Building’s snow-laden roof collapses, borough orders demolition

A long-vacant building in the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough was ordered to be demolished on Friday after its roof collapsed under the weight of snow that had accumulated on it during the winter.

The roof collapsed at around 3 a.m. on Friday and required the intervention of Montreal firefighters to secure the area around it out of concern a wall would also collapse. The borough ordered the commercial building, located at 175 Laurier Ave. W, at the corner of De L’Esplanade Ave., be demolished hours later.

Plateau-Mont-Royal borough councillor Marie Plourde with Projet Montréal said the building was expected to be levelled by the end of the day Friday.

“I’m outraged. It’s a relief that no one was injured. But now we’ve lost another part of our heritage because the owner did nothing with (the building) and the city didn’t take action,” Plourde said, noting other vacant buildings in the borough on Park Ave. have recently been destroyed or damaged by fire.

“(The city) doesn’t have the tools to act to oblige negligent owners to act,” Plourde said, adding the city has known the building was in bad shape for a long time.

She said the building was last inspected on Feb. 7 but that it was only done on the exterior because the city needs permission from the owners to go in — even if a building is vacant.

The building is currently owned by 7815883 Canada Inc., a holding company for the Montreal real estate company Shiller Lavy Group Inc. It was recently placed on a list compiled by the city of Montreal — along with 38 other vacant structures in Plateau-Mont-Royal — with the goal of promoting investment in the buildings. According to the city’s online listing, the land and the building combined were estimated to be worth more than $1.5 million, according to the most recent evaluation.

Plourde argues the city is encouraging property owners to leave buildings vacant by lowering their property taxes.

“It’s like we’re patting them on the back for doing nothing. But if you decide to do normal maintenance work the city will increase your taxes.

“We have to start imposing taxes on buildings that are vacant for more than six months,” the councillor said. “But first of all we don’t have enough inspectors and we have to give them more powers.”

I’m outraged … now we’ve lost another part of our heritage because the owner did nothing with (the building) and the city didn’t take action.