Part 2: How It All Started

Before La Maison Ralia even had a name, it was a desire. The desire of a founder who looked at the state of women-led businesses and the state of disconnection in 2020 and made a bold move to improve both.

She left her career to take a stab at developing commercial real estate.

She was looking to create a concept that improved wellbeing at a time when wellness was under attack.

One fateful day in 2022, after a year of searching for the right place, she toured 4281 Boulevard St-Laurent and the building spoke to her in a deep, satisfying way.

The feeling is important because the feeling was the biggest clue that this was the right place to build. The second clue was the 3,000 square foot floor space in the commercial part of the building. This was the perfect amount of space to create the concept she was dreaming of.

However, she was open.

Open to what the building would teach her.

Open to moving with the flow of life and using all the tools that led to her current flow state:

• Intuition and eventually human design (the great validator of intuition)
• Taking one step at a time in a large project without the entire picture being 100% clear
• Trusting the process and team and the process the team needed
• Stepping into aligned, centered leadership with others
• Receiving wisdom, guidance, and coaching from others, always

In June of 2023 the building was purchased, but the momentum and planning had been taking root during the entire winter and spring of 2023.

First, we spent 6 months deconstructing and designing the future. We took time to find the right team and ended up hiring a construction crew that was kind and part of our building history (WVP Construction) and a design team (Indee Design, led by Florence Charron) who could weave magic with us as ideas were spoken in French and English, landing in mutual heartfelt appreciation of the creation process and excitement for what the building would become for our shared neighborhood.

On the exact winter solstice of 2023, we held a special ceremony in a gutted building with cacao served in tiny tea cups from a thermos, sitting in a circle on the very dusty floor. 4 Montrealers. Two born in Quebec. Two born abroad. Two men. Two women. One simple agenda: open the space and plant an intention. The intention that came to us?

Connection.

One year later our doors were almost completely open to the public. We had become our intention, with the word CONNECTIONS on the front of the building.

Continue reading: Part 3 — Our First Guest, and Why She Matters

Start from the beginning: Part 1 — La Maison Ralia is on a Mission to Write itself into History