Rosemont building housing art studios sold to developers
It’s an end of an era, says Shiff, whose family owned structure since 1948
“We had 400 people working on this floor,” said Howard Shiff, 76, standing in the fourth-floor hallway of the industrial loft building he just sold at 305 Bellechasse St. in Rosemont.
He was talking about the good old days, when business was booming in the family garment business Shiff & Company, which closed in the late ’90s after nearly 70 years.
The building, which has been in his family since 1948, was converted into lofts that for the past 20 years have been home to numerous Montreal artists.
The 80,000-square-foot, fourstorey space has been sold to real estate developers Brandon Shiller and Jeremy Kornbluth, known in nearby Mile End as the landlords who edged out beloved café-restaurant Le Cagibi by doubling the rent; and who, along with Shiller’s father Stephen’s company ShillerLavy Realties have been fast-tracking gentrification in that neighbourhood, among others.
“They said to me they would like to maintain the spirit of the building,” Shiff said. “They like the clientele here. That’s as much as I know. They will, I guess, modernize it a little bit, which is natural, but they seem quite intent — they specifically said, ‘It’s not our business to throw people out.’ They don’t want to do that, I hope. I can’t speak for them. I’m telling you what they told me.”
Two decades ago, Shiff was in this very spot, staring into the void.
“This was one big floor, empty,” he said. “Along came these two guys, Marc Séguin and Sylvain Bouthillette. They said, ‘We’re looking for space.’ ”
Séguin, now a prominent visual artist, helped make the walls that divide the studios, and soon throngs of fellow artists and photographers were moving in, too.
“About one third of the building is artists,” Shiff said.
And they stuck around, because Shiff liked having them.
“We felt it was more important to have a good relationship,” he said. “Business-wise, it was more important to maintain the building and keep the place full — more than anything in the world.
“Artists are not the richest people. So we would raise the rent two to three per cent, maybe five per cent, every two years.”
Sitting in his office, next to business partner and longtime Shiff & Company employee Elie D. Chetrit, Shiff pointed to a photo of his grandfather, Salomon, who came to Canada from Russia in 1910, bringing his family soon after.
He launched Shiff & Company in 1919 in Old Montreal, which moved to the Peck Building in Mile End (now home to Ubisoft), then in 1948 to Bellechasse, taking over the building originally owned by Catelli.
Shiff recalls working for his father in the cutting room, in the ’60s, before buying out his uncle to join forces with his dad in 1978.
“I (helped) build a better business,” he said. “We were manufacturing children’s wear, clothing for the armed forces, big contracts.
“In the ’50s, there was huge immigration from Italy into Canada. My father would run down to the docks with a sign: ‘Anybody wants work, follow me.’ So we knew the whole Italian community.”
He picked up a Shiff & Company staff photo from 1946, with a couple dozen employees looking up at the camera.
“I remember a lot of these people,” he said. “Charlie Davis, he was a nice guy; Noelle Champagne; these were the Rosenbergs, their children started Winners; all kinds of people.”
He mentioned women’s wear designer Hilary Radley, who “started her coat business here. We were good friends. She came from England. She was a knitwear designer. I said, ‘Hilary, why don’t you try some coats?’ ”
Shiff ’s sister Marilyn, who is 80, inherited half their father’s share of the business, and acted as a silent partner in recent years. When she decided to sell, Shiff had to make a decision.
“The time came, the offer was good,” he said, “so we took the option to sell it. I feel sad, a little bit,” he admitted. “I’m in a zone, maybe the twilight zone. It’s natural isn’t it? It’s really the end of an era.”
He and Chetrit will be tying up loose ends over the next two months, following which the building ’s tenants will enter a new era.
“It’s sad,” concurred painter Jean-Sébastien Denis, who has had a studio there for 20 years. “We were lucky to have owners that like artists and were here, next door, every morning. But I knew it would run its time.”
Concerning the building’s uncertain future, Denis responded:
“It’s disconcerting. It’s money that interests (the new owners), clearly, which was not the case with these owners; they were passionate. They liked being here, surrounded by interesting people. They did it for pleasure. Things like that are rare, really rare.”