Businesses, residents concerned after Montreal fire leaves building vacant

Montreal business owners are concerned after a fire left a building on Saint-Laurent Boulevard vacant for months.

On Saint-Laurent Boulevard, between de Maisonneuve Boulevard and Ontario Street, there is a stretch of business owners who have been voicing concerns over safety and security.

Back in April, a fire destroyed a building and since then, a security perimeter has been placed around the site, as well as around another building that is empty.

It has decreased foot traffic and led to a decline in business for some in the area.

“Being surrounded by the fencing and having issues inside and having employees not feeling safe coming to work … and clients not being able to find the store — it’s just, like, what can you do?” said Hillary McLellan, manager of operations at the Eva B. vintage clothing store.

CTV News spoke with some other businesses that also have safety concerns. One man said that squatters have been living at the back of the building.

Since May, the city’s opposition party has been calling for the demolition of the empty building.

“Because what we realize is that people don’t feel safe and the situation has been normalized. That’s something that we were really worried about. So obviously, we were asking for the administration to act and unfortunately, nothing has been done in the past two months and a half,” said Ensemble Montreal’s Alba Zuniga Ramos.

In a statement to CTV News, the city says it is aware of the problems, adding back in May it received a report stating that the structural integrity of the neighbouring building is compromised and the borough has plans to demolish it.

The city says it is confident that after the demolition, the situation will improve. It was supposed to start the work last week, but it has yet to happen and it’s not clear why there has been a delay.