This eerie edifice at the juncture of Pine and Main Street sits bare save for a diminutive Chinese eatery and was once the illustrious home to a swinging stale donut place dubbed Mickeys.
Previously it sheltered a footwear boutique and in a more contemporary age it was a fellafel establishment.
A knave ensconced in one of the apartments overhead cultivated a grow-op in his abode and the building suffered a devastating inferno. The greystone structure belonged to a Mr. Pressman and Pressman's progeny would be willing to unload it.
The owner I conversed with is delightful and forthcoming. His brother in Toronto would deal at a price as high as $1.7 million as is, which must be deemed objectionably exorbitant. The ground floor unit could fetch up to $6,000 a month in rent though which is nice coin. Presumably the owners were insured (if you have a mortgage you have to be) but have not invested their insurance cash into fixing the place.
Hmm...this was Sammy's Restaurant for ages until the mid 70's. It then became a Portuguese eatery, and then the Falafel place.
ReplyDelete1.7 mil...for this dump? And even with its location, $6000/month in rent for the ground floor? What universe is the landlord living in?
ReplyDeleteGood luck to him...in the meantime, I guess it'll just be another eyesore. :(
You have to admit its in a prime location...at least the owner won't cling to it as they did in the lower Main and West Ste-Cat by the old Forum hoping the building would just burn to the ground or crumble so that they can rebuild new. I think they'll find a buyer even at that price.
ReplyDeleteOne problem is that purchasers buy with the bank's money and they'd never lend on a property like this, so that eliminates a huge majority of all potential buyers.
ReplyDeleteMy wizened old friend who has worked a lifetime as an architect says it's not a building you could make money on, you'd be plagued by cost overruns on the repairs.
The potential revenues are alluring nonetheless. If you could really get $6,000 for the commercial spot, that's $72,000 a year and the rule of thumb is about ten times revnue, so right away that's $720,000, plus you've got other revenues from the apartments upstairs and the Chinese restaurant next door, so it would be theoretically viable but only if it were sold repaired.
Peronally I'd like it a whole lot more if it came with a few parking spots, but then again that would apply to any building.
You'd probably have to gut the whole place (due to electrical and plumbing regulations) and keep the facade for historical purposes.
ReplyDeleteThat'd mean upping the rent for the locals of course, which sucks.
It still looks like a cool place to live in to me - how far from a Metro?
Paul
Paul -
ReplyDeleteSherbrooke Metro is closest - about a 15 min. brisk walk.
Mickey Beigne, early '90s. We'd straggle out of Bifteck and into there at 3 in the morning. It didn't matter which kind of donut you ordered, they all tasted like the cigarette smoke that hung in the air.
ReplyDeleteWasn't this corner the site of Montreal's last outdoor newsstand?
ReplyDeleteIn the 1960's, there were a number of them on St. Catherine St. and elsewhere which were spruced up for Expo 67 with logos of the various Montreal dailies lining the roofs. For some reason, the one at Pine and St.Laurent never changed.
http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/newsstand.jpg
The outdoor newstand was on the southeast corner. On the SW corner still stands the original Montreal City and District Savings Bank, of which my great grandfather was the manager and where my grandmother was born and raised.
ReplyDeleteAnd a block further south (corner of Prince Arthur) stands a bank with "The Dominion Bank" carved in the stone near the roofline. The Dominion Bank merged with the Bank of Toronto in 1954 to form what is now the TD Bank.
ReplyDeleteI wrote about the newsstand here several months ago. It was operated by the kid brother of Dr Hymie Shuldiner who was featured here in a tabloid article about his joint suicide with a Québecois film idol in a Laurentian resort.
ReplyDeleteWe have had a few discussions about those newspaper kiosks. Harold has talked about it in some detail before. There are a bunch of articles in the Gazoogle about these places. The papers would go to bat for them anytime they were being harassed, as they shared a mutual interest.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, that Shuldiner case was described as an overdose. I hadn't hear it called a suicide. It's quite easy to look that up, you go to the provincial library on Viger near St. Denis, 3rd floor and get the file number for the coroner's report for that case. You then send away for the coroner's report. They charge about $8 for one. You can often get away without paying for it. But I was hit with a $40 + bill for the reports on the victims of the Vampire rapist. I should really scan those and pop them up here.
That's one hell of an upper balcony. People would call the cops and yell "Don't jump!" every time you stood on the ledge.
ReplyDeleteThis intersection is right by my apartment and I walk by it everyday wondering about it. Thanks for posting!
ReplyDeleteI am Moses, one of Dr. Hyman Shuldiner's younger brothers. May I point out that his death was not a suicide but an accidental drug over dose. His girl friend had tried to commit suicide several times before and had only been released from hospital under Hymie's supervision.
ReplyDelete