“Embarrassing” city property sits ignored

Ugly and an embarrassment — even in the opinion of its managers — the municipally owned Park & Pelissier parking garage boasts a largely vacant ground floor that stretches nearly half a downtown block.

After sharing in the multimillion-dollar cost of the recently completed Pelissier Street restoration, a growing number of commercial neighbours along the street are wondering why the city won’t do the same as what it expects of private landlords.

“How can you expect merchants to upgrade their storefronts and then you have this?” said Larry Horwitz, chairman of the Downtown Windsor BIA. He said the ground floor commercial space has been allowed to remain unoccupied at least five years.

“Look across the street and it’s an empty, dirty building … it’s a shame,” said Judy Morrison, pointing at a long wall of blank, dirt-stained windows and locked doors.

“They should be making an effort — we’d love to see some people in there,” said Morrison, assistant to the owner of Sterling Mutuals Inc., a financial planning and insurance business at 445 Pelissier St. The business recently invested about $300,000 to have its building redone, including an exterior makeover that complements the investment made to upgrade the streetscaping.

For anyone parking at the city-owned garage for a visit to the downtown, it’s a bad first impression, with dim lighting, graffiti-covered walls with peeling paint and rust stains, the stench of urine and broken floor tiles in the stairway.

“It is pretty embarrassing, driving by,” said Tony Sabelli, the city’s asset/lease administrator. That’s a harsh assessment coming from the city employee tasked with marketing the building and finding tenants.

To critics like Horwitz who wonder why there aren’t even signs on the windows advertising leasing contact information, Sabelli said it’s because the building is not being marketed due to the many “issues” confronting the owner, including the presence of mould inside the walls.

A staff report is now being prepared, but there appears to be a battle brewing within city departments over which preferred option to recommend to city council.

City planning staff, citing long-standing official plans for the downtown, want to see retail or other commercial presence fronting the streetscape, something the local business community favours. But the traffic department, which runs the parking garage and whose budget covers its operating costs, appears to favour ripping out the ground-floor walls and windows and converting that space into parking stalls, which is how the garage was built in the mid-1970s.

It would require “a major overhaul” to fix it up to allow for commercial tenants, said Mike Palanacki, the city’s executive director of operations. Sabelli said a preliminary estimate pegs that restoration at about $1.5 million.

“The city needs to make a decision,” said Sabelli.

Ward 3 Coun. Fulvio Valentinis, who represents the downtown, said he sees both sides of the issue.

“The downtown business community wants street-level activity, but that comes at a cost,” he said, while the city’s traffic engineering department has indicated “there’s not the money there to spend.”

But what’s there now sends out a negative message to visitors, and it’s “not acceptable,” said Valentinis. He wants council to tackle the issue “head-on” in the next round of capital budget talks by agreeing to set aside the necessary funds to foster a street-level commercial presence.

“They haven’t made any effort – it doesn’t look good on our business,” said Youssef Gereige, owner of Youssef’s Hair Boutique at 436 Pelissier St. His business has been leasing space in the parking garage building for about 12 years, but his neighbors are vacant storefronts.

Sabelli estimates about half the 14,400 square feet of available commercial space is currently unused.