Preservation or a remaster? The city’s plans for the Empress

A plan to preserve the façade while removing the interior is drawing mixed reactions

Fringe ArtsYoan Safar — Published April 9, 2026 3 minutes

The initial budget for Phase 1, estimated at under $10 million and fully funded by the city, would cover the demolition of the interior, the preservation of the façade and the creation of an outdoor cultural space.

The building plans were not positively received by all in the neighbourhood, with some raising concerns with the cost of the project and the use of the space. Namely, certain residents, such as Eddie Wong, argue that rather than simply introducing a new cultural centre, a change may be needed.

“I don't think we need this here, because we already have movies in the park,” he said. “Some kind of community kitchen, maybe even low-cost housing. We don’t need theatres, that’s for sure.” 

The debate comes amid Montreal’s current severe housing crisis, with the cost of a two-bedroom apartment having risen 23 per cent in the past two years. Emergency shelters have also been stretched beyond full capacity, with the winter bringing an especially high demand. 

Jeffrey Kastner, a cultivator for the Empress Cinema Collective and head of the NDG Historical Society, believes that keeping the space as a cultural centre would still benefit the community commercially.

“If you have a kind of cultural centre there, there's spin-off businesses, there's restaurants, there's life, it really brings vitality to the street,” said Kastner.”If they were just to turn it into, let’s say, another Pharmaprix, it would just be more of the same rather than something unique.” 

The Empress Theatre was built in 1927, with its façade designed by Joseph-Alcide Chaussé in the Egyptian Revival architectural style as an homage to the discovery of the pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. It was the only theatre of its kind in Canada. The interior was designed in a surrealist style by architect Emmanuel Briffa.

However, much of that magic, according to former projectionist Derek Reade, was lost in renovations which took place in the mid-20th century.

“It lost all of its character. It was a plain ’50s-style. It had mesh, wire-mesh walls. But behind the wire-mesh walls were the original walls,” he said.

Reade added that, having seen the fire which caused it to close, restoration efforts could have been more effective. 

“There wasn't really a lot of damage, you know, they could have brought it back. But as I understood it, famous players were losing money on the theatre,” Reade said.

Those who were not around to see the Empress Theatre (Cinema V in its later years), such as Nicolas Ferreira, a sociology and anthropology student at Concordia University, stressed the importance of cultural landmarks for younger generations.

“I think the youth of today are losing a little bit of that desire to go to a theatre, and if you don’t have culture, what do you have?” he said.

For now, the city plans to select a promoter and developer for the project by 2029, marking the end of the current administration’s mandate.