Montreal aims to turn abandoned east end cinema into affordable housing | CBC News
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Montreal’s new mayor has announced plans to spend $1.7 million on an east end lot to build affordable housing where the former Cinéma Paradis now sits, derelict and unused for years.
Soraya Martinez Ferrada announced Wednesday that by exercising its right of first refusal, the City of Montreal will be able to demolish the building at 8215 Hochelaga Street and transfer the land to a non-profit organization.
The organization will develop an affordable and social housing project on the site, in accordance with municipal policy, a city news release says. In Montreal, the right of first refusal allows the city to buy a property before anyone else if it is for public-interest projects, such as affordable housing.
“By purchasing a property like that of the former Cinéma Paradis, we are finally taking action in a file that has dragged on for 15 years,” the mayor says in the news release.
“We’re buying a building that has badly deteriorated in order to build affordable and social housing — a priority for our administration.”
Chantal Gagnon, the new mayor of the Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough, said the project will “restore a sense of pride to this stretch of Hochelaga Street.”
Caroline Braun, the executive committee member responsible for housing and planning, said in the same news release that the goal is to support non-profit organizations by delivering essential projects more quickly.
Martinez Ferrada said during a Wednesday news conference that her administration is looking for ways to accelerate similar social and affordable housing projects that have stalled. Braun, speaking at the same conference, said the aim is to begin demolishing Cinéma Paradis before 2027.
Cinéma Paradis had long been owned by Cinémas Guzzo. Its founder, Angelo Guzzo, bought the cinema in 1974 and renovated it. Over the past 16 years, two redevelopment projects for the Cinéma Paradis by businessman Vincent Guzzo never materialized.
In 2019, he criticized the city’s strict regulations, which he said hindered the progress of his projects, while former borough mayor Pierre Lessard-Blais accused him of failing to properly maintain the building, which is covered in graffiti and left abandoned.
The lack of maintenance at Cinéma Paradis has frequently been denounced over the years by various citizens’ groups.
In July, the Guzzo family sold the land for $800,000 to Investissements Denmar Inc. In September, the land was put up for sale for $1,679,000 — double its purchase price just two months earlier.
According to documents reviewed by Radio-Canada, a notice of subjection to rights of preemption was filed by the City of Montreal on Sept. 16.
The rapid construction of affordable and social housing is among the promises made by Martinez Ferrada and her party, Ensemble Montréal, during the recent election campaign.