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Area · City of Blainville, Basses-Laurentides

Blainville

A boulevard reinventing itself, a train station turning into a downtown, and forests on boardwalks five minutes from the highway. Here's my top 10, the neighbour's version, not the brochure version.

Let's talk about this area

Blainville sits about thirty kilometres north of Montreal, in the Basses-Laurentides, between Sainte-Thérèse and Mirabel. With more than 61,000 residents, it's the third-largest city in the Laurentians. I drive out here regularly for island clients who want more land without losing quick access to downtown, and for local owners selling after twenty years on the same street.

What strikes you when you drive around is how much green there is. About 40% of the territory is taken up by natural and recreational spaces, and at the same time the city is building a new centre around its train station. I put this top 10 together for a simple reason: when you buy or sell, you're not just shopping for a property, you're shopping for a neighbourhood life. Every point comes with an opening for a conversation. Use it.

Maxime Laforest, residential and commercial real estate broker · Équipe Loiselle, RE/MAX Dynamique

The area's top 10

What makes Blainville's heart beat.

Ten reasons buyers cross the Rivière des Mille Îles, and why the ones already settled here never leave.

01 Recent residential buildings and an exo bus along a Blainville boulevard
The Artery

Boulevard du Curé-Labelle, the old Grande Ligne

This boulevard is Route 117, and it's really the line that split the Seigneurie des Mille-Îles in two in 1792. People called it the Grande Ligne. Today it's the city's main commercial artery, and it's going through a planned transformation: in August 2024 the City adopted a special urban planning program that lays out its vision through 2040, with a real downtown, denser buildings and ground-floor shops. The project was even a finalist for the Canadian Awards for Planning Excellence.

Ask me about it: ask me which stretches of the 117 are targeted first by the plan. It changes quite a bit how we read an address.
02 The platform at the Blainville station on the exo Saint-Jérôme line
Transit

The Blainville station, on the Saint-Jérôme line

Opened in 1997 at 38 Boulevard de la Seigneurie Est, the station is served by the exo train on the 12 Saint-Jérôme line, which runs to Gare Lucien-L'Allier by way of Sainte-Thérèse and Rosemère. It has 576 parking spots and bike racks, and two exo bus routes reach it on weekdays. The parking lot fills up fast, so much so that the City built an extra lot reserved for Blainville residents.

Ask me about it: ask me which areas are walkable or bikeable to the station. For a buyer who works downtown, that's often the deciding factor.
03
The Projects

Le Quartier de la Gare, a downtown under construction

Between Boulevard du Curé-Labelle and Boulevard de la Seigneurie, three real estate projects are being built at the same time around the station: Les Sentiers de la gare, Les Belvédères and Les Condos du Plateau de la gare. Together, that's close to 1,300 units and about $600 million in private investment. The plan also includes a multi-use path linking it all to the station and upgrades to the Lockhead and Nadon creeks.

Ask me about it: ask me what that kind of volume of new housing can do to an established area right next door. We'll talk it through honestly, upsides and downsides.
04 Blainville's city hall, on Chemin du Plan-Bouchard
The Neighbourhoods

Twelve districts, twelve moods

The city covers close to 55 km² and is divided into twelve districts, each with its own era of construction: Fontainebleau, Côte-Saint-Louis, Saint-Rédempteur, Plan-Bouchard, Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption, Chante-Bois, des Hirondelles, d'Alençon, de la Renaissance, du Blainvillier, du Coteau and Henri-Dunant. Chemin de la Côte-Saint-Louis, opened to settlement around 1795, is a reminder of the farming past, while the Blainvillier area grew up around a 36-hole golf club that opened in 1991. Blainville has only been a city since June 14, 1968: its name comes from Jean-Baptiste Céloron de Blainville, third seigneur of the Mille-Îles.

Ask me about it: ask me which district matches your style of house and your budget. It's the first question to settle when house hunting in Blainville.
05 Shining willow blooming in the Plan-Bouchard area of Blainville
Nature

Forests right in the city

Five forests are open to the public free of charge, and no two are alike. The Boisé du Plan-Bouchard, the largest at 40 hectares, is crossed by 3.25 km of elevated boardwalks over a marsh, on a site that housed a munitions factory during the Second World War. The Boisé des lacs Fauvel, a former quarry turned wildlife refuge, offers 3.5 km of trails, two observation platforms with binoculars, and about a hundred bird species. Then there are the Fontainebleau ravine trails and the Boisé du Parc équestre with its interpretive panels. In 2023, the City listed 140.6 hectares of natural areas in the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal's conservation registry.

Ask me about it: ask me which streets back onto a forest or a trail. Those addresses never stay on the market long.
06
Outdoors

Le Parc du Domaine Vert and about fifty kilometres of trails

Le Domaine Vert belongs to an intermunicipal board made up of Blainville, Boisbriand, Mirabel and Sainte-Thérèse: swimming and water play in summer, cross-country ski trails in winter, biking, obstacle courses and picnic areas the rest of the year. On the biking side, the city has about fifty kilometres of trails, including a stretch of the La Seigneurie des Plaines network that crosses the lacs Fauvel area and the big peat bog toward Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines and Terrebonne.

Ask me about it: ask me how the trails connect from one neighbourhood to the next. A lot of families end up buying here for that reason without realizing it at first.
07
Local Life

Le Parc équestre, the gathering spot

On Chemin du Plan-Bouchard, the Parc équestre does just about everything: lit synthetic fields where AS Blainville plays in Ligue1 Québec, a community garden, forest with trails, and big gatherings. It's where the Fête nationale is held on June 24, while Parc Dubreuil hosts the celebration the night before. In August, Blainville en fête brings together thousands of people with a show, fireworks and drones, and summer Thursdays happen under the tent at the Place des spectacles.

Ask me about it: ask me which areas are within walking distance of the Parc équestre. For a family with kids in soccer, that's worth its weight in gold in driving time saved.
08 École des Ramilles, an elementary school in Blainville
Family Life

An elementary school in almost every neighbourhood

The Centre de services scolaire des Mille-Îles runs about ten elementary schools spread across the city, from Chante-Bois to l'Aquarelle, by way of les Ramilles and la Renaissance. At the high school level, Blainville has Henri-Dunant and Lucille-Teasdale on Boulevard Céloron, and some areas are instead zoned for Hubert-Maisonneuve in Rosemère, École secondaire Rive-Nord in Bois-des-Filion, or Polyvalente Sainte-Thérèse. On the English side, École Pierre Elliott Trudeau falls under the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board.

Ask me about it: ask me to check an address's school zone before you sign a promise to purchase. Two streets over, and the school changes.
09 Reading area at the Bibliothèque Paul-Mercier, in Blainville
Culture

The Bibliothèque Paul-Mercier, the neighbourhood's pride

Opened in 2015 on Rue de la Mairie, it takes up 3,000 m² of wood, glass and light, designed by Menkès Shooner Dagenais Letourneux. It's not just a place to borrow novels: there's a youth space, viewing stations, a quiet zone, games for adults, and self-service lockers available around the clock at fire station 7. The building is LEED certified, which wasn't common for a suburban library at the time.

Ask me about it: ask me what else the citizen's card gets you, from the aquatic centre to the athletics stadium. That's part of the math when you're comparing two cities.
10 Crash test lab at Blainville's motor vehicle test centre
The Unusual

The motor vehicle test centre, hidden behind the trees

Not many people know it, but every car sold in this country gets its final exam right here in Blainville. The Motor Vehicle Test Centre belongs to Transport Canada and covers 546 hectares with about 25 km of test tracks, a crash test lab, climate chambers and a pedestrian lab. PMG Technologies has run it since 1996. Its tracks have also served as filming locations for American productions, including Rollerball and The Sum of All Fears.

Ask me about it: ask me how the job hubs are spread out around Blainville, between the industrial corridor, the 117 and the neighbouring business parks. It's useful when you're deciding which side of the city to settle on.
Let's talk

Thinking about buying or selling in Blainville? Let's start with a conversation.

A free evaluation of your property, a picture of the local market, or simply answers to your questions. No strings attached, and a straight answer.

Start my real estate project

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