Montreal's new entertainment district will be ready on time and on budget, Mayor Gérald Tremblay vowed.

The Quartier des spectacles will be located near Place des Arts. (Daoust Lestage Architecture Design Urbain)The first phase of the "Quartier des spectacles" will be ready for next summer's 30th edition of the Montreal International Jazz Festival, Tremblay said Wednesday.

"It is going to be an international reference. We are going to have people coming from Quebec, and Canada and throughout the world to see what is happening here," he said.

The street-level area, near Place des Arts, will be illuminated with distinctive red lighting, feature a water fountain with 250 jets and be surrounded by trees.

The project is timely because the jazz festival is bursting at the seams, said its president, Alain Simard. "In five years, we would have had no site, because all of these buildings are popping up, like the [Montreal Symphony Orchestra's] new hall," he said.

The $120-million project should come in at budget and will spur development in the immediate neighbourhood, Tremblay said.

"We're projecting that if everything goes well, we'll have $1.9 billion of private investment" coming to the area, he said.

Construction on the site has been underway since May.

The Quartier des spectacles will feature a fountain and elaborate lighting. (Photo: Daoust Lestage Architecture Design Urbain)