Costco in Saint Alphonse: Actions double

“It is more serious than it was,” confirms the mayor of Saint-Alphonse, Marcel Goudreau.

The main interested party, Érablière La Grillade’s owner, Pierre Gingras, claims to have received an offer to purchase his 718,000 square feet (66,695 square metres) of land, located near the Eastern Townships Highway. He said the offer was made by the Montoni group.

Montoni would also be interested in the vast land behind the Grillade, near Brodeur Est and Michel streets. Covering just over 1 million square feet (100,292 square metres), it has been owned since 2005 by R. Marcil et Frères, which has since been acquired by Rona.

A purchase offer has been made for this property, confirms Rona spokesperson Valerie Gonzalo. But she is not able to determine who he originally was.

For his part, Pierre Gingras indicates that he has no confirmation that the commercial project that could be deployed there is actually the construction of a Costco warehouse.

But everything seems to point in this direction. Last year, Costco and Montone granted mandates to lobbyists to investigate the feasibility of extending water and sewer services to 106 Rue des Erables, La Grilad.

New deadline

According to Mr. Gingras, the purchase offer, the terms of which remain confidential, was actually submitted several months ago. Under this agreement, Érablière La Grillade was forced to stop its activities on September 1.

But a new one-year deadline was recently added to the due diligence period, so the purchase offer is now valid until September 1, 2024, and identifies the owner of the place since 1983.

He claims that in addition to the “Christmas concerts” in 2023, he has stopped taking bookings for show events at Maple Grove in 2024. But in the circumstances, he has begun entering into agreements in this regard again.

The grill was not officially for sale. But Pierre Gingras says he has received a “reasonable purchase offer”. However, he refuses to rejoice too quickly.

“Yes, I have a purchase offer, but it is worthless until the deal is done. (…) It was well written that they [les acheteurs] “They can withdraw whenever they want.”

— Pierre Gingras

There are no municipal services

The mayor of Saint-Alphonse confirms that requests have been submitted to his municipality, neighboring the town of Granby, in order to expand municipal services. But this request, which would entail huge costs, was rejected, says Marcel Goudreau.

“The Grill has been in business for years [sans services municipaux], He said. If memory serves, La Grillade served 1,250 meals an hour in the 1970s and 1980s, which I think is a lot of people. “They had no problem with the filtration system or the water.”

He points out that the majority of properties in St. Alphonsus operate with septic tanks and septic tanks. “It was quite clear from the first meeting I had with them [les promoteurs]», says the mayor.

According to him, the sprinkler system for a potentially large commercial space can also be provided through a “sump”.

Other actions

Further steps are also being carried out to validate the implementation of a business venture at this location. According to Mayor Goudreau, discussions have been held with the Ministry of Transport of Quebec (MTQ), among others, to add a second access to the land, this time from Route 139.

Mr. Goudreau claims that he participated in a meeting to this effect with representatives of the Ministry and Montoni. However, it was not possible to obtain comments from MTQ to this effect on Friday.

Hydro-Québec, for its part, was asked to move a power line. Another detail: No application for a building permit has yet been submitted to the municipality, explains Marcel Goudreau. But, according to him, the project could have a “good impact”, if it is eventually realized.

According to the information I obtained Voice of the East Last year, Costco also looked toward Granby. But the steps did not go very far.

It was not possible to obtain a comment from Costco or the Montone Group.