Oktodev has acquired the final development site at Montreal’s Square Phillips complex, clearing the way for a planned upper-upscale hotel in the heart of downtown.

The Montreal developer said it has closed on the land at 1 Phillips Square, where it plans a lifestyle hotel with more than 180 rooms alongside New Castle Hotels & Resorts and Bullpen Capital. Colliers advised on the transaction.

The property forms the previously unbuilt hotel phase of the larger Square Phillips development at 1201-1215 Phillips Place, between Sainte-Catherine Street and René-Lévesque Boulevard.

That makes the deal notable beyond the hotel itself. The site had been controlled through a Brivia Group-related limited partnership and was among the Square Phillips properties placed into court-supervised restructuring proceedings earlier this year. Phase III had long been earmarked for a hotel but construction had not started.

Brivia originally envisioned Square Phillips as a three-phase, roughly 1.3-million-SF development anchored by a 61-storey residential tower and a second 21-storey condominium building.

Oktodev has not disclosed the acquisition price or a construction start date, saying only that the project is moving toward kickoff. The company described the acquisition as a long-term bet on a site connecting Montreal’s financial district, retail corridor and entertainment district.