Phase I of E-Commerce Place in Montreal Being Built

Phase I of E-Commerce Place, a 27-storey state-of-the-art “class A” office building and retail complex, is currently being built in downtown Montreal. In January 2002, 9101-8697 Quebec Inc., an affiliate of Mouvement Desjardins, closed a $79 million construction financing with a syndicate of institutional lenders and a $79 million mortgage bond offering to a group of institutional investors.

Caroline Thomassin, in-house counsel at Fédération des Caisses Desjardins du Quebec, represented the borrower/issuer. Ken Atlas and Glen Bowman (corporate finance), Manon Thivierge (tax), Michel Poirier (zoning) and Jason Caron (securities) of Heenan Blaikie LLP in Montreal acted as special counsel to the borrower/issuer. Desjardins Financial Security Life Assurance Company, a credit support party, was represented by Robert Borduas and Marc Duquette of Ogilvy Renault in Montreal.

Louis-Martin Dubé, Gordon Sato and Stefan Fews (real estate) and Patrick Boucher, Sean Sadler and Bruno Caron (securities) of McCarthy Tétrault LLP acted for the bond purchasers, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, The Canada Life Assurance Company, Clarica Life Insurance Company, Laurentian Bank of Canada and ING Bank of Canada. Pierre-Denis Leroux and Yannick Beaudoin (business law) and Stéphane Lalande (real estate) of Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP in Montreal represented the syndicate of construction lenders composed of Caisse centrale Desjardins and Laurentian Bank of Canada.