Griffintown is getting an elementary school

Condos in Griffintown in 2015.

MONTREAL - Griffintown is getting its first elementary school, the CSDM announced on Wednesday.

In recent years, the neighbourhood has become an important business hub, home to several technology companies. Many of its residents live in modern condos. But the city has promised to make the neighbourhood more welcoming to families, to build parks, bike paths and now a school.

The elementary school isn't the only part of the project. Builders will erect community housing on the same lot: an area on des Bassins St.

Montreal will build the school in conjunction with the Commission Scolaire de Montreal (CSDM) and Batir son quartier, an organization that specializes in building community housing.

The prospect of an elementary school in the neighbourhood was great news for Griffintown families, Catherine Harel Bourdon, the president of the CSDM, said in a press release.

"The CSDM is offering students in the area the possibility to attend public school near their homes," the press release read. "Children will have the chance to walk to school, encouraging healthy lifestyle habits."

In the same press release, Mayor Valerie Plante said the project was a beautiful example of how Montreal is becoming more inclusive.

To build a school and community housing together, on land facing the Lachine Canal, is a unique undertaking, according to Edith Cyr, director-general of Batir son quartier.

From the 19th century to the middle of the 20th, Griffintown was a working-class neighbourhood populated by immigrants who often worked at the nearby Lachine Canal. It became an industrial hub. But new families have moved in. According to 2016 statistics, 218 children between the ages of 0 and 4 lived in the area.

The CSDM did not announce when the school was expected to open.