Place du Portage

Place du Portage is a large office complex in the Hull sector of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, situated along Boulevard Maisonneuve and facing the Ottawa River. It is owned and occupied by the Federal Government of Canada.

Place du Portage consists of four phases which were built in different stages during the 1970s and early 80s. The office complex was built in order to revitalize Hull's decaying downtown core and also to increase the proportion of the federal workforce in the overall National Capital Region. Although the installation of thousands of jobs in the Hull and Gatineau area has resulted in significant economic benefits to local businesses and the real estate market, some people feel that the complex has transformed downtown Hull in some negative ways. Much of the old downtown core was replaced with a series of massive towers and approximately 4,000 residents and businesses were displaced in the area that was once the town's main commercial area.^[1]

The whole complex (Place du Portage I, II, III, IV and Place d'Accueil) accommodates approximately 10,000 office workers. That makes Place du Portage the biggest office complex in the National Capital Region. Pedestrian bridges to city hall, which in turn has a pedestrian bridge to a hotel, makes this the center of a mini-"underground city".

Connected to and situated between Phase II and III is Place du Centre, a retail and office complex with a 28,600 m² (308,000 sq ft)^[2] shopping mall on the lower floors and nine floors of office space, for a total area of 43,000 square metres (460,000 sq ft). Although it houses the Federal Government's Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD) on floors 4 through 12, it is commercially owned and operated, and not part of Place du Portage.