Businesses in the Latin Quarter learned at the beginning of January that Saint-Denis Street will be completely closed to traffic from January 14, a hard blow which, for some, adds to historic losses during the holiday season.
• Also read: Disastrous holiday season for merchants in the Latin Quarter
“During the holiday season, I had days that were down to minus 93% of my regular turnover. I have an average of minus 75%,” declared Thursday the owner of the Saint-Bock brewery, Martin Guimond, to Mario Dumont in an interview on QUB radio at 99.5 FM Montreal.
Mr. Guimond is ironic about the new name of the Latin Quarter, renamed “Francophonie district” by the Plante administration, while his business and those of his neighbors are on the verge of bankruptcy.
“It would rather be the neighborhood of the French-finite in reality. […] The Latin Quarter is pretty much abandoned by the Plante administration,” he says.
Informed in January
For this restaurateur established on Saint-Denis Street, the situation is all the more frustrating since at the beginning of January, merchants were not informed directly by the City of Montreal of the upcoming work, but rather by a paper notice.
“We simply learned that from January 14, Ontario Street, Saint-Denis Street, will be completely closed to traffic,” he explains.
-The owner of Saint-Bock emphasizes that several merchants are already struggling to pay their rent.
“Normally, we pay rent of around $30,000 per month. So, if we have turnover of $15,000 to $16,000, those days are pretty good. But when we make $600, $800 per day, and then we have like five, six, seven employees on the floor, it doesn’t work,” he explains.
“There are a lot of buildings that are closed, that are boarded up. I think that around a little over 50%, problems with vermin, homelessness, drug use, violence. That doesn’t make the neighborhood very attractive,” laments Mr. Guimond.
The merchants are asking for help from the City, but the work is “not major enough” to have access to compensation programs. “I sometimes wonder, how would Ms. Plante react if we took away three months of her salary per year because I do work in front of her house? Basically, that’s what’s happening,” he said.
Compared to last year, the Latin Quarter Commercial Development Corporation (SDC) reports an increase in traffic of 16.8% for the holiday period. Its general manager, while understanding Mr. Guimond’s frustration, specifies that traffic varies from one business to another in the sector.
*This text, generated with the help of artificial intelligence, was reviewed and validated by our team based on an interview carried out at QUB.
