Montreal billionaire David Azrieli dead at 92

Billionaire Montreal developer David Azrieli has died at 92. (Image: Wikipedia)

Real estate developer David Azrieli, one of Montreal’s wealthiest residents, has died at 92.

Azrieli moved to Montreal in 1954 to work as a draftsman, married two years later to his wife Stephanie and invested his life savings of $6,000 into building four duplexes in the East End.

That project launched him on the path to becoming Canada's ninth wealthiest person and a ranking of 401 in the world, according to one classification.

With profits from his initial residential project Azrieli went on to build commercial units and malls, frequently in neglected or overlooked towns.

Azrieli incurred considerable local disapproval when he purchased and demolished the historic Van Horne mansion on Sherbrooke St. in 1973, where he built the 14-storey highrise Liquid Air building which featured a bronzed likeness of his face at the entrance. That building has since been repurposed into the Sofitel Hotel.

Some colleagues found Azrieli to be abrasive and difficult to work with and the negative fallout from the Van Horne mansion affair led him to concentrate his development efforts in Israel, where he built the Azrieli Center in Tel Aviv, a massive mall twice the size of the Eaton Centre.

In recent years he owned shopping malls in Ontario, Florida, Massachusetts, Texas, Colorado and Israel among others.

Azrieli has funded a number of local charities, including the Azrieli Integrated Centre for the Advancement of Youth, the Azrieli Holocaust Library Collection of Concordia University. His Foundation is said to have about $1 million in assets.