What happened to 2290 Girouard?

By Dan Delmar & P.A. Sévingy

The new owner of an apartment complex in the heart of NDG describes the building as a “slum,” and The Suburban has learned that financial troubles with the previous ownership group may explain its deterioration.

A firm called Sofilco, owned by Yves Clément, bought 2290 Girouard Ave. this past summer, not in 2008 as had been previously reported. It is now vacant as long overdue renovations have begun. Clement said he ended up owning the neglected building as compensation for an outstanding debt owed to him by Le Girouard Inc., the previous owner. Marc Émile Barchichat, a Montreal lawyer, had been listed as Le Girouard’s administrator, while Philippe Stenger was its president.

In a brief interview, a reluctant Barchichat said that he was, “of course, not” the owner of the building but only had a mandate to represent the owner, whom he would not name. The ownership group which he administered went bankrupt. Quebec government documents show Barchichat’s firm has had possession of the building since at least 2006 and in that time, complaints from residents to the Régie du Logement, the borough of Côte des Neiges-NDG, the NDG Community Council and local media have been pilling up.

Former resident Phil Bergeron said he lived in a severely neglected building and Leslie Bagg of the NDGCC wonders if the poor living conditions weren’t by design, to force tenants out. “They barely did any cleaning for the whole five years I was there,” Bergeron said. A stairwell had been taken over by pigeons, with dead birds and feces scattered inside. Other reported problems included severe water damage and the decay that followed, a lack of security, boarded-up fire escapes that posed a clear hazard and a lack of proper heating. Tenants who couldn’t take it anymore and left should not expect to return to their apartments at comparable rates.

“What planet do you live on? I can’t rent a renovated apartment for $400,” Clement said. Drastic renovations were needed because “people can’t live like this, period. I’m in the middle of redoing the whole building so we won’t get complaints like this anymore.”

Not only is the building on the southwest corner of Sherbrooke St. undergoing renovations, but documents obtained by The Suburban show Clément is spending a lot of money to put the building’s financial house in order as well. Money woes related to the building date back, at the earliest, to the time when Robert Payette sold the building to Le Girouard for over $1.6 million in September 2006. Over the next three years, Stenger and Barchichat had their hands full trying to administer their building, while paying down mounting debts, including a mortgage of just under $2 million held by the Equitable Trust Company. It appears as though Clément also provided capital to settle Le Girouard’s original mortgage, and took out a new $3.6 million loan to begin the building’s renovations.

Even though Barchichat’s company no longer owns 2290 Girouard, it doesn’t appear as if he is out of the picture just yet. Clement said that as part of the sale agreement, Barchichat will stay on in a managerial capacity to ensure all the apartments are rented once renovations have been completed by February or March. This was, Clement said, to ensure “I could resell the building and make my money back.”