Absentee landlords blamed for the Main's urban blight

Empty storefronts, their long-unused doors plastered with posters.

Dirty windows covered in graffiti and tags.

Even buildings in such desperate need of maintenance they might literally fall down.

GlennCastanheira, the director of the Socitdu dveloppement duBoulevard Saint-Laurent, has seen it all.

[Landlords are] sitting on an oil wellthey dont have to maintain their building to make it gain value.- Glen Castanheira,

And as he stood on the sidewalk, pointing out one of those vacant commercial spaces on St-Laurent, Castanheira said its evidence of a problem that plagues the street: absentee landlords.

Castanheira said some have inherited family buildings even as theyve moved away from Montreal, while others have stayed put but neglected their properties.

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Castanheira said thatunfortunately, there is little incentive for the owners of those spaces to change.

Although those owners dont do anything to their buildings, they still gain value, he said. Because theyre sitting on a guaranteed land theyre sitting on an oil well they dont have to maintain their building to make it gain value.

Other owners and merchants say the neglectful ones bring down the image of the street.

Zack Macklovitch has invested in several retail spaces on St-Laurent, but said its risky, and that others are discouraged from investing in the street.

It keeps a ton of shoppers away, Macklovitch said.

Others have difficulty understanding why some landlords are so neglectful.

Theres no reason that building should be sitting empty," said Bruce Burnett of Antrev, a realestate company with holdings on St-Laurent, as he looked at another empty retail space. Its a question of being proactive To have a vacant space is not justified.

But Castanheira said many owners simply refuse to do even the minimum to maintain their buildings,secure in the knowledge they will make money eventually when they sell. Castanheira said he has talked to some of these landlords in the past.

The answer, he said, is always the same: mind your own business.

City needs to act faster

Castanheira said he hopes the city will enforce an existing bylaw meant to force owners to at last maintain their commercial properties. There are laws in place,butthe city is too slow to do it," he said.

Theres no bylaw that forces owners to find tenants for their buildings.- Alex Norris, Plateau city councillor

Plateau city councillor Alex Norris admitted the city response has not always been as fast as he would like.

I think there has been a lack of political will and bureaucratic will to enforce the citys building maintenance bylaw, Norris said. He added a lack of resources makes it challenging to enforce the bylaw.

There have been successes too,he said, suchas when the city managed in 2011 to obtain an injunction in court, forcing the owner of a building at the corner of St-Laurent Boulevard and Des Pins Avenue to repair the crumbling and potentially dangerous exterior of his building.

But still, the inside of that building sits vacant. Castanheira said the citys victory there was bittersweet. Norris admitted thats true.

Quite frankly, the family that owns the building havent got their act together," Norris said."Ive been in touch with them,made repeated calls to the owner, (Im) still hoping theyll find a tenant."

But theres no bylaw that forces owners to find tenants for their buildings, he said.