. Those who appeared before the committee cited city taxes, lack of parking and changing consumer habits to explain the problem.
“Are you joking?” he said in a recent interview at the suggestion his company purposefully lets storefronts sit empty. “We are willing to take … lower and lower rent. You think I’d rather pay my mortgage and city taxes and be empty?” City councillor Richard Ryan is running the consultations and says the city doesn’t have the data to quantify the role real estate speculators and wealthy landlords are playing in the vacancy problem.But Ryan, who represents the Mile End district where Le Cagibi was located, said there is “no reason” a renter can’t be found to replace it.
A lot of vacancies on commercial arteries are big spaces that don’t respond to the current needs of the market, Lazar said in an interview. But at least four times, she said, the various real estate agents didn’t want to negotiate because the owners allegedly didn’t care whether it was rented or not. Even empty, the buildings were “just gaining value,” she was told.Global real estate consultant firm, Altus Group, calculates that Montreal has the highest commercial real estate taxes among large Canadian cities.
Ron Rayside, with architecture firm Rayside Labossiere, filed a submission to Ryan’s committee, in which he suggested the city impose a tax on owners who let their storefronts sit empty for long periods of time, with the levy increasing the longer it is left empty.
regionomics regionomics: does that argument (advanced constantly in the MTL media) about landlords holding on to vacant buildings while they gain value seem at all plausible to you?
globebusiness
globebusiness Because of online shopping. French Canadians adore it, and are usually the fashion trend setters for Canada. Get prepared folks, boutiques and store fronts are becoming a thing of the past, just as we have seen department stores gradually disappear, so will the store fronts.
globebusiness The city isn't booming, many businesses are struggling, these are not good times for many sectors, with high city taxes making life even harder on the average small business.
globebusiness Too much inventory that’s why
globebusiness A combination of out of control municipal taxes, insanely high return on investment demands by landlords, historically unrealistic wage demands, and competition by big fish like Amazon, Alibaba, etc., makes it incredibly difficult to sustain a small product-based business.
globebusiness Restrict parking, the war on cars. People that buy stuff use cars, nobody wants to take a bus carrying shopping bags. I no longer shop in Montreal. Rather go to Laval that's more car friendly.
globebusiness French only signs? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
globebusiness amazon and Shopify successes. The move to e-commerce Is destroying cities one shop at a time, also social space, safe living, public life n the squares, sense of solidarity and community. Upside? People living and working in moms or friends basement making money now. tobi
globebusiness Amazon, there's your answer.
globebusiness If the the city starts imposing a tax on owners who let their storefronts sit empty for long periods of time, landlords will find a way to transfer this cost to the tenants. This may make things even worse.