Fire rips through controversial condos
96 units razed; Damage estimated at $10 million
By MAX HARROLD, The Montreal Gazette [Quebec]
April 11, 2009
The Montreal police arson squad is investigating a fire early yesterday that gutted six condominium buildings under construction on land sold in a controversial deal by the Société d’habitation et de développement de Montréal, the city’s private real estate corporation.
The blaze near de Grosbois St. in the city’s east end destroyed 96 affordable-housing condo units. About 40 families were to move in on July 1.
The blaze was on the 38-hectare Faubourg Contrecoeur site, land sold in 2007 to the F. Catania real estate company for $4.4 million even though the land had been evaluated at $31 million. The firm is owned by developer Frank Catania.
Families had bought condo units on the site for between $120,000 and $200,000 through the Accès Condos program offered by the SHDM. The program offers a 10-per-cent purchase credit that can be used as a down payment on the purchase of a property.
“They are quite worried and they have a lot of questions,” Stéphanie Gareau, an SHDM spokesperson, said about the condo owners.
“For now, we’re waiting to see what the site owner will do with its insurer and what kind of options it will offer the families.”
André Fortin, president of Groupe Immobilier Catania, owner of the Faubourg Contrecoeur site, said the fire burned all but the four-storey buildings’ foundations.
“It’s a total loss,” he said, estimating the damage at about $10 million. The fire department ordered the shells of the buildings torn down yesterday, he added.
The six buildings sat on 72,000 square feet of land, one of the few built-up sections on the vast Faubourg Contrecoeur site, which is intended to include 1,800 housing units.
Although the company plans to start rebuilding the condos right away, the most optimistic date for move-ins is Oct. 1, Fortin said.
Families who cannot stay where they now live beyond July 1 may have to be re-housed temporarily, he said.
It has not been determined where they will stay and who will pay for their lodgings.
Fortin and the SHDM plan to meet early next week, and Fortin said, “We should have answers for the condo owners starting Tuesday.”
Catania is insured by Lloyd’s of London.
Jean Leblanc, chief of operations with the Montreal fire department, said the blaze started about 5:40 a.m. and spread quickly because the vacant buildings contained wood and other combustible materials, and had no sprinkler system. Dark smoke billowing from the fire could be seen kilometres away.
No injuries were reported. It took about 100 firefighters approximately three hours to bring the four-alarm blaze under control. Firefighters stayed for several more hours to completely douse the site.
Asked last night about developments, Montreal police Constable Yannick Ouimet would say only: “The investigation is continuing.”
The burned condo remnants are on a newly extended part of de Grosbois St. that is not paved. The site in the Mercier/Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough is next to the old Lafarge Quarry, one reason it needed to be decontaminated before construction of the condos started last fall.
Fortin rejected the idea the site’s controversial 2007 sale might have provoked someone to set the fire.
“I would be very, very surprised if that had anything to do with this fire,” he said.
The Catania company had instituted a surveillance committee with local residents to watch over the site, he added.
“There was a lot of vigilance and we never had any threats,” Fortin said.
He stressed that although the arson squad is investigating the fire, that does not mean it was deliberately set.
“We had construction workers there (Thursday),” he said. “Anything could have happened. Someone could have dropped a cigarette.”
Confrontation 
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