These photos are of the West End all-night restaurant on St. James St. known as
Picassos. It has sat idle for quite some time after going belly-up. Its owner Peter Sergakis vowed to get it back in gear, promising to lower the rent, whatever it took, but as you can see in spite of the Closed for Renovations sign, nobody has even bothered to clear out the dead plants. The same owner owns and runs the strip club upstairs known as the Amazones and a thriving pub on the other side of the parking lot called PJ's, which was recently expanded. PJs can, and does, accommodate thousands for special sports events, the MMA in particular. So effectively one of the owner's businesses cannibalized another. The situation raises questions about monopoly land ownership. Like so many issues in the West End, the St. James St. West strip is poorly conceived and managed. It lacks green space and some space should be set aside for residential complexes.
Thing is, if you look at Pjs menu, Sports Station menu and Cock and Bull menu, they are identical. No doubt a reopened Picasso's will would probably be the same.
ReplyDeleteIsn't Sergakis the owner of the strip of storefronts on St. Catherine Street at Fort?
ReplyDeleteI can see why the neighbors were worried. I thought the terrace was going in the back (there has been construction there) but with the warm weather, there's a long, long terrace out front. It doesn't even look like any work has been done on the stores he had vacated, but the terrace gets to run the full length.
The terrace there in previous years seemed odd, maybe I don't go buy them enough or it's the only one in the vicinity, but this huge one is something else.
Michael
You're not suggested a planned economy, are you? Just some urban planning?
ReplyDelete