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.
Holy crap!!! I was literally walking past that place the other day recalling to myself your post on its history from a few months back. Demolition is the last thing I expected to see two days later!
Let this fellow know how you feel about what he’s done to windsor, a city that has allowed him to build a successful business:
ashok@championproducts.com
And one more thing. In Chris Edwards’ photo here (http://walkerville.com/seagraves/content/IMG_1988_large.html)… that has to be one of the creepiest things I’ve ever seen. It’s like the building eater has been personified into some kind of flesh ripping animal.
I was just down there the other day…whom ever allowed this to happen, should face some serious trouble.
This kind of shit is just not acceptable, specially since this landmark was designated a heritage property.
WTF, that Ashok Sood stood there watching it all happen with a GRIN on his face…..I will NEVER go to whatever he plans on building on that site. Hope it too is burned to the ground.
Here is the letter I forwarded to him….Thanks Windsor Lover for the address!!!
Dear Mr Soot, err…Sood however you spell it!!
This is just a quick note to VOICE my DISGUST with your recent decision to DESTROY one of Windsor’s Heritage Properties. WHO in the hell do you think you are? That was sneaky and conniving allowing for the demolition of the Seagrave Building on Walker Rd. I think what you’ve allowed to take place is selfish, underhanded, and thoughtless. That building played a significant part in our history, and could have served many purposes if you would get your greedy mind off of those dollar signs. Rumour has it you envision a BIG BOX complex on this property…NEWS FLASH..we have enough of those, further more I will NOT be visiting any of your business’s, and will advise anyone I know of the same. Speaking of dollar signs, I DO HOPE that you are fined tremendously, for moving forward with the demolition without the approval of council. I’d also love to see you loose ownership of any other heritage property which you unfortunately may own.
Just my two cents..
Ross
Ross… One quick note – Sood can not be fined because the city issued the demolition permit.
The permit should not have been issued without Council’s approval, but is anything shocking anymore?
Maybe if anyone is truly outraged, you should write or call your councilor and ask why a building listed on the heritage inventory was issued a demolition permit in contravention of the Ontario Heritige Act, without giving 60 days notice as required?
I’m certain the property owner got he wanted, and he could care less what any of us think. Plus no amount of anger will bring the building back. 🙁
So, send a quick email to your councilors, and demand that this be investigated, and that the person who failed to follow procedure be punished. Also keep your eyes open. If any redevelopment plans come up in this stretch of Walker Rd. be ready to fight it at council.
I am as disgusted as anyone else about this but here is the next problem. Something will go up on this site but what? A towing yard, or a tracktor trailor depot or worse? The city is at huge fault here so now it is time for them to step up to the plate and work with local citizens to replace the building with an appropriate development in keeping with the charm and history of Walkerville. Every detail has to be scrutinized. No stucko but bricks, architechtural relevance etc. This means real planning with real heighbourhood input. This has to made into an opportunity and all of us have to ride the city like a goat to get er done. I would call on councillor’s Halberstadt and Valentinis to start and perhaps even Thom Hunt who, curiously, lives on Monmouth Road to get the ball rolling. Keep the noise up people. Don’t let any one city official or department forget how stupid and criminal this act was. Another point. This happened so out of the blue that the Windsor Star didn’t even catch it. Chris, I and others were there shooting the event from beginning to end. There were no reporters from any media there. Sood did what he wanted knowing full well that what he did was wrong. Premeditated strategy. More and more of these guys are starting to realize that bi-passing protocal is a cinch with no re-percussions for them. They have to pay now by following up with doing what is right and under the heavy hand of the Planning department and the local community.
I know I am going to get some flack for this one, but Historic building or not, this building was beginning to be more then a problem. It has on record been set on fire recently (more then once), and numerous people have seen young teens destroying the place, and doing other illegal activity. I know we are loosing lots of Windsor history recently, but if we do not clean up things that are causing these or other major problems, then we may not have a Windsor anymore. I feel that just as bad as all of you that this building is gone, but you can not save all of the buildings in this city. The guy who owns these properties has a right to make new industry, and other items, for the betterment of the community as a whole. There is large amount of jobs that can be created from new items going up, in and around that area, that has not seen any major job creation for a few decades. Be thankful for the buildings that are staying in that area, just like the Market Square, which moved out of its downtown location to help the city with its expansion of the Casino & also Court House system that was falling into pieces, and not large enough for our entire community. If this guy has a dream about creating jobs in our area, then let him help us, and create money for jobs, save other buildings in our area that need to be helped as well. We all have to take a little to get a lot some times, and this may be a start in the right direction.
Ian, who’s to blame for the mess around Windsor and the “illegal” activity around Windsor? Carpet baggers like A-sh-it. Maybe, someone wanted to do something with restoring the property, but A-sh-it wanted too much money for it. I don’t recall seeing “for lease” signs on it. If teens are breaking in, Asood should have put alarms around it. If there was a fire, who is responsible for allowing it to happen? Obviously, if you have vacant buildings lying around and don’t set up any security, people are going to be breaking in and destroying the place.
It all starts with useless Councilors like Valentinis, who never return your messages or you can get a hold of when you notice vacant buildings and have an issue with it such as the landowner not following city bylaws like having the same old graffitti on them for several years. Once graffitti remains on the building, you know it will attract a lot of other problems.
They could have done a number of things with it such as loft conversions. Toronto allows brownfield sites like this to be converted all the time–you just have to add another layer cement to the floor and cap the land surrounding the building with a layer of cement (which is great to put cars on for parking.
What kind of jobs were created from this anyway? They rented a demolition crew for a week. Great. A lot of money there. Will anything other than a fenced parking lot for trucks be put up there? Nope, bad area for big box. No one’s gonna sign a prelease for a big box there. Such a dream isn’t realistic. Asood is crazy. The area isn’t even enough for a big box. Big boxes work in the south end of Windsor/Walker Rd. where the land is already cleared and still plentiful. It’s not even economical to do here. You’re not gonna see anything better than what’s surrounding that area, which is probably why it’ll end up being a fenced parking lot for trucks. Truck parking lots surrounding a historical district doesn’t better the community.
Ian,
While I agree that development is key to rebuilding Windsor, there are ways to go about it without destroying heritage buildings to make way for big box with sub-par wages. It will be a sad day, when all that comes out of this is a strip mall, which the old building could have been renovated to hold. In Montreal this summer, I saw the creative re-use of old buildings, in which they used the historic frame of the building and created a big-box grocery store as well as water distribution center.
and to Andrew. Keep up the good work, hopefully we can prevent this from happening again.
This happened the same day that Marty Gervais’ column (on the Low/Martin house in Walkerville) suggested that Windsor is doing a better job preserving its heritage,
http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/columnists/story.html?id=518affd9-b67f-49ae-859b-cba358553d18
I have walked by this building many times, envisioning artist live/work space creating vibrant public spaces, enlivening the Walkerville area. I can’t believe this is being torn down and the words “Big Box” being attached to it.
Andrew, we will be standing right next to you occupying the land in opposition to any more McDevelopment in the core. I can’t believe this has happened right in my backyard. This city is really trying its hardest to get residents to not give a damn any more, aren’t they?
And Ian – we’re not saving ANY buildings in this city! The best and only thing that the core areas of Windsor has going for it is it’s heritage. It’s the only thing that sets it apart from the McSuburbs and Everyplace, USA. If we don’t start fighting back against community abuses such as these, we may as well leave. But that’s what most people want, isn’t it?
Ian, the building wasn’t the cause of the problems. The building was a *victim* of the problems. The underlying issues that led to the vandalism and arsons will remain long after this particular target is gone. And whether or not this event will make our community better or not can be argued, but the fact that due process was not followed can not be. The 60 day wait period was usurped once again and ironically a mere block or so away from the last incident. Makes me wonder what is going on??
The big box is not slated for this particular site. Too small. Look east across Walker Road as far a St. Luke and you will clearly see that Mr. Sood has carefully prepared the site for something big. If you take a walk around the perimeter you will realize just how big this site is. Whatever might go on this property, it is up to everyone who comments here to see to it that it harmonizes with communities east and west of it.
Chris, Andrew and anyone else listening:
You can count on me standing beside you in any battle against this. What has hapened is absolutely disgusting. While the permit was issued, is there anything legally that can be done to either the city (permitting the demolition and disregarding the heritage act), the demolition company (disoberyingthe building inspector) or especially the building owner? He did shut down a major roadway without permission, he did endanger the public by not properly securing the site (does anyone know who the cyclist was as this could help in the fight?), he did go against the orders of the building inspector, etc. Even though i am an ardent supporter of local businesses, you can rest assured this is one business owner, and sadly the businesses in properties he owns, who will no longer be receiving my business.
I say let’s organize a protest!!!
The destruction of the Seagraves Factory is a metaphor for our city- we are very good at tearing things down, (note how quickly this site was destroyed) but find it very difficult to build anything of worth (think the Chrysler Building, the new arena etc…). A city that does not cherish its heritage eventually ends up corrupt and vacuous.
Like most posters here, I too went by this place just a few days ago. I recently came across “International Metropolis” and since I’ve always had a keen interest in Windsor’s history, I went out of my way to take a few shots of this old building last weekend. I even talked a friend of mine to come along. I don’t look forward to telling him that the old fire truck plant I showed him got torn down. Very sad, I too dreamed of seeing this proud old girl being reused for something useful.
Since the excavator is in the neighborhood local residents might want to keep their eyes on that Low/Martin house. It’s Windsor, everything must go.
Chirs – With the current crop of shitheels in charge, I think we’re all ready there…
i am speechless. completely in shock. i’m with ac and anyone else against a “big box”. shameful. just shameful.
this is in response to ian deck’s comment…i’m all for the creation of jobs. where my problem lies is in the lack of creative use for buildings that already exist. why couldn’t mr. sood reuse the building in it’s current form? funny…we will travel thousands of miles to visit city with historic centres and love the old world charm of it all but in our own city we refuse to reuse buildings that are more than a couple decades old.
(i guess i wasn’t so speechless after all)
Wow that sucks 🙁 Not being from windor i really don’t know all that goes on there but i feel your pain. I hope the city fines the hell out of him for the damage those steel tracks probably caused to the street and sidewalk since it seems the can’t get him for anything else.
I understand the fact that everyone is upset about this, it irks me a little bit as well my brother lives on windmere so I drive by it often, but lets face it that building was a piece of crap eyesore it sat empty for the longest time and if you look closly at the pitures you can see where the walls were scortched from fire,I understand desginating certian buildings as heriitage but this one did not deserve it. As for a “big box” store going there never will happen look at the area , its at the end of walker accross the street from the dirtyest beer store i the city,also acoss the street it a storage facility, this lot will probly sit vacant for a long time or just be another parking lot.
Andrew, thanks for the clarification, I assumed when I should not have. Either way, I do wish he was able to be fined, or held accountable for going ahead without concent.
It’s doubtful I will receive a responce to my umm…..NICE letter to whats his face, but if I do, I will gladly share what he has to say, although nothing said will replace what was destroyed, and ultimately that is the real tragedy.
Ian,
So jobs of any type are o.k as long as there are jobs? Sorry but that logic just doesn’t resonate and it shouldn’t. If we took that stance we might as well shut Windsor down right now.
If people are setting fires and trespassing it is up to the landlord to secure their buildings from intrusion. It is Mr. Sood’s fault that this has not been redeveloped.
I have already called 4 councillors and was told by Mr. Jones that this will be spoken about at Monday’s Council meeting but Ihave yet to see it on the agenda. I have also emailed Mr. Sood and he can be sure that I will not use his Champion Paper Products at my office. My company’s head office has been contacted and they stood by my decision not to use Champion Paper Products any longer. Also, whatever is built on that site I will be sure NOT to go there while it is owned by Mr. Sood or any of his subsidiaries. I will make darn sure he is hit in his pocket book for the remainder of his existence in Windsor.
If and when this comes on the Council agenda I will speak as a delegate. Will you?
Ross – no worries, but you’re right on the money with the real tragedy.
SHAFTS – I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder, that building was a beatuy. It was also a very important industrial heritage site.
As for the fire, it was ruled as arson, and it only happend last July. It was only an eyesore because the douchebag property owner allowed it to be.
No one deserves more blame for this than the owner. Yes the city fucked up, but the owner got what he what he wanted, and took advantage of the situation.
The simple fact is that the owner allowed the building to deteriorate and ultimatly be demolished on his watch. His actions speak volumes to me about his lack of respect for the Walkerville neighbourhood, the residents and the city in general.
THESHAFS, then with that logic of it being empty what difference does it make whether the building is empty or an empty vacant lot? At least with the buliding still there the hope of revitalization still exists.
DAVE-Ok lets say the building was still there what type of bussiness do you think could have went in there? given the area on walker not to many that I would guess would want to risk it, now dont get me wrong I love Windsor and all its heritage but iI don’t see what all the fuss is about about this particular building and whyt now are people upset about it after it gets torn down I sure did not see anything about it on this site until now.
This is utterly disgraceful. The City of Windsor should be very ashamed. Someone should be fired for this!!!
With respect to responsibility I would have to say that Mr. Sood was just as culpable as the city employee that rubber-stamped his demo permit. If Mr. Sood was aware that this building was designated as a heritage building and if Mr. Sood was aware that any permit to do any work to this building must be reviewed by council he is guilty of knowingly bypassing the city’s by-laws. He has demonstrated contempt for the process and everyone in this city. His actions speak volumes about his personal ethics and morals. They also speak volumes of the impotence of our city’s administration and elected officials.
THESHAFS. Lofts could have been done as they were done at the old Metropole (California’s bar now Tony’s I believe), smaller retail businesses could have been done if the owner actually did a bit of work on the hbuilding instead of letting it deteriorate further. No case study was put forth and as far as I know the Walkerville BIA was not contacted to see if they could help. Contrast that with themany businesses on Wyandotte….
Also it is that both the owner and administration flouted the law and did what they usually do in Windsor; ignore the pocesses that have been put in place.
The other thing this city does is usually bring in teh Fire Marshall to say that a buildingis not up to code. What happens is that it is too expensive to bring it “up to code” and therefore it gets demolished. (See Patterson Collegiate and almost the Grier Building on Riverside Dr, not to mention St. Joseph’s that used to house the CAS).
As it stands the city has very little heritage buildings left so if another goes down the loss is that much greater.
James – Just to clairify, the building was listed on the inventory, not designated. If it was designated, there wouldn’t have been a permit issued.
SHAFTS – That building was a perfect candiate for lofts or artists studios. The fuss about the building? It was a great looking urban brick warehouse. Two stories tall, and built up close to the road. It had a commanding presence in the neighbourhood. Also it was the building where the first motorized fire trucks in Canada were built, to me that makes it a pretty significant building.
People are upset, because the demolition was ILLEGAL. If we don’t follow laws and procedures then there is little hope for Windsor. This building has been featured on this site several times (as noted in the post above)
In case you missed those links, here they are again:
http://internationalmetropolis.com/?p=103
http://internationalmetropolis.com/?p=427
can we not organize protest, blocking a major roadway? if walker road was able to be shutdown during rush hour, without proper paperwork, for a demolition, can’t we do the same?
something seriously needs to be done. enough is enough and we need to show that the citizens of windsor are no longer going to take this garbage that they are force feeding us.
I wondered what all the commotion was last night when I was driving home. I could see Walker Road blocked off when I turned onto Richmond. What a disgrace that this is allowed to happen in this city. Heritage obviously is not important to this city. Perhaps some local history should be taught in school as an aside to the Ministry curriculum. As one writer put it we will go to another city or country and thinik how wonderful that heritage/history is and then completely ignore what we have here. As a Walkerville resident my only worry now is that something awful such as a parking lot, storage centre, etc., will be built on the site. There goes the neighbourhood. If the Walkerville area was transported to any other city, it would be very sought after as wonderful place to live and work. I don’t want to give up and move the suburbs, but the time is rapidly coming whenI may have to consider it.
Just want to address a few of the ‘differing’ opinions here. “Historic building or not, this building was beginning to be more then a problem.” Indeed, buildings like these do become problems in their depreciated condition, but that is where a heritage declaration would have come into play. Restoration work, or even adaptive-reuse could have made this structure a viably inhabitable dwelling. For example, such a solid and historic building could have been a site for a condo-conversion or even a storefront sectional on the ground level.
Unfortunately, due to Windsor’s a) lack of respect for the procedures regarding heritage declarations and b) incompetence in creating an official master-plan to reuse and refurbish heritage and-the-like structures, we should most likely see a lot of this going on in the coming years. The Grad House at the University was another sad example of this scenario.
I agree wholeheartedly with Andrew with respect to letting our city councillors know that this is a situation that shouldn’t go unlooked.
This illustrates EXACTLY why nobody can either trust or take the City of Windsor seriously. The laughing stock of anyone with an IQ above 50. THERE OBVIOUSLY IS NO SENSE OF SHAME.
Here’s why the border stops at London – because nobody has time for incompetent assholes. Jeez- Kwame’s looking pretty good next to Eddy.
Don’t give up, JF – FIGHT BACK WITH A VENGEANCE! Join AC, PC, Andrew, myself and everyone else who has agreed to mount a protest.
The protest should be held in front of Mr. Soods operating business. Hit him in his damned, precious pocketbook!
How about the outbuilding in the north/west corner of the site? The one with the California’s surfer dude painted on the side? Did it survive the onslaught? Should someone be standing guard to protect that last piece of heritage on the site?
Might I suggest that we flood city hall with intelligent, respectful e-mails. I just sent one to the mayor expressing my disappontment with the way the demolition happened and that it is anoher blight on the historocity of Windsor.
Don’t bother with Valentinis, who is the most disrespectful of all teh councillors who NEVER responds to his constituents.
Does anyone know what was on the champion paper products property before it became that?
For what it’s worth, AM800 is now covering the story…
what are they saying about it?
Just that the heritage committee is demanding answers as to why the demo permit was issued and that the building dept. has “no comment” as yet. Didn’t make top story but they covered it fairly early in the broadcast.
at least they’re covering it…i guess you can say its a first step
So, how many buildings in Windsor are designated and how many are listed on this “inventory”?
Somebody at city hall needs to get canned over this !!!
How about a candlelight vigil tonight mourning the loss of Windsor’s history, on Walker Road in front of the carnage? That will be what’s written on my sign, actually…
“Windsor’s History“
There’s still time to issue a press release.
David , Google “Windsor Heritage Property Inventory”
Chris, U serious? 🙂
David – There are 96 Designated properties, and 816 listed properties, 514 of the 815 are protected under the act.
Read all about it here: http://www.citywindsor.ca/000246.asp
YES – I’m serious!
I am going out to my garage right now, bringing down one of my old election signs to paint on it right now.
I’ve got a few more too if anyone else is interested. I don’t live too far from where the “incident” happened.
Might I suggest something, Andrew. Last year, when Festival Epicure was threatened because of the withdrawal of sponsorship money from the Windsor half of the tunnel, WindsorEats.com started an email campaign on our website. We had a generic written email form on our site that allowed people to fill in their email address and name and send it directly from our site to all councilors, the mayor and all local media, bombarding them with emails showing their support for our goal of helping Festival Epicure live on. We received great media exposure and, dont know if it was directly or indirectly because of this, 2 large sponsors stepped up to the plate. Maybe you should try doing this on your site?