreal in February.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p><\/section>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n
\n

“Incredible” Golden Square Mile location<\/h3>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a legacy asset,\u201d Armoyan said, noting the Halifax-based company has put its Quebec office on the second floor. \u201cWe want to have it in the family. We saw it and we thought this will be a good project.\u201d<\/p>\n

The building has an \u201cincredible\u201d location in the Golden Square Mile, across from the Ritz Carlton Hotel. After touring the property, \u201cWe said \u2018It\u2019s the kind of property we want to own.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Armoyan, who is also vice-president of G2S2 Capital<\/a>, noted the building\u2019s 12,500-square-foot floor plate mirrors what would be seen in a new build. Its rectangular configuration maximizes light, and there are nine-foot ceilings.<\/p>\n

It also benefitted from having a steel frame and beams with holes in them through which mechanical systems could be run. In addition, there were no columns in the middle of the floor plate. The exterior pink granite was in excellent condition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had all the elements that made this a good candidate for conversion.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the city does not allow balconies on Sherbrooke St. downtown, units are larger than average, Armoyan noted.<\/p>\n

Leasing pace accelerates<\/h3>\n

The building is currently one-third leased, but leasing demand is starting to pick up, as the building will be completed in March, he said. Le Samuel\u2019s mature clientele \u201cdon\u2019t want to live in a construction site. But \u201cwe\u2019re seeing a lot of positive absorption now.\u201d<\/p>\n

One-third of the luxury units are leased, and incentives of one-month free rent and no rent increase for 24 months are being offered to tenants.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1982 by Armoyan\u2019s father George, the company has also done hotel-to-apartment conversions in London, Ont. and Saint John, N.B.<\/p>\n

In Montreal, the company built Le George, a 732-unit apartment building at 1001 Lucien-L\u2019Allier St., near the Bell Centre that was bought from a previous developer. It was delivered in 2024.<\/p>\n

Armoyan recently bought the historic Balfour Building, a 10-storey office building at 3575 Saint-Laurent Blvd. that was built in 1929, and the similarly sized 4410 Saint-Laurent Blvd., both of which are in Montreal\u2019s Plateau Mont-Royal borough.<\/p>\n

The company also plans to build 500 to 600 rental units in St-Jovite, near Mont Tremblant.<\/p>\n

In Alberta, the company has invested heavily in office space in the past two years, having purchased 4.7 million square feet, mostly in Calgary, from institutions. The buildings are currently being maintained as office spaces. <\/p>\n

Quartier des Lumi\u00e8res<\/h3>\n

Also at the conference, partners behind two major projects east of downtown Montreal described how they will create two new neighbourhoods within the next 10 years.<\/p>\n

The Quartier des Lumi\u00e8res, built around the site of the former Radio-Canada\/CBC headquarters west of the Jacques Cartier Bridge, will attempt to rebuild what is \u201cprobably downtown\u2019s most destroyed neighbourhood,\u201d said Daniel Arbour, vice-president development for major projects at Groupe Mach<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About 2,000 residents were displaced for the construction of the CBC\/Radio-Canada headquarters more than half a century ago.<\/p>\n

Quartier des Lumi\u00e8res will see 2,000 residential units, 500 social housing units and 200 affordable units. In addition, Devimco plans to build about 2,000 units on land it bought from Groupe Mach at the edge of the site.<\/p>\n

It will also include a 70,000 square foot public space, equivalent in size to Place Jacques Cartier in Old Montreal. <\/p>\n

The former 24-storey Radio-Canada\/CBC tower will be maintained and its massive underground space \u2013 far larger than the tower itself \u2013 will include uses \u201cthat you don\u2019t normally see downtown,\u201d namely large surface stores with parking (about 700 spaces).<\/p>\n

There will be 215,000 square feet of underground retail space with five or six medium and large surface stores.<\/p>

Arbour said 250 residential units will be built this year and a new project will be launched every year until 2034.<\/p>

Quartier Molson<\/h3>

The nearby Quartier Molson, to be built at the site of the former Molson Brewery plant and headquarters, will see the construction of 5,000 residential units.<\/p>

It will be built by developer Montoni<\/a> and financial partner, the Fonds immobilier de Solidarit\u00e9 FTQ<\/a>.<\/p>

Much of the former plant will be preserved, including the main tower, chimney, clock and Molson sign, said Arnaud Duch\u00eane, director of investments at the Fonds immobilier de Solidarit\u00e9 FTQ. <\/p>

The development will provide the public with access to the riverfront. It will also seek LEED and zero carbon building certifications.<\/p>

Sophie Rousseau-Loiselle, executive director of the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 d\u2019habitation et de developpement de Montr\u00e9al added that 350 social and affordable units will be built on the site in collaboration with Montoni and the Fonds, in towers of about 20 and 10 storeys.<\/p>

Decontamination at the site is underway, Duch\u00eane said. <\/p>


<\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Armoyan Group’s Montreal office-to-res conversion a ‘worthy’ project Author of the article:Danny KucharskyPublished Mar. 4 2026 https:\/\/renx.ca\/index.php\/armoyan-groups-montreal-office-to-res-conversion-a-worthy-project Le Samuel is an office-to-residential conversion project being completed in Montreal by Armoyan Group of Companies. (Courtesy Armoyan Group) It may not be a big breadwinner, but the most prominent office-to-residential conversion in downtown Montreal was worth the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classifiee"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesamuel.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesamuel.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesamuel.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesamuel.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesamuel.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5575"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lesamuel.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5583,"href":"https:\/\/lesamuel.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5575\/revisions\/5583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesamuel.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesamuel.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesamuel.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}