Complexe
About Us
Our story
Alexis Nihon was born in Liege, Belgium, in 1902, and immigrated to Canada at the age of 18. After World War II, he acquired several parcels of land on the Island of Montreal and rented them out to developers. One prime location, at the corner of Ste-Catherine Street and Atwater Avenue, was developed into a major complex by two companies, first Atwater-Western and then Montrad.
The architects, Harold Ship and Stanley King, originally envisaged Place Alexis Nihon as a multi-purpose complex combining a shopping center, office towers, residential housing and a medical center. The Place Alexis Nihon was built in 1967, and three years later, the first office tower and the Plaza Tower residences were added. The Nihon family bought the Complex in 1983, and completed the project by adding a second office tower in 1986. However, they decided against building the medical centre as originally planned.
Since then, Place Alexis Nihon has consolidated its assets, and today is home to over 100 stores, some 40 tenants in its office towers, and the residents of the Plaza Tower’s 426 apartments.
About the owner
The Nihon Group was the owner of Place Alexis Nihon until 2002, when the Alexis Nihon Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) was created. Four years later, in April 2007, Homburg Invest Inc. acquired Alexis Nihon REIT and thereby officially took ownership of the Shopping Centre. Since May 2010, Place Alexis Nihon has been held by Homburg Canada Real Estate Investment Trust, now operating under the corporate name of CANMARC Real Estate Investment Trust.
The Canmarc REIT has an extensive portfolio of income-producing commercial properties—primarily retail stores and offices—industrial properties, and multi-unit residential buildings. Homburg’s assets include about 9.4 million square feet of commercial gross leasable area and 464 housing units located in Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario and Western Canada.
