Eyesore on Decarie to be demolished to make room for metro entrance and green space

The borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) tore down a building on Decarie Boulevard near Snowdon Station that’s been an eyesore for residents and businesses alike for years.

Demolition crews showed-up this week to demolish the building at the intersection Decarie and Queen Mary Road – and it’s not pleasant for people living around here.

“Basically, it is the noise and the particles that spreads in the air. People are breathing it, and especially I have children,” one resident told CTV News.

The building housed the once popular Udisco hobby shop and the Mr. Fix-it repair store. But the building was expropriated in 2020 so the STM could build an underground maintenance entrance.

The delays left the building abandoned, much to the dismay of its former occupants and neighbours.

“I have actually lived my entire life and was born behind the shop on Decarie 71 years ago, and it all came crashing down in the summer of 2020,” said former Mr. Fix-it owner Ira Gladstone.

“It was a terribly unhealthy environment inside those buildings that had been closed for five years.”

Roderick Rodney, who owns a barber shop next door, says the borough’s negligence towards the abandoned building had a domino effect on the entire sector.

“I mean, it’s been a while now since this this particular part of stretch. I’ve seen quite a few, you know, ups and downs,” he said.

Once the demolition of the building is finished, the STM will go ahead and build its underground facility.

But the borough will also create a park on top of it, which the citizens say could improve their quality of life.

CTV News contacted the borough regarding the state of the neighbourhood, but it deferred all questions to the STM.

Upon learning they’d get a park, locals say it at least gives them something to look forward to.

“They’re just going to do a park, a green space, which is going to be great,” one told CTV News.

The timeline for the future of the sector, however, remains undetermined.