Luxury shopping? Lifestyle destination? This is what it’s like inside Montreal’s newest supermall | CBC News

Want to know more about Royalmount? Find out when it opens to how much parking costs here.

A little less than 48 hours before the first shoppers were expected to start spending money inside the new Royalmount shopping mall, the place still looked like a construction site.

Workers were drilling, digging, installing and hammering away on Tuesday morning as Andrew Lutfy, the real estate and retail mogul behind the project, led a group of journalists and influencers on a tour. 

Lutfy, wearing a smile and a pair of Tom Ford shoes, stood in the mall’s main atrium in front of storefronts that will soon be home to Tiffany and Co. and Yves-Saint-Laurent, among other luxury brands. He pitched Royalmount as a retail haven, destination for curious families, culinary hotspot and cure for the loneliness epidemic.

“What we’re providing is a physical canvas that is master-planned — and I’m gonna say genius master-planned — that brings people together,” he said, standing in the mall’s main atrium.

But will people come? Royalmount has drawn criticism and pushback from local officials who warn it will make traffic worse in the area, with a constant slowdown on the Décarie and Metropolitain expressways already.

Lutfy isn’t worried. If they don’t want to contend with traffic, he said shoppers can take the Metro to De La Savane station and walk over the highway via a $50-million footbridge to get to the mall’s second floor.

When they walk inside the air-conditioned interior, there’s a Starbucks, Zara and Sports Experts.

WATCH | An early look inside Royalmount ahead of the grand opening:

Inside Montreal’s newest mega-mall — Royalmount

The Royalmount shopping centre is set to open to the public Sept.5, 2024.

On the first floor, there’s a Gucci outlet, Rolex store and Balenciaga boutique.

Experts say it’s risky to open a mall selling luxury products at a time when interest rates have risen quickly and people have less disposable income.

“People are having a hard time and luxury brands are also having a hard time,” said Benoit Duguay, a professor at the Université de Québec à Montreal’s school of management services. “It’s not the best time in retailing.”

Lutfy sees it differently. The mall, he said, is meant to be an experience — a chance to bask in what he calls an “ecosystem.” Sometime in 2026, he said, Royalmount will also be home to an aquarium. He encourages families to come to the mall by Metro or by car, sit outdoors in the mall’s courtyard and “enjoy the beauty … even if they don’t spend a dime.”

But dimes can become dollars and Lutfy says he has statistics to show they will be spent at Royalmount. Lutfy claimed two-thirds of all Generation Z teens aspire to make a luxury purchase in the next 12 months and that 50 per cent already have made one by age 15. 

“That’s the amazing thing about these 15-year-olds. I don’t know where they get their money. I don’t know if they’ve got side-hustles. I don’t know if they took their mother’s vintage purse or sold it, took the cash and spent it. They’re very industrious,” he said.

For those who don’t want to buy a Rolex or a Gucci handbag, there are other offerings — like Garage, Lutfy points out. He is the owner of Dynamite Group that owns, among other retail offerings, the fast-fashion brand. 

On the tour, Lutfy described himself as a serial entrepreneur, someone who likes to get things done. He offered a sneak peak — foreplay, he called it — of his newest startup, Rennai, whose flagship store is opening in Royalmount. 

Rennai offers beauty products and makeup alongside a juice bar, DJ and space to get your nails done or have a massage.

“It’s all about rejuvenation,” Lutfy said, and its name is a play on the word renaissance — even the store’s decor is rebirth-themed. Its wavy ceiling is themed as a birth canal — “I swear,” Lutfy said.

It’s not the only intriguing design feature at Royalmount. On his tour, Lutfy brought a group of 20 journalists and videographers into the mall’s “inclusive bathroom” complete with a lounging area, floor-to-ceiling mirrors and a wall with a moving art display.

Citing more data, Lutfy said almost all of the province’s millionaire households lived within a 20-minute drive of Royalmount. He also pointed to the number of university-educated people in Montreal and the density of allophone residents — people who, he says, value global brands.

“When you put all of that together, the irrational becomes rational,” he said. 

That phrase was a shot at his critics, who had said it was irrational to build project in the first place. 

Some argued the project would draw people away from other areas of the city, like downtown Montreal — and that the city didn’t need another mall.

The City of Montreal issued a statement Tuesday saying it wished there was housing included in the plan. Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante also criticized him for not including social housing in the plan, but the Town of Mount Royal (TMR) has so far not approved the plan to build residential towers in the area. 

Despite the opposition, Lutfy said he was confident the towers would get built.

“I’ve come to appreciate that ‘no’ is not ‘no.’ No’ is just ‘no’ for today,” Lutfy said. “My bet is the mayor of TMR, the councillors of TMR and the residents of TMR will appreciate first-hand in a couple of days what we are building.”

What are they building, exactly? In press releases and promotional material, it’s a “lifestyle destination.” In Lutfy’s words it’s more than that — it’s an experience, a reason to reconnect with one another. 

But it’s also a place that was carefully designed, he said, to put the shopping experience above all else. 

Even the mall’s hallways were designed column-free and with special thought paid to how the stores jut into the walking space — all to make them as prominent as possible, and to encourage people who are walking through the mall to see them.

“You should experience the brands,” Lutfy said. “It’s about the brands.”