While the city and the owner of Somerset House continue to wrestle with stabilizing the heritage building that partially collapsed in October, merchants in the area are unhappy with the city’s offer of compensation for lost business.
Atomic Rooster Bar and Bistro owner Ed Fitzgerald says his pub, which is located on the same block as Somerset House, opened the week prior to the heritage building’s collapse.
He says the resulting street closures have cost him about $70,000 in revenue.
“You know the old adage, ‘The first six months are the most important for a business’? Well, I lost out on two whole months of business because of all this,”
Fitzgerald says.
Area merchants met with the city's manager of revenue Ken Hughes to discuss ways of recovering from lost business. Hughes says the city's corporate services and economic development committee will help ease
business owners' financial strains by extending the due dates of
property taxes.
“Given the options, this is the best we can do,” he said, noting the Ontario Municipal Act doesn’t allow the city to lower property tax rates.
According to the plan, property taxes for Bank and Somerset Streets businesses will be due five months later than usual this year.
Hughes says this should give business owners a chance to build up their revenue after losing out on the typically lucrative fall shopping season.
But Fitzgerald, like many merchants in the area, criticized the plan, saying it mostly benefits property owners – those responsible for making tax payments.
“It doesn’t address the fact that I’m out $70,000,” Fitzgerald says.
Hughes says the city will issue a letter to all landlords encouraging them to adjust their tenants’ rate payments to reflect the new tax schedule.
In the meantime, executive director of the Bank Street Business Improvement Area Gerry LePage says a lawyer is consulting with area businesses about lawsuits and whether they should sue the city or Somerset House owner Shahrasebi.
LePage says four businesses contacted the lawyer so far, but he hopes more will come forward.
“It’s not too late,” LePage says. “We have years to litigate.”
Somerset Ward Coun. Diane Holmes says the city will bill Shahrasebi for the total cost of reconstructing the heritage building and also sue him for police expenses incurred during the street closures, which she estimates to be more than $300,000.
Some business owners asked if they could collaborate with the city in its lawsuit against Shahrasebi, but Holmes says that isn’t usually allowed.
Fitzgerald says he’s too frustrated with the city’s handling of the situation to consider a legal partnership.
“The ineptitude of City Hall is shocking. If this was a fire instead of a structural collapse, there wouldn’t have been this prolonged closure, since the fire department can actually handle crisis management,” he says. “I hope the city learns something from this.”
Holmes says the relationship between the city and Shahrasebi has been thorny, which delayed reconstruction plans, but the streets should be fully reopened by the end of the month.
“It’s a moving target,” Holmes says, “but we’re told (by engineers) the streets can be opened again soon.”