Everyone dunks on Griffintown. Here's what they're missing.

Griffintown's become Montreal's favourite punching bag for anti-development sentiment, but its messy, diverse rebirth is actually turning into something good.

The Main

November 7, 2025- Read time: 8 min

A mix of new condos, 19th-century greystones, and public spaces that's finally starting to feel like a neighbourhood again. | Photograph: Eva Blue / @evablue

“We don’t want another Griffintown.”

That’s what a group of Brossard residents told the Journal de Montréal when they spoke out against a plan to build new high-rise apartments in their suburb.

And who can blame them? Griffintown is a soulless collection of condo towers and condo people, the very embodiment of what happens when you let greedy developers run rampant.

Right?

Well, no. The fast-growing neighbourhood at the foot of Peel Street has become a punching bag for Montrealers who don’t like high-density development and a certain athleisure aesthetic. But the Griffintown bashers have got it all wrong: what’s happening in one of the oldest parts of town isn’t a mistake to be avoided. It’s the beginning of something actually kinda good.

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