You know, it’s shit like this, and land owners like Ashok Sood (who FYI, owns Champion Products Corp) who don’t give a rat’s ass about Windsor or our history, who make this City and undesirable place to live. Assholes and incompetence is the reason there is a giant hole in the historic heart of Walker Road in old Walkerville.
The historic Seagrave Building on Walker Road (which was featured here and here), was built around 1905, and in this building the first motorized fire trucks in Canada were built.
The city fucked up once again. This building was listed on the Heritage Inventory, and as such it should by law be afforded a 60 day waiting period before a demolition permit is issued. Guess what? It wasn’t. Some moron at City Hall issued the permit without batting an eye.
The same thing happened in November 2006 with the Walker Farm Manager’s house.
Following the Walker Farm House fiasco, I raised a stink and I received this reply:
Please note that the Ontario Heritage Act has been amended so that
properties that are considered for heritage designation must give Council
60 days notice of the intention to designate. After intention is given,
Council must make a decision whether to designate the building or allow
demolition.
Here is the relevant portion of the Ontario Heritage Act – See Section
27(3) – for the 60 day delay part.
Restriction on demolition, etc. If property included in the register under subsection (1.2) has not been
designated under section 29, the owner of the property shall not demolish
or remove a building or structure on the property or permit the demolition
or removal of the building or structure unless the owner gives the council
of the municipality at least 60 days notice in writing of the owner’s
intention to demolish or remove the building or structure or to permit the
demolition or removal of the building or structure. 2006, c. 11, Sched. B,
s. 11 (2).*We have unfortunately issued a demolition permit without following this
procedure. In the future, please ensure that if a building is considered
for heritage designation, that (the heritage planner) be notified and, under no
circumstances, issue the permit unless Council approves the demolition.
…*
Good to see that the city can’t even follow it’s own policies.
I have honestly had it up to here with the City and their piss poor job of doing anything.
The Mayor of Monmouth summed it up better than I ever could in his excellent post here.
No advance warning at all. It was obviously done on the hush. There is one exception to this. Rick Gruber who is the area Building Inspector rushed out today to halt the demolition because even though there was a permit to raise the building, there was no permit to close Walker Road. In fact, the sidewalk is the only thing which separates the building from Walker Road. Witnesses said that a man riding a bike almost got clocked by falling bricks. Four thirty rolled around. Quittin time for city employees and Jones fired up the beast and started tearing the old girl down. Right in the middle of rush hour. One reason…They rented the rig from Amicone for a tight time window and the clock was ticking. Within two hours the building was really history. Ashok Sood who owns that property along with most of the 8 and 900 blocks of Walker Road stood on the opposite side of Walker to witness his planned demolition. He is planning to attract a “Big Box” operation on the East Side of Walker.
– Mayor of Monmouth
You know what? Fuck you, and fuck your big box. Enjoy your vacant lot, and rest assured that I will fight any attempt by you to redevelop your holdings for big box use.
Special thanks for the photo above to Chris Edwards, who went back after me and caught the demise on camera.
His series of photos can be found here: http://walkerville.com/seagraves/
This is unacceptable, and fucking pathetic. Whoever issued this permit in contravention of the Ontario Heritage Act should lose their fucking job.
I’ll keep everyone posted if I learn anything.
Although i am not trying to jump sides i have to agree with “CT” on one thing about developing the area. Even a Tim Hortons as Paul likes to say would be more beneficial to the area then the building continuing to fall apart and become a actual danger to those in the area. Mr. Sood from what i have read sounds like a pretty sharp businessman who has been around Windsor for a long time so i can only take an educated guess that if nothing has been developed there for the past 3 years while it was for sale it did not make any sense to do so and i am sure all the other business people in the area probably think that way as they all had the opportunity to buy the building or rent it out aparently as it was supposedly on the market for the past few years. I agree there is a major problem here, but if the permit was issued then the problem lies with our incompetent staff at city hall. All we can do is try and fix the system so hopefully nothing slips through the cracks again.
Dave
mr stood said it will remain a vacant lot.The building has been in windsor since 1904 and Stood should of put money into it even like a museum about seagraves and then maybe he could of made a little bit of money off it.I doubt anything will be built on the property
“Even a Tim Hortons as Paul likes to say would be more beneficial to the area then the building continuing to fall apart and become a actual danger to those in the area. ”
What the hell are you talking about Dave? What danger? Were bricks falling off the building? The fire marshall reviewed the building the past year and said it was still structurally sound, as stated in the previous article on here. So, that’s bullsh-it! There’s no danger. And, I don’t buy that line of reasoning.
And why would a Tim Horton’s go up when there’s one a couple blocks away?
And, Assco-ck is definitely not sharp. A sharp businessman would go through the process to balance his interests with that of the community; otherwise, he damages his reputation. And, reputation means a lot in business. And, a sharp businessman would realize that.
David..I was obviously being sarcastic about another Tom Hortons. But yes i think the building was becoming dangerous as i heard there had been a fire within the last few months there and i think you have your facts a little wrong. The owner is a sharp businessman and his companies i know have given a lot back to this community. I am not trying to defend anything that happened just simply i think all this anger is misplaced. I cant imagiine what the cost of such a building would be to the owner as far as taxes and vandalism and so on. Lets focus on what we can control the remaining buildings on the heritage list and put the efforts there.
Dave,
i would like to say a few things (my opinions):
fire and vandalism occur far less frequently on buildings that are properly maintained and secured. A building only deteriorates when the owner allows it to.
The main reason the building remained vacant was probably because of how poorly the building was maintained. If that building was properly maintained and returned to her former glory, I can almost guarantee it would have succeeded in procuring and keeping tenants.
If the cost of the building was too much, why purchase it in the first place?
Believe what you want, he knew full well the history of the building. In one Windsor Star article he states he didn’t know anything about it and then contradicts himself by saying someone had told him but never got back to him about it.
The way the demo was rushed points to knowledge of the value of the building. Get it down before it becomes a heritage site or anyone can raise awareness of it.
By the way the Dave above who agrees with CT is not the Dave most of you know. I guess net etiquette is dead because I believe that once a posters name is “taken” most will use a different name. I guess I will go by Dave C. for now on.
It’s like back in highschool when I knew 14 guys named Dave. It’s no less confusing now that I’m sober the majority of the time 🙂
These are the Daves I know…. 😉
Heritage buildings are an essential part of any dynamic city. They create economic opportunities through cultural tourism and by attracting smart creative types to live work. Think Venice, San Fransico, or Stratford Ontario. The reckless demolition of the Seagrave building is a tragic loss for Windsor’s future development as a tourist destination. But it takes vision to see that there is a connection between heritage and economy, and vision is something Windsor sorely lacks.
James I couldn’t agree more! Too bad the overlords of the City can’t see that…
The ‘overlords’ don’t have a plan and that’s becoming more obvious with each of these events. Over the years the downtown has eroded to a wasteland. Downtown used to be the place to go for fine dining, entertainment and shopping. This was despite the development of malls and big box stores on the perimeter. I recall great concern years ago when adult entertainment moved in, but these places remained discrete and did not disrupt the downtown significantly. Later came the kiddie bars. That was the end of downtown after hours. To make matters worse, these places want to remain open all night! Consequently, those of us residing outside the city core or out in the County no longer want to visit downtown for the dining, entertainment (theatre, orchestra, etc) or fine shopping. In fact there are very few of these places left anyway. The city should take advantage of the arrival of the new casino and provide an environment to lure those patrons to local attractions and establishments. Preservation of architecture and historic structures can play a significant role in providing this environment. As it is today, few will venture outside the casino facilities to see what Windsor is all about. What else is there to do downtown??
I got the impression from watching city council on TV last night that the council finds itself in a bad spot. Unfortunately administration seems to have a very poor planning department which has no regard for architecture, history, etc. The councillors are not entirely to blame as the get bad advice…
Dear Friends,
I suggest to you to consider other scenarios before you judge one person’s action, when my country Iran was attached by Iraq and many heritage buildings which were more than 3000 years old were destroyed , in addition too many innocent women and children, no body complained.. as a matter of fact many countries supported the war against Iran ,
This situation is still applicable in Iraq and Afghanistan at the present time ,
Is a building more important than the lives of people?Do you really care or are you only making a big deal to put down a successful business person?
I think you can make a stronger point by using more polite and direct language instead of swear words .
Don’t get me wrong , I have always respected heritage and historical buildings and cities and counties , But instead of putting energy in this site to put down some one think of humans are dying somewhere else and try to save their life,
Thanks ,
What the hell does Iran and Afghanistan have to do with Windsor?? It’s irrelevant. Stay on topic, for chrissake! This happened in Canada, so you abide by the rules, laws and practices in Canada. I remember a couple days ago on the front page of the Windsor Star, a student from China almost beat his dog to death breaking it’s bones and was charged for it and he claimed he was just training his dog and he didn’t know he was doing anything wrong in this country. Not acceptable. You come to this country, you follow the rules of this society. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. If you don’t like that Asscock, I suggest you either run for politics to change the rules or go home! But, keep your stupid analogies to yourself!
Mehdi, that’s for your input, however this is not a political blog, and I don’t deal with foreign policy on here.
This site is about Windsor and its buildings and history, not about overseas wars.
No offence to you, but I care more about what happens where I live, then what happens in the middle east. Tearing down buildings like this illegally, has a direct effect on my every day quality of life. If I wanted to discuss the war in Iraq or Afghanistan I can probably find no end of places on the internet to do so. This site however is not the place to do so.
Sheesh, you sound like concilor Brister now.
I like putting my energy into this site, and I’m sure most of my readers do as well. This site draws an average of about 1000 readers a day, I am proud that as many people care about the built heritage of Windsor, especially since it appears that most of City Hall doesn’t.
Thanks for coming by, and you’re welcome to comment again as long as it’s relevant to the topic at hand. If all you want to talk about is foreign policy, then please don’t come back again, find somewhere where it’s a relevant discussion.
Thanks.
Medhi, you are right, we should be thankful we don’t live in a war zone. And my sympathy goes out to those who live in the middle east who have not and will not see a day of peace in their whole lives. We have much to be grateful for in this country. But that doesn’t mean we should live our lives out as contented sheep with whatever is happening in Windsor at the moment. And it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have a an appreciation and dare I say a passion for our own built history. This is our home – and yours now too – and there’s nothing wrong with showing an interest in its betterment. This isn’t about people having nothing better to do than putting down a successful businessman for kicks. This is about the arguably illegal demolition of the historic 105 year old Seagrave building, not Sood’s ego.
as far as i’m concerned they should just nuke the entire middle east and be done with it once and for all these people come to our country and expectus tochange our laws and traditions to suit them fuck that noise they’ve been fighting over there since Jesus wore short pants
urbanrat soods big box development will not amount to much more than a shitty littlestrip mall
chris thats because city council has it’s head up it’s ass
Well then, if it isn’t Ashook the “CROOK” at it again. this guy does not give a damm for anyone or anything, he is a piece of shit!! a bastard, and a coward. He acts all tough and interested until he has you where he wants you, and then does whatever the fuck he wants. I would not doubt if the city inspector got paid off to wait a while wile they demolished tha building. This guy even burns down the party store along with his wharehouse to collect the “INSURANCE” what a fucking slimy piece of garbage, why don’t you go back to your fucking shitty sand castle where you came from and rip that down. You are looking to turn Windsor into a sandbox – “just like back home” you will never change or become a better person, you stink, you prick.
hey I think ass seed or whatever his name is has a plan to turn this lot into a parking lot once his “business” starts “booming”. You know a smart move would’ve been to refurb this building and move his business in there! But nope, whatever.. Seems all the scumbags and sleezeballs are moving into windsor these days..
Sad thing is, Windsor lets him.
I came into contact with him once or twice… always had an entourage surrounding him.
Some kind of Syrian (I think that’s what he is) mafia thing.
He is a huge crook, and he needs to be run outta town the good old fashioned way.
Here we go, the building is up (Skeleton).
Does anyone know what it will be?
My friends and I used to play in that building in the 1980s….
It was a complete and utter disaster. Judging by the binders of carpet laying all over the place, I think that place was a warehouse for a carpet company at one time.
It was a neat building…
But nobody cared for it. People could just walk in the doors and sift through the mess.
Yup still an ugly undeveloped vacant lot
This could have been repurposed as the new market