'Quartier des spectacles' will be ready for showtime

Montreal's new entertainment district will be ready on time and on budget, Mayor Grald Tremblay vowed.

The first phase of the "Quartier des spectacles" will be readyfor next summer's30th edition of the Montreal International Jazz Festival, Tremblay said Wednesday.

"It is going to be an international reference. We are going to have people coming from Quebec, and Canada and throughout the world to see what is happening here," he said.

The street-level area, near Place des Arts, will beilluminated with distinctive red lighting, feature a water fountain with 250 jets and be surrounded by trees.

The project is timely because the jazz festival is bursting at the seams, said its president, Alain Simard. "In five years, we would have had no site, because all of these buildings are popping up, like the [Montreal Symphony Orchestra's] new hall," he said.

The $120-million project should come in at budget and will spur development in the immediate neighbourhood, Tremblay said.

"We're projecting that if everything goes well, we'll have $1.9 billionof private investment" coming to the area, he said.

Construction on the site has been underway since May.