By Rob Galbraith, The Gazette
It was once the centre of the universe for the frugal nuns who lived and prayed there. But now, the former Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood monastery in Notre Dame de Grace has been converted into condominiums and religious ways have gotten the boot.
The crown jewel of the 108-year-old building, its six-room penthouse, is being listed as the highest price ever for a condo unit in the sizzling-hot N.D.G. housing market. Located at 4361 Decarie Blvd., (next to the Villa-Maria metro station) the unit is a 2,624-square-foot, one-storey condo listed at a staggering $1,299,000. Converted into a 15-unit condo development in 2005, the building's penthouse includes two bedrooms, two bathrooms and powder room.
So why would someone want to live in a former monastery built in 1902?
"Location and history," says Sotheby's International Realty agent Jill Prevost, who is the agent for the property.
"Cachet or charm is probably the buzz word here; the exposed fieldstone walls, the vaulted ceilings and arched windows. As soon as you enter the unit you can feel the history and that Old World allure."
Prevost says that, "you just don't get buildings being built like this any more.
"It's built like Fort Knox," she said of its construction. "Buildings today are nowhere near what people built a hundred years ago. And all the owners in this project live there because they love history and want to preserve it. There's a combined feel to preserve the building by the owners."
Starting around the 1960s, religious practice fell out of fashion across Quebec and as the number of worshippers fell, the churches were sold off and either torn down or converted to other uses, except for the best historical or architectural examples. The Precious Blood Sisters sold their monastery in 1999 to a private owner and the nuns returned to their home base in St. Hyacinthe, where they were founded in 1861.
The N.D.G. monastery falls under the architectural safeguard known as 'immeuble significant' and is protected from any major renovation that may alter the historic aspect of the building.
"We were told by the borough to keep the architectural integrity and not alter features such as the high arched ceiling or window ports and exterior," explained current penthouse owners Nancy and Steve Favor.
The Favors were the first to move into the penthouse in 2007 after it was renovated. "It was originally two condo units, but we combined them into one," says Nancy Favor.
The couple had hoped that they would spend the rest of their lives in their dream unit, but the allure of being closer to their children (who moved to Toronto and Chicago), made them realize that they had no option but to put the condo up for sale.
"I wished I could just pick it up and move it with me. It's so spectacular and special and not just because it's the next best thing to a house. Every time you walk through its doors, it puts a smile onto your face."
And that it does. The unit's wide open space and a huge eight-foot diameter, circular rose window that faces west, guarantee it as an exceptionally well-lit residence all day long. Favor explained that 99 per cent of the unit's heating comes from the two gas fireplaces, one in the living room and other in the master suite, because of the amount of warmth from the sun that the windows reflect inward. The remainder of the heating is supplemented by electricity when needed.
The dark hardwood floors complement the sunlight and give a rich mahogany glow to the place. The fieldstone walls balance the light and dark and are subtle to the eye. It looks like it was moved right out of Old Montreal, though, in reality, it is just a few minutes walk from bustling Monkland Village.
Prevost explained that in mid-April, the N.D.G. real-estate market "was so hot that you could fry an egg on the sidewalk, a real sellers' market. If you blinked, you missed the opportunity to buy your house as someone would buy it from right under your nose while you were deciding whether to finalize. Now, the market is down a notch and is rated as hot."
She explained that typically, this is the time of year when real-estate dealings slow down because July is when most people move and you have the construction holiday. "It picks up again in August and I'm extremely optimistic for the fall, when it should increase to the boiling point again. That is unless the world doesn't financially fall apart and the economic conditions stay stable."
From mid-January to mid-April of this year was the hottest market Prevost had seen in the six years that she has been an agent, along with her partner and mother Joan, who has been in the business since 1987.
"Interest rates were rising and people knew it. Borrowing rules changed; the banks got strict on lending. Now you have to qualify for a five-year fixed-term mortgage, as of April 19, 2010. All the borrowing rules changed, including the fact that the minimum down payment required doubled from five per cent to 10 per cent, so people were in a flurry to buy before this deadline," explained the agent.
She says that another reason people didn't buy or sell last year was the fear of a recurrence of the stock market crash of late 2008, which left the first half of 2009 filled with uncertainty.
"In a lot of places prices dropped, like in Toronto and Calgary for example. But we didn't have that dip. People stopped buying and selling but they were on a buyers-sellers hold. As people started buying and selling, they got on the hunt, and at the end of last year, the market took off like a bat out of hell."
Monkland Village has a lot to offer and is just a five-minute walk from the condominium.
"Monkland Village area is growing faster than Westmount," said Prevost. "It has great quality homes; not as big perhaps as Westmount but the same quality on a smaller scale. You have the same setting as you do there. It's such a great community!"
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