Despite the cacophony of heavy trucks, bulldozers and horns Frances Foster is happy about what’s going on at the vacant lot at Beaubien and Waverly streets in Montreal’s Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie borough.
“It looks like sh*t now, but it’s exciting,” she laughed.
The city is building Gorilla Park, a green space in the Marconi-Alexandra sector of the borough, enclosed by Beaubien Ouest, Saint-Urbain, Saint-Zotique Ouest, and Esplanade Avenue.
Both she and neighbour Trevor Goring live next to the space that they fought for years to save.
Sadly, they might not be around when it opens.
“Myself and (my) neighbour, received our eviction notices last November,” Foster told Global News.
They’ve lived on the second floor of the industrial building for more than 30 years and are among the few residential tenants left. They were surprised when they were asked to leave their apartments.
“(The owner) wants to expand the spaces and re-designate them (as) commercial,” Foster explained.
It’s the same building in which an entrepreneur wants to build a whisky distillery.
Neighbours support the two tenants, worried about what the plans are for the building and for the neighbourhood.
“We have really rallied around Frances, and also as neighbours, to make sure that this project doesn’t go forward,” stated Myriam Valcin of the distillery, “because it’s an absurdity.”
Global News reached out to the building owner for comment but did not receive a response.
In a statement to Global News, a spokesperson for the borough noted that the distillery project and the issue with the two tenants aren’t connected, and did not want to get involved in the dispute between Foster, her neighbour and the owner.
“The management of rental leases – residential and commercial – does not come under municipal authority,” reads the statement. “No permit application has been filed for these two units in the last 12 months.”
Because there have been no applications for permission for changes to the units, Foster thinks she has a chance when the parties go to the provincial housing tribunal.
A date for that hasn’t been set, but according to Goring, “we apparently are going to be in negotiations with the owners, although they seem very inflexible and really want to be rid of anyone who is a residential tenant.”
He and Foster expect the parties to meet in the coming days.