WINNIPEG – Demolition crews began Wednesday tearing down the West End building at the centre of a spat between a business owner and the city.
Machines ripped into the 110 year old building at Sargent Avenue and Langside Street, which owner Sal Infantino says he was trying to convert into apartment suites and rental space.
But after spending almost $800,000 in renovations, the work had to be abandoned after part of the building and the sidewalk in front of it began to collapse.
Infantino and the city blame each other for the failure. Infantino was ordered to tear down the building at his own expense after inspectors declared it unsafe.
“A very rough day, I can’t even think about it, can’t even look at it,” Infantino said Wednesday standing outside the demolition site.
Infantino claimed rainstorms washed the soil from underneath the sidewalk, which collapsed and pushed into the building’s basement. He staged a media event in front of the building in March to complain that the city was driving him out of business.
City officials responded with details of an engineering report they claim shows it was Infantino’s renovations that caused the sidewalk to collapse, not the other way around.
Infantino disputed the city’s claim and suggested he may take legal action to recover his costs, a state of affairs that hasn’t changed despite Mayor Brian Bowman intervening to ask city officials to “sort this out.”
“We had some meetings with the city but it seems like the only venue we have is to go to court,” Infantino said Wednesday.
Sal Infantino also owns X-Cues Billiards and Cafe on Sargent Avenue.
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