Montreal City Weblog

Kate 09:27 on 2021-02-25 Permalink Reply  

• Meezly 09:49 on 2021-02-25 Permalink

  No no no!

• DeWolf 10:13 on 2021-02-25 Permalink

  It’s not closed yet!

• Taras 11:07 on 2021-02-25 Permalink

  No I didn’t! There’s still hope. But we all need to support Stephen and his family by dropping by, showing our love, and maybe picking up a great book.

• Kate 11:27 on 2021-02-25 Permalink

  Sorry, Taras, I thought that by posting that photo you were virtually conveying the situation.

  I did not mean to imply you said something you did not intend. I’ve changed my post.

• Joey 11:30 on 2021-02-25 Permalink

  It may not be closed, but it certainly seems like the landlord is planning to rent the space, and we all know how unlikley it is they’ll abandon their plans…

• Meezly 11:34 on 2021-02-25 Permalink

  I posted a call for support on a Plateau parenting group that has 2500+ members and to write to their city councillor. There should be a total moratorium on Shiller-Lavying during the pandemic.

• Kate 13:37 on 2021-02-25 Permalink

  Good move, Meezly.

• Meezly 14:20 on 2021-02-25 Permalink

  Based on my observations, the political activism ratio is pretty low in that group, but there are some civic-minded parents there for sure, esp. if it affects their hood.

• walkerp 14:29 on 2021-02-25 Permalink

  It goes beyond this single store. Shiller/Lavy is almost singlehandedly destroying the commercial nature of the neighbourhood. They did the same thing to Cagibi, cranking up their rent, driving them out and leaving the space empty for almost a year. There needs to be a change in the law so they don’t benefit from having an empty store front.

• steph 14:52 on 2021-02-25 Permalink

  Can someone explain how they /benefit/ from keeping the store empty?

  I always thought they jacked up the rent simply to make more profit. The risk of leaving it empty was just part of the waiting game for the deeper pockets to show up.

• walkerp 15:01 on 2021-02-25 Permalink

  My understanding is they also get a big tax break while the store remains empty, so there is no motivation for them to rent it and can thus do the strategy you mention.

• dwgs 15:37 on 2021-02-25 Permalink

  Also, with real estate prices rising the way they are they’re making serious coin even without doing a damn thing.

• JPM 17:09 on 2021-02-25 Permalink

  @steph, basically they do not care about the day to day operations of the property as much as the return they stand to make selling the property, increase the revenue = increase the value. The losses they incur in the meantime will be tax deductible when they sell.

• MarcG 17:51 on 2021-02-25 Permalink

  This is the kind of shit that makes you realize there are two worlds: one where people exchange their time and labour for money, and one where you turn money into more money because you can understand, or afford to pay people who understand, the kind of gibberish contained in JPM’s post.

• Kevin 18:33 on 2021-02-25 Permalink

  @MarcG
  That’s another great reason to simplify the tax code. We’d get to dump lots of excessively specific corporate welfare that only benefits those who can afford to pay lobby groups.

• CE 21:57 on 2021-02-25 Permalink

  I like how the tweet says “There goes our neighbourhood” as if there was still any neighbourhood left on St-Viateur.

• walkerp 23:08 on 2021-02-25 Permalink

  It may have suffered in recent years but it is still a beautiful, wonderful place and there is hope left to keep it that way.

  Go see if you can find a better street in any other city in Canada. You may find a few but what we have is special and it is worth fighting for.

• JS 09:14 on 2021-02-26 Permalink

  What tax breaks do landlords with empty rentals get?

• Meezly 10:11 on 2021-02-26 Permalink

  Here’s what Alexander Norris said:

  Quebec law unfortunately does not provide for controls over commercial rents. (Rent controls are under provincial jurisdiction.) A standing committee chaired by our colleague Mile End councillor Richard Ryan recently recommended that controls be placed on commercial leases in order to protect merchants against abusive rent hikes. That recommendation has been taken up by the city administration, with Plateau mayor Luc Rabouin, member of the executive committee responsible for economic development, announcing he intends to press the province on the issue.

  He provided this article: https://journalmetro.com/…/locaux-vacants-vers-un…/

  Unfortunately the city is reluctant to tax owners of empty storefronts because of the pandemic so once again Shiller-Lavy is protected from this for quite a while yet.

• Meezly 10:11 on 2021-02-26 Permalink

  Full article path: https://journalmetro.com/actualites/montreal/2616590/locaux-vacants-vers-un-encadrement-des-baux-commerciaux/

• Kate 10:35 on 2021-02-26 Permalink

  Thank you, Meezly!

• Joey 10:54 on 2021-02-26 Permalink

  What exactly is Luc Rabouin waiting for (“ with Plateau mayor Luc Rabouin, member of the executive committee responsible for economic development, announcing he intends to press the province on the issue”)?

  (Though admittedly the prospects of Projet Mtl getting Qc to do anything are basically null.)

• Tim 10:59 on 2021-02-26 Permalink

  @JS: I’m not a tax lawyer, but I do not believe that there are any tax breaks for landlords with empty rentals. What people want are for these landlords to be subject to penalties.

• Kevin 11:32 on 2021-02-26 Permalink

  As an individual, you can claim interest payments on money you borrow as a tax credit.

  As a corporation, having a vacant property means its value is decreasing, so you can use that loss to offset income from other areas, thus decreasing the corporation’s income tax.

  Vacant storefronts mean people are less likely to visit the neighbourhood, making it harder for other stores to survive, so they move – and small landlords who need that property rented because they otherwise cannot afford to pay the extremely high commercial property tax — or because they can’t afford their loans — are forced to sell, and the only ones who can buy have deep pockets.

• Tim 12:01 on 2021-02-26 Permalink

  I don’t follow Kevin when you say that the vacant property’s value is deceasing. You mean that the city’s tax evaluation of the property goes down?

  I also do not follow where the loss is. The business will still have expenses coming in for the empty storefront. Can those expenses be applied to decrease the level of tax elsewhere? That still is not a loss, at least to me.

• Kevin 12:13 on 2021-02-26 Permalink

  Tim
  I’m not a tax lawyer either, but from what I’ve been told, a drop in the city’s evaluation is a drop in commercial taxes (benefitting big corps playing games) and a drop in perceived value means the asset is worth less (so is a write-down, offsetting other income) and so is worth less as a security for loans (hurting small owners with more restricted cash flow).

  It’s accountant/lawyers doing the same kind of min-maxing that people do in RPG or video games.

• Meezly 14:33 on 2021-02-26 Permalink

  Let’s get back to the issue at hand – supporting S.W. Welch.
  Someone in my google group called ShillerLavy , pressed zero for reception to voice her outrage/opposition to the rent increase.

  I did the same. The receptionist actually picked up, seemed very sympathetic and took down my name and number and my complaint. Now I hope Shiller-Lavy won’t sick their goons on me but I’m willing to take some risk to save my neighbourhood bookstore.

  Shiller-Lavy’s number is 514 256 5050.

• Meezly 16:37 on 2021-02-26 Permalink

  There’s a FB group of fed up residents: https://www.facebook.com/events/2888616944712419/?active_tab=about