Guzzo Group: a first cinema closes its doors

In serious difficulty, the Guzzo Group is already starting to lose its feathers. At the beginning of December, the first of ten cinema complexes will close its doors permanently, we have learned The Journal.

Located at Galeries des Sources, near the metropolitan highway (A-40), in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, this Imax complex includes five cinemas.

Its closure is planned within a few days, at “the beginning of December”, its president Vincenzo Guzzo confirmed to the Journal.

Neighboring the Fairview Point-Claire Center, this shopping center is owned by Bayfield Realty Advisors of Toronto. The property owner, who also owns the Le Carrefour center in Trois-Rivières, did not respond to our interview request.

The Guzzo Group has been a tenant of this shopping center on Boulevard des Sources since its opening. Having expired, the lease due to end in December will not be renewed.

“We couldn’t agree on an extension (…) Since it was a cinema that was losing money, we decided to let it go,” its president said during a testimony under oath last week.

$38 million to be repaid to CIBC

In a 27-page judgment rendered last Friday, Judge Michel A. Pinsonnault, of the Superior Court of Quebec, authorized Raymond Chabot to exercise his receivership powers with regard to around twenty Guzzo Group companies.

“CIBC [Banque canadienne impériale de commerce] is right to be concerned about the situation and the Tribunal must intervene by exercising the powers conferred on it by Bankruptcy and Insolvency Law (LFI) in the circumstances,” wrote the judge.

CIBC estimates the Guzzo Group’s shortfall at around $38.6 million. Other private lenders, real estate owners and the governments of Quebec and Canada, among others, would also demand tens of millions of dollars more.

“There is an urgent need to know and fully understand the financial situation of each of the Guzzo Group companies to determine whether there is a need to protect the assets of the Guzzo Group, on the one hand and, on the other hand, to protect the interests of CIBC,” declared the judge in his judgment last week.

A little wool

The vast majority of Guzzo Group establishments are located in rented premises which do not belong to it, we learned last week. In addition to the one on Boulevard des Sources, its establishments at Sphèretech and Marché Central, in Montreal, as well as those in Longeuil and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu are all tenants.

Among all of its centers, only the properties of the Méga-plex de Terrebonne, Pont-Viau in Laval, and Lacordaire, in the Montréal-Nord borough, would belong to it.

Of these, several show significant signs of deterioration, such as The Journal was able to see it yesterday.

The management of the Méga-Plex Lacordaire, for example, warns its customers of heating problems. At the entrance, several posters with an unequivocal message (“No heating in our rooms”) leave no doubt as to the fact that a little wool or hot chocolate could prove useful.

The restaurant next to the cinema, Giulietta, another Guzzo Group property, also seemed in poor condition. On its main door, a message printed on a sheet yellowed by time welcomed visitors: “We will be closed today exceptionally.”

A quick visit to the Méga-Plex of the Central Market also allowed us to note several failures, starting with entrance doors that were blocked, or whose handles were either broken, or simply non-existent.