Montreal pumps $55M into entertainment district

Montreal will spend $55 million to overhaul the city's downtown entertainment district around Place des Arts, the mayor announced Tuesday.

The area, known as the Quartier des spectacles, is home to several live summer events including the Jazz and Just for Laughs Festivals and the Francofolies.

The city hopes to attract private investors to help pay for the project, said Mayor Gérald Tremblay.

"What we want to do is encourage the private sector to invest as much as possible, and this is what's going to be happening in the months to come," he said at a press conference.

The city is also courting private developers to build new office and residential buildings, but the main focus of the redesign is to modernize the area's public spaces for live entertainment.

The Quartier des spectacles will be an added draw for hordes of tourists who already descend on Montreal every summer, said Charles Lapointe, the president of Tourism Montreal.

"You will say, OK, do I go to the opera tonight, or do I go to the theatre, or do I go to a symphony, or do I go to a rock show."

Quebec has already agreed to build a new concert hall in the area for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

Tuesday's announcement marked the first time that Tremblay and Lapointe have appeared in public together since a month earlier, whenLapointe set off a mini-firestorm by complaining to the board of commerce about trash in the city's streets and alleys.

His comments sparked a sharp rebuttal from Tremblay, who said Lapointe should resign for making the statements.

On Tuesday, the two men appeared together laughing and shook hands for reporters to show they'd made up.

The final blueprint for the Quartier des spectacles will be made public in fall 2007.