The Bank of Montreal building at 79 Durham St. in Sudbury’s downtown core is closing by April 26, 2024.
Clients are slated to transition to a newly renovated branch at Four Corners Plaza, which a company spokesperson noted, “will feature an upgraded branch design and layout to better serve our customers.”
The renovation is planned to be completed by April 26, 2024, in time for the transition.
Sudbury.com submitted a phone interview request with the spokesperson and received a written statement in response.
Subsequent questions inquiring about how many employees are at the downtown branch and how many of them will be accommodated at Four Corners Plaza were not answered.
“We are working with branch employees to help them find other opportunities in the bank,” the spokesperson noted in their initial response.
The shift to Four Corners Plaza comes as a result of “clients’ changing needs,” they noted.
Downtown Sudbury Business Improvement Area co-chair Jeff MacIntyre said that while it’s disappointing to see anyone leave the neighbourhood, the change could have a silver lining.
“It’s unfortunate, but at the same time, with a changing business model, they don’t have the same traffic they used to have.”
Financial institutions throughout the world are consolidating, MacIntyre said, noting that options such as online banking have changed things, and fewer people are visiting banks in-person.
“When you don’t have a lot of traffic going into these buildings, it creates an opportunity when the bank leaves to try and bring businesses in that might (bring in traffic),” he said.
“While it’s not ideal to have something close downtown, it also creates opportunity. ... It’s highly likely that whatever eventually replaces it drives more traffic than an unconsolidated branch.”
It is, however, a shame the new consolidated BMO headquarters isn’t located downtown, he said, but in a landscape in which banks are closing everywhere, “You’re going to win some and you’re going to lose some.”
The National Bank relocated to New Sudbury from its Elm Street location in Downtown Sudbury in late 2021. Recent years have also seen Desjardins make a large investment in locating their office in Elm Place and ScotiaMcLeod take shape at 104 Beech St., both of which downtown.
The Scotia Tower is also for sale for $6.75 million, although Scotiabank, the anchor tenant, has not suggested it is relocating. Also for sale is TD Square at 43 Elm St., with a listed price of $5.5 million, a drop from the $6.9-million asking price back in February.
There’s potential in Downtown Sudbury for additional residential units, while the pandemic has brought about a growing need for flexible office spaces, MacIntyre said.
“There’s been a lot of interest in the spaces downtown recently,” he added. “The further we get from the pandemic, the more we’ll get to the re-normalization of business. ... Right now, everyone’s still re-thinking their business models.”
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
