Pointe-St-Charles residents plan to turn empty building into community space

Residents in Pointe-Saint-Charles are hoping to transform an abandoned building in their neighbourhood into a space for the community to come together.

The project to revamp theBtiment 7 buildingisnow in the running to win $40,000 towards its renewal as part of a national competition called This Place Matters a project aimed atrevitalizinga Canadian neighbourhood.

Canadians are invited tovote and choose which initiative they believe deserves to be the winner.

Kevin McMahon, who is leading the Btiment 7project, said the funding will help histeam's planto bring life to the building,which sits on former CN Railway lands,and make it accessible for everyone.

"Our mission is to provide cheap andaffordable spaces for social economy projects for people in need."

With 90,000 square feet, the building is a massiveblank canvas with ample room for potential.

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But it will requirea lot of work, time and funding to make it into something that benefits Pointe-Saint-Charles, a neighbourhood in the Southwest borough which is experiencing its own,larger transformation.

"We really want to help everyone live together," McMahon said.

"Some kind of space where all the workers, and people from the neighbourhood, and people who are more in need can meet, talk together, understand each other and work together to find solutions to the neighbourhood."

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A spot to meet, eat,create

McMahon said arevitalized space could be an answer to Pointe-Saint-Charles'slong-standing issues,such as a lack of community-based initiatives and being located in a "food desert" and areawhere there aren't many grocery stores or restaurants.

"So we'll have a spot to meet, a micro-brewery, caf, grocery store and shared work spaces for do it yourself-ers, [and]artisans," McMahon said.

The funds accrued so far are for the facade, and the team has recycled brick it can use, but McMahon hopes to raise more money through the competition.

The aim is to have the first part of the buildingready for the community by the end of 2017.

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