One of Montreal’s leading real estate developers is getting a new chief as Mélanie Robitaille has taken the reins at Rachel Julien after serving 15 years at the business.
Robitaille will assume the role of president of Rachel Julien from her uncle Denis Robitaille, who launched the company 30 years ago with a series of minor transactions that eventually grew into building residential towers that have contributed approximately 5,000 housing units in the city.
Robitaille, who has been serving as vice president and general manager, will transition to the top spot in a gradual process the company said. Robitaille will remain on as an adviser.
Rachel Julien has a custom of tackling a pair of projects a year in its home town of Montreal and is currently at work on two ambitious projects, the 427-apartment project near the MUHC super hospital, and the other multi-phase Canoe project in the east end near the Olympic Stadium, not far from the company headquarters.
Robitaille said she plans to stay the course set by her uncle and continue adding housing to her hometown of Montreal but said the company is increasingly open to building in suburban areas close to Montreal, as long as they are near public transit.
“We are still focused on Montreal but are opening the door to those areas as well,” she said in an interview.
The work involved in leading the company of 50 employees with several major projects underway is highly demanding. Robitaille notes that she routinely works 50 to 60 hours a week.
Even leisure hours are focused on the real estate world, Robitaille notes. “There are follow-ups to do in the evening, events to attend and it’s important to keep in touch with everything that affects the global economy. I follow the news and many podcasts to try to understand what is happening in the world and how it might impact Montreal,” she said.
The extra vigilance is necessary when managing possible real estate outcomes, she notes. “There is significant risk involved in the world of real estate development. That risk plays a major element in every new project. There are lots of sleepless nights thinking about things at 3 a.m.,” she said.
Developers have routinely been rebuffed in their attempts to build by residents hostile to new construction but Robitaille feels that the desperate need for lodging overrides those many customary apprehensions. “As a society we have no choice. We need to build more homes and we need to densify in order to keep up with demand," she said.