Completed in 1904, the five-story brick building initially housed John W. Peck & Co., Montreal's second-largest clothing manufacturer at the time.

Textile manufacturing remained the main practice amongst its tenants until the 1990s, when the industry deserted Montreal as a result of globalization.

The animation software designer Discreet Logic occupied the top floor between 1993 and 1997, during which time it produced technology for blockbuster films like Titanic.

Ubisoft Montreal, becoming the largest video game studio in the world by workforce, rapidly grew into occupying the entire building.

The presence of the Peck Building in the heart of the Mile End, at the corner of Boulevard Saint-Laurent and Rue Saint-Viateur, played a major role in the development of the neighbourhood.

With John W. Peck & Co. and Ubisoft Montreal, it has twice housed the largest employer in the Mile End over the span of more than a century.

[4][1] The nearby presence of the Mile End train station facilitated rail connections with the manufacturer's two branches in Winnipeg[note 2] and Vancouver.

[1] Between 1964 and 1973, numerous large concrete buildings were built in the Peck's surroundings, housing hundreds of clothing manufacturers and contributing to make the Mile End one of the most important sectors for textile in Canada.

[7] In the mid-1990s, Quebec lobbyist Sylvain Vaugeois convinced Yves Guillemot, CEO of the French gaming company Ubisoft, to open a new branch in Montreal.

[9] That decade, it released successful franchise-spanning games such as Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (2002), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003), Far Cry (2004) and Assassin's Creed (2007).

[14] CEO Yannis Mallat eventually decided against it, citing the quality of life in the Mile End and an "emotional attachment" to the Peck Building as key factors.

[14] Ubisoft and the Peck's owner invested millions of dollars in the building's renovation, including the modernization of its plumbing and air conditioning and the reimagining of its interior design.