Kevric’s major redevelopment of the former National Bank headquarters in downtown Montreal is almost fully preleased.

Only two floors comprising 55,000 square feet remain available for lease in the 28-storey mixed-use office tower, Kevric President Sébastien Hylands told Connect during an interview at the development site.

“Right now, that’s essentially the only [office] square footage we have left on the building, which is a reflection of the quality and the success that we’ve had with the project,” said Hylands. “So, those are two full floors, and that’s pretty much all we have to lease. And we’re expecting they’re going to be leased by the end of this year.”

Hylands said he does not foresee any difficulty leasing up the remaining spaces, which are the entire 20th and 26th floors, given strong interest from prospective tenants.

Known as 600 DLG, the project is located at 600 De La Gauchetière West, north of Square Victoria in the International Quarter. The building will serve as the new headquarters for CN Rail, whose employees will fully move in by the end of 2027.

CN will occupy the building’s first 18 floors above a podium, taking up about 440,000 square feet of the 715,000-sf leasable space. Other committed tenants include global ports operator Logistec, which had already moved its headquarters in the building in 2021; accounting firm Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton, a long-standing tenant in the tower that recently extended its lease for another long-term period; tech firm Square Point, Gold Fields Limited and Boston Consulting Group.

“January 1, 2028, the building is going to be 100% full and 100% occupied,” said Hylands. “So, there are tenants that stayed in place through the transformation, but new tenants are starting to arrive as of this spring, and over the next year, we’re actually going to be seeing a lot of new occupants move into the building up until the second half of ’27.”

The burgeoning return-to-office movement has had a large effect on the strong preleasing activity at 600 DLG when Kevric began to offer spaces although it was just getting started compared to where it is now.

“It is key to [the success],” said Hylands. “That’s why we’ve been getting such great success, because this building was really designed as being the the most productive, the most efficient, the more high-performance office spaces here that you’ll find in downtown Montreal, and definitely that [high quality] is a key element for organizations to be able to bring people back to work, to focus on delivering, on projects, being productive, being efficient, and also making sure that those employees come in for the right reasons.

“If they want them to be in, the last thing organizations want is that people show up to work and then they realize there’s no benefit to actually coming to work because they’re still in virtual meetings. That is the opposite of making it work properly.”

Most of the leases are long-term deals with five-year renewal options.

“I think it reflects on the fact that occupants, when they see good, quality buildings, want to secure those buildings for a long amount of time,” said Hylands. “So, we’ve been getting a lot of leases that are 15 and 20 years, which is an interesting dynamic from 10 years ago. “One of the big discussions point was around tenants wanted flexibility, wanted shorter lease terms. This was definitely being reflected in the pickup of space in WeWork and things like that, where people could actually have a month-to-month basis. Right now, we’ve definitely seen a flip side from large organizations, where they want to secure the best spaces, and they’re willing to commit to long term to be able to make sure that they they don’t have any risk around the spaces that they have in downtown core.”

The building’s transformation included creating a new building envelope, starting from the top down. That work, completed in summer 2025, marked the first time the top-down envelope-replacement method was deployed. Other major changes include a new entrance at the corner of De La Gauchetière West and Beaver Hall, the new main lobby will be located. A new entrance will also be situated on Beaver Hall hill, giving the public access to newly created retail units on the concourse level which extends to the food court located under Allied REIT’s 1001 Robert Bourassa office tower.

A major new entrance will also be located on the corner of Rue Viger (Viger Street) and Beaver Hall, fronting Square Victoria and providing access to a subway station accessible via 600 DLG.

The redevelopment will also contain an expanded retail component, including the restoration of the food court and a new restaurant along De La Gauchetière West featuring its own entrance and a patio.

Kevric will begin to lease retail units in coming months, after some new office tenants move in and retailers can see what they would be getting at 600 DLG.