Invest in Chinatown or watch it decay, business leaders tell Montreal

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The drug-dealing and homelessness issues that had plagued Montreal’s Chinatown district in recent years have largely been cured, local authorities say.

Now, business owners have a new rallying cry and a plea to city authorities: Invest in Chinatown — or watch it continue to decay.

Merchants and developers who have come together under the Montreal Chinatown Development Council are looking for ways to revitalize a district hampered by street closures, high business taxes and years-long permit times for new housing projects.

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Business and community leaders are calling for cheaper parking rates, less onerous city regulations and a nightlife strategy to bring in younger patrons and residents to revitalize the aging district.

Tony Ho, who was born in China and educated in Montreal, returned here after 20 years back in his home country to invest in a city he loves for its European feel and high quality of living.

“I really found Montreal is a unique city compared to any other metropolitan areas in North America,” he said.

But it took him two years to get the municipal permits necessary to build a 30-unit building in the heart of Chinatown, and high taxes and fee costs meant his profit margin was low. Chinatown, with its significant older population, needs the younger generations to visit its restaurants and invest, but they won’t do so if it’s not financially feasible, Ho said.

“If we want to revitalize, where is the money coming from?” he asked. “We want to invest, but it can’t be just a donation.”

Following a brief burst of business after the pandemic ended, local merchants have complained of a drop in revenues caused by the covering of the Ville-Marie Expressway that closed streets connecting the district to Old Montreal, and high business taxes, Vincent Lupien said at a news conference organized by the business community and the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) Wednesday.

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“Businesses are facing very high taxes, heavy municipal regulations that impede them from doing renovations, and there is a lack of visibility of any measures by the city,” Lupien said.

The municipal taxes on his three-storey building are $92,000 a year — expenses he has to pass on to his tenants, which they shoulder along with their utility staffing costs. The high expenditures mean there’s little money to invest in the decaying facades that characterize many of the buildings in Chinatown.

“There are no incentives to rejuvenate our aging buildings that look like crap,” Lupien said.

Renovations to building facades are often prohibitively expensive because of heritage protection regulations, he said.

Business leaders are calling for a Chinatown parking policy similar to those seen in Vancouver and Edmonton where a flat fee of $3 or $5 or even free parking is offered, especially from Friday evening to Sunday evening. They are also requesting a one-time payment of $5,000 to merchants who lost income because of street closures on lower St-Laurent Blvd. and St-Urbain St. and along Viger Ave. As well, they want a Chinatown restaurant promotions strategy to bolster local cuisine and a storefront upgrade fund.

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Chinatowns across North America, often located in downtown cores experiencing shifting demographics, are facing similar challenges in terms of public security and economic vitality, noted Fo Niemi, executive director of CRARR. Cities like Vancouver have implemented lower parking rates to try to spur business. Edmonton has set up a $1-million Chinatown recovery fund to help it rebound after the COVID-19 pandemic. Calgary put in place a fund to partially pay for storefront upgrades.

“We believe in trying to create similar partnerships between the private sector and the city,” Niemi said.

“Chinatown’s success story is based on economic vitality,” said Steve Shanahan, a former city councillor serving as a consultant for the Chinatown development council.

He noted that whereas mitigation measures were put in place for merchants when work was done on St-Denis St. and St-Laurent Blvd., nothing was organized with the Chinatown merchants community when extensive roadwork was done in their region.

“When you reduce the ability to do business, you reduce the ability to attract investment,” Shanahan said. “And when you don’t have investment, you have decay. And that’s exactly where we are now.”

Montreal’s city administration did not respond to requests for comment before publication time.

rbruemmer@postmedia.com

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