The Royalmount Drive-In team is creating a massive event garden

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Following the success of creating one of Montreal’s newest drive-in movie theatres with the Royalmount, Total Events’ Lorne Levitt and C3 Events’ Adam Bultz are setting their sights on creating a whole new event space.

Jardin Royalmount will be a massive garden and pavilion — the city’s largest — that swaps out a sprawling parking lot for a huge plot of lush greenery curated by the event rental company Modern Event Furniture.

“We believe that this concept is needed, and not just out of the necessity of COVID,” Bultz told the Montreal Gazette in an interview. “Montreal doesn’t have an (outdoor) event space that can accommodate 600 people seated and 600 people for cocktails or for ceremonies.” Functional capacity will be based on government guidelines.

Set to open in June to coincide with the first day of summer, Jardin Royalmount is billed as a “convertible, multifunctional open-air venue” and “modern garden oasis” about a 10-minute drive from Laval, the West Island or downtown. The space is a mere block away from last summer’s drive-in movie theatre, in Town of Mount Royal at the corner of Royden Rd. and Royalmount Ave.

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Rather than attendees being stuck in cars, there are plans to have guests attend movies, concerts, charity galas and more by staying seated at distanced chairs and tables in a 19,000-square-foot outdoor space paired with an 8,000-square-foot covered space that will feature 21-foot-high ceilings and can be opened to the elements on all sides.

Inspired by outdoor garden spaces of restaurants in L.A. and the beautification of New York’s Meatpacking District, as well as taking cues from countries abroad that are already months ahead of Montreal on COVID-19-compliant events, “we knew that people would be immediately and psychologically more comfortable with an outdoor concept,” Levitt said.

“Jardin Royalmount is large enough to host hundreds of people in a safe and socially distant way in both its indoor and outdoor configurations,” the company said in a statement Tuesday. If COVID-19 regulations change, “the site can flex to accommodate the guidelines and rules of provincial and municipal governments, which will change as the seasons progress, sometimes weekly or even daily, as we’ve often seen in this past year.”

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The company, which hosted 110 events last summer, said it will have “COVID-19 agents on site to ensure all protocols are met.”

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While the space won’t open for months, Jardin Royalmount is already accepting bookings through their website. As a customizable venue that will — for a welcome change — offer a bunch of cocktail and catering services via Sociéte Traiteur, the organizers anticipate a range of events that will include as many weddings as corporate events and product launches.

That new avenue for food and drink is good news for the average Montrealer: “If you want to sit down and enjoy a movie with a bottle of wine, no problem. You want to get a pitcher of margaritas because it’s summertime, it’ll be there for you,” Levitt said.

“(Société) is going to be the exclusive caterer on site, so their menu is going to adapt to the type of event. If it’s a high-end wedding, it might be a plated dinner. If it’s a themed movie night, there can be unique service offerings for that,” Bultz added.

Jardin Royalmount plans to operate till late fall, then return in summer 2022.

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