New construction at the Village Shopping Plaza

This was on 04 July 2026: after four months of not being able to go for walks due to a sprained ankle I am back walking and feeling pretty good. Remember the Village Shopping Plaza or the Robert Burns Pub, corner of Robert Burns and Cote St. Luc Road? It was finally torn down, the earth levelled, and a few weeks ago construction began on this new building. It will be eighteen floors of condos or apartments, 150 units, two basement floors for parking; as people are getting old they are selling off their homes and buying condos; it makes sense. There has been quite a lot of condo construction in this area and this was one of the few remaining empty lots. I suppose there will be a few stores on street level. 

                            Imagine looking out of your living room window and seeing a Hydro tower and live electric wires
                                                        a few feet away, maybe you'll be able to hear them buzzing ...

An article in The Suburban reads:

Also of note is the 120-kV overhead high-voltage line within the Hydro-Québec easement behind the building which will be replaced. Hydro’s plans to modernize the grid between 2027-2030 and convert the line to 315 kV, means replacing the current installation with a 65-metre high pylon, and moving the line 10 metres closer to the railway track. The move is required to accommodate the city’s and Hydro’s 27-km green corridor.

And what about those train tracks? On a regular basis I see tankers, each full of oil, passing within 100 feet of this site. I am reminded of Lac Megantic... I live about five blocks from here and I can hear trains passing. 

 

The Robert Burns Pub

As though it never existed, demolished, removed, trucked away, and a layer of earth smoothed over the old building site. Photographs taken the morning of 01 October 2025.                        

The Robert Burns Pub is no more

 

Nothing left but a pile of rubble. The Robert Burns Pub, demolished earlier this week, and derelict for over a decade, is no more. Now this corner lot is available for condos, stores, apartments, or whatever else someone wants to build here. Photos taken morning of 06 September 2025.

Rear of Robert Burns Pub from parking area, April 2015

Inside the Robert Burns Pub

 Photographs of the Robert Burns Pub located beside the Village Shopping Plaza.

Hi Bob, Yes, I am back out walking

Yes, I am back out walking, I aim for a daily walk, it is my favourite exercise. Here we are again at the corner of Cote St. Luc Road and Robert Burns Avenue, a property that continues to deteriorate. I suppose whoever owns this property is waiting for a buyer, or demolition and building permits, or architectural plans. In the meantime we have a building in which the electricity has been cut off and with the changing seasons the whole thing is in a state of decline and deterioration. Last week I saw a hawk sitting on one of the railings in the photograph below. Nature is returning to the Covid cities we inhabit. But nothing stands for long in the way of making money so these buildings must not only go, new buildings (condos, most likely) will be built here. 

 

Return to the Village Shopping Plaza

I often walk by the Village Shopping Plaza on Cote St-Luc Road, it has grown more and more derelict; next door is the now closed Robert Burns Pub. Here are photos taken about a week ago.