Griffintown project scaled down

Devimco Inc., the company in charge of the massive redevelopment project in Griffintown, announced its plan to scale down the project due to the current economic crisis. The first phase, which was supposed to cost $400 million, will be reduced to $200 million. Last November, the developers had already announced that it would push the start of the work to 2010 instead of this year. This raises several questions:

• Can we trust Devimco when they say the financial crisis is the cause of the modification of the project or is there something else going on with regard to its viability that the developer doesn’t want to reveal?
• Considering that the project is heavily based on consumption (it originally included 200,000 square feet of big box stores, hotels and a cinema complex,) is it safe to go ahead with it if people can’t shop as much because of the crisis?
• Should the modified project be submitted to public consultations?

More information in these two Gazette articles: here and here.