You might have heard by now that a charming building on Queen Mary near the Snowdon metro, which boasts a series of terraced restaurants, is being demolished for this soulless suburban-style box that will house a Subway and a Shoppers Drug Mart (known as Pharmaprix in the Qweeb).
The area in question is within Marvin Rotrand's district but he's shooing off blame by telling people to ask rookie Loyola councillor Susan Clark about it, as she has been running the local CCU which is a group of architects (unpaid for the task) who decide architectural stuff along with a few councillors.
The CCU for NDG/CDN has approved this project. They have come up with some pretty bizarre stuff over the years.
The much-loved Greek restaurant Rodos, which has stood on the spot for decades, is doomed and several others are gone.
Its owners went on the radio with the CBC morning show for a bizarre interview in which the host attempted to get them to claim to be victims of racism.
A "charming building"? Seriously? Interesting choice of words there.
ReplyDeleteThere is so much vacant space around there the only reason I can see anyone complaining is because they like to.
Personally I don't see why anyone would want to own a condo next to Snowdon Metro or why Pharmaprix would want to open a store when there are 3 Jean Coutu's within 2 blocks of there but if it helps fill some of those empty storefront I wish them the best.
Marvin the Martian is no stranger to shady real-estate deals. More than 20 years ago, he backed an outrageous proposal that, in order to “save a bit of the Mountain“, the city would exchange a nondescript plot of land of rather modest dimensions on Pine Avenue near Redpath Crescent for nothing less than a whopping ONE THIRD (?) of Ahuntsic Park (right by the Henri-Bourassa Métro station)!!! The city wanted to pull the wool over our collective eyes by pretending that the area concerned was to replace the one third of the park that had been converted to a parking lot by the führer Drapeau to let Laval residents park their cars at Montréalers’ expense by a condo/shopping mall complex with an underground parking. While the idea appeared valid on the surface, the fact remained that a full third of the park would have been ceded to a private developper to make condos. The more remarkable thing was it was nothing less than a supposedly left-leaning administration that aimed to do that while the fascist Drapeau would never had done such a thing.
ReplyDeleteBut the local MCM city councillor of the time, Pierre Lachapelle, resisted the idea, won against the mayor* and managed to have the project cancelled and not only had the park relandscaped as the parking lot was closed, but also had the city build for the ST(CU)M the best laid-out bus terminus, actually the only STM bus terminus where bus riders are not forced to wait outside (like Lionel-Groulx, Angrignon, Fairview or Côte-Vertu†). But he did so at the cost of his carreer (both political and civilian) as he is thoroughly blacklisted and unable to find meaningful employment to this day.
* It is not so surprising in retrospect; municipal parties are a rather recent creation, dating from the 1950’s, so the Montréal Charter is laid out for a city that is governed by independent councillors. Géranium Pommier (Bourque) broke several teeth on the Charter when an executive committee member walked accross the floor, but remained on the executive committee as the Charter did not allow the mayor to fire a member for that reason.
† The most infuriating one, which could have benefited from the experience gained by the Henri-Bourassa and South-Shore terminii.
We're getting an ugly condo box on Monkland soon. The Couche Tard (formerly La Maisonnée), chinese take-out and hair salon are history. The box will have three commercial spaces; I've no clue what will be going in there. Not that the building that housed them was of any architectural value, but the chinese place was damn convenient. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteI vaguely recall that thing about Ahuntsic Park. I wrote one of my earlier articles about it for Brendan Weston's news section at the Mirror around 1989. (I shouldn't say earliest articles cuz I've been writing for newspapers since 1977 or '78 when for two years I penned a weekly column in the Westmount Examiner.)
ReplyDeleteI hope this isn't the building that contains my new favorite Indian restaurant "Masala Palace".
ReplyDeleteIf so, I will be chaining myself to the front doors on demo day. They'll get my butter chicken when they pry it from my cold, dead hands!
Embe said...
ReplyDeleteMasala Palace is safe; it's further west - the building with the Greek and Russian restos and the pretty good bakery. I think that's one of the few stretches of Queen Mary that is working. Mind you, those places can more or less move right next door. There is so much empty commercial space around there.
As of today (Oct. 15, 2011) this building site is still a shuttered eyesore. No tax money for the city, presumably.
ReplyDeleteExactly what are the laws regarding undeveloped "development projects" in Montreal? Can any clown with deep pockets just sit on a decaying structure with no specific construction date announced? There should be a deadline given, after which the plan should be dropped entirely.
Is there no end to the "condo curse"?
The building owner owns the building, he can do what he wants with it. What kind of law do you propose? He might not have the right deal to do anything, he's waiting. Whatever. He can keep it closed forever if he wants. The number of abandoned buildings in this city is very small, so it's not that big an issue right now.
ReplyDeleteThe owner's motivation to do something is that he will still have a ton of expenses on an empty building. He has to pay a lot of taxes on it and the insurance on a an building like that is killer.
In this actual case I have heard it from a little birdie that Rotrand screwed this up. The city, err, borough, would have intervened to make everybody happy if they had been on the ball on time.
BTW, I just re-listened to that CBC interview and wow, the host not only hasn't a clue but he can't even pronounce RESTAURANT, he calls it "restaurah." When he asks, "do you think it's racism?" I just want to cringe. I never listen to the CBC.
As of December 2011, the building has been demolished and the excavators are already deep inside the muddy pit preparing the foundations for the condo.
ReplyDeletePresumably, the lower floor will be allocated for commercial use: restaurants, a clinic, etc.
A better idea would have been to purchase and refurbish the office building across the street--4950 Queen Mary Road--originally built in 1956 as a medical centre similar in scope to the Seaforth on Cote des Neiges Road, but which over the years seems to have deteriorated into a drab and dingy place with businesses constantly moving in and out, the Commerce Bank and Sunlife Insurance being the only high-profile organizations to have occupied the place in recent decades.
Unfortunately, what happens too often is that landlords become greedy, raising rents higher and higher, which drives out previously successful enterprises. The character of Monkland Avenue in NDG and elsewhere have been decimated with such tactics.
Update September 2012:
ReplyDeleteThe condo-commercial building construction is coming along quite rapidly with scaffolding "protecting" the never-ending sidewalk pedestrians, although it can be quite scary with various cherry-picker cranes loading bricks, etc. right over their heads and forcing walkers into the busy street!
They also made several large cracks in the sidewalk, which will have to be replaced.
Update: April 2013
ReplyDeleteAs of March 2013, the apartments are available for residency.
Downstairs is a huge, new Pharmaprix and a Subway restaurant.
The sidewalk in front has yet to be repaired after suffering damage during the contruction phase.