Fundraiser denies getting political favours

Radio-canada report suggests developer gained from friendship with Applebaum

LEE LALLI, A BUSINESSMAN who raised funds for Union Montreal, is denying reports that he profited from rezoning during a land deal in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce in 2007, when Michael Applebaum was the borough mayor. Lalli also denies that Applebaum, now mayor of Montreal, gave him privileged information. However, Lalli tells Marian Scott and Linda Gyulai that a $1,000-a-plate fundraising dinner he held for Applebaum in 2009 while Applebaum was still a member of Union Montreal was not declared by the party.

“(The Radio-Canada journalist) is painting Michael Applebaum and me like thieves in the night.”

LEE LALLI

ANotre-Dame-de-Grâce businessman who raised funds for the Union Montreal party said he has been unfairly accused of having Mafia ties and making millions thanks to zoning changes under Mayor Michael Applebaum, when Applebaum was mayor of Côte-des-Neiges–NotreDame-de-Grâce borough.

A Radio-Canada report suggests Lee Lalli, who owned a site at Côte St. Luc Rd. and Décarie Blvd., profited from rezoning that saw the sale price of the land soar from $50,000 in 2003 to $4.5 million in 2007.

The report also suggests Applebaum, who was borough mayor until becoming Montreal mayor in November, shared privileged information with Lalli by discussing the possibility of building a new borough hall on the site.

But in an interview with The Gazette, Lalli said he and Applebaum have been unfairly maligned.

“He (the Radio-Canada journalist) is painting Michael Applebaum and me like thieves in the night,” said Lalli, 66, owner of Construction Marathon, a company on St. Jacques St. W. that installs gas lines for Gaz Métro.

In fact, Lalli said, while he nearly doubled his money on the site in three years, he did not profit from the exponential price increase that’s claimed in the news report.

In November 2002, Lalli made a written offer of $1.85 million to purchase the site beside a former Catholic orphanage from the Fondation Villa Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. The sale was registered in October 2003, after the property was subdivided into two sites. He flipped one of the sites, near Monkland Ave. and Décarie, to the Mormon church six days later for $2 million and sold the remaining portion, at Côte St. Luc and Décarie, in 2006 for $1.5 million.

The purchaser, a numbered company owned by businessman Michel Servant, sold the Côte St. Luc/Décarie site less than two years later for $4.55 million and a 12-storey seniors’ residence was built there.

Lalli was at the centre of a controversy in 2005 when local residents blocked his plan to build a Pharmaprix store on the Côte St. Luc/Décarie site.

Lalli also insisted he has no ties to the Mafia, even though he acknowledged he met with Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto in 2003 at La Cantina restaurant to discuss the Décarie Blvd. land deal. Rizzuto called the meeting to try to persuade Lalli to partner with developer Antonio Magi on the deal, Lalli said.

Lalli said Magi had also been interested in buying the site and had made an offer on it before Lalli.

Rizzuto accepted his refusal to let Magi in on the deal, Lalli said. “Mr. Rizzuto tries to settle things in a friendly manner,” he said. “He told (Magi), I guess there’s your answer.”

Six years later, Lalli was savagely beaten by two thugs.

Meanwhile, Lalli said he — and not Applebaum — raised the possibility of constructing a new borough hall. Lalli said he did not benefit from any inside information from Applebaum.

He added that Applebaum quickly dismissed the idea of building a borough hall as unfeasible.

“Yes, Michael Applebaum did say it would have interested him,” Lalli said. But the idea was discarded quickly because the borough had signed a lease for its offices elsewhere on Décarie, he said.

After the borough hall idea wouldn’t fly, Lalli said he eventually developed the Pharmaprix project.

Lalli said he organized a fundraiser in 2003 for Applebaum and then-Décarie district councillor Marcel Tremblay, brother of then-mayor Gérald Tremblay. However, he said it was 10 months after he put in the purchase offer on the Décarie property.

Applebaum also denied the Radio-Canada report through his spokesman, Jonathan Abecassis.

However, Abecassis said Applebaum denies ever speaking with Lalli about the idea of building a borough hall on Lalli’s property.

“It was considered by the civil service (in the borough) at one point, but quickly dismissed because the lot simply isn’t big enough,” Abecassis said, adding the site also couldn’t accommodate the parking requirements for a borough hall. “It’s the services (departments) that look into that, not the elected officials.”

TheCôte-des-Neiges–N.D.G. borough says it only changed the zoning for the property to harmonize with the city’s 2004 urban plan, which drastically changed the height, density and use restrictions for the site.

In a recent interview, Applebaum said he met Lalli during the November 2001 municipal election campaign, in which Lalli supported Union Montreal against incumbent Pierre Bourque and his Vision Montreal Party.

Lalli said he was angry with Bourque because his administration had approved the expansion of the Parmalat dairy factory, which straddles the border of Montreal and Montreal West, near Lalli’s house.

“All of a sudden, I’ve got tractor-trailers behind my home at 1:30 in the morning,” Lalli said.

Applebaum and Lalli said they spoke occasionally after the 2001 election, when Applebaum became borough mayor. Applebaum said he sought advice from Lalli.

“I have asked him for his opinion,” Applebaum said. “What does it cost to do a sidewalk? Or how can the borough be more efficient in snow removal? Things of that nature. Or (are) there certain types of equipment that are better than others? Multi-functional type of stuff.”