Montreal group proposes new downtown tower for NATO defence bank

QUÉBEC — Montreal’s business community is coming together to sweeten the pot in the city’s bid to host the headquarters of a multinational defence bank.

A consortium of three companies — Sid Lee Architecture, Rosefellow, and the Tsatas Group — are offering several floors in a planned downtown tower for the bank’s offices.

They hope their offer will give Montreal an edge as it competes with Vancouver, Ottawa, and Toronto for the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank.

Canada has been selected to host the multinational bank that will provide long-term, low-cost financing for defence projects by NATO members and allies.

The federal government, meanwhile, has not yet chosen a host city — and the Ontario government claims to have already secured a location for the bank’s headquarters in Toronto.

Martin Leblanc, co-founder at Sid Lee Architecture, said the tower project had already been finalized and was supposed to be a hotel, but several floors would be repurposed to accommodate the bank.

The project is estimated to cost $200 million, with construction to be completed in 36 months.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 18, 2026.

Patrice Bergeron, The Canadian Press