Missing details

[Gothichome]

I certainly hope this fellow had good intentions before he started.

https://london.ctvnews.ca/landlord-ques ... sc=CVsqsmh

[Willa]

I certainly hope this fellow had good intentions before he started.

https://london.ctvnews.ca/landlord-ques ... sc=CVsqsmh

Certainly not ! The owner - Farhi - owns many, many buildings, particularly in downtown London. He has made big promises about redevelopment, but a great deal of his property sits vacant and neglected, including historical buildings.

https://noahjstewart.com/2017/05/holding-onto-holdings/

https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/downtown-councillor-wants-better-protection-for-vacant-landmarks

A previous statement (2012) from this Farhi villain, in which he claims to be unable to find tenants for the heritage buildings:

https://pub-london.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=5095

This guy does NOT care about heritage anything whatsoever. His immense vacancy rate, especially in downtown London, is one the major reasons that the city core is so unpleasant, with many smaller businesses blighted into failure. He has immense wealth, and has bought up property with wild abandon, with no actual interest or intent to improve the city. It is grim. He is also doing this in other cities like Windsor.

[1918ColonialRevival]

The guy sounds like a typical slumlord, only on a larger scale. The one question I have is where is this clown getting his money and how can he afford to buy a lot of buildings and have them sit vacant bringing in zero income. The only thing I can think of is the buildings are a money laundering scheme for something more sinister...

[Willa]

The guy sounds like a typical slumlord, only on a larger scale. The one question I have is where is this clown getting his money and how can he afford to buy a lot of buildings and have them sit vacant bringing in zero income. The only thing I can think of is the buildings are a money laundering scheme for something more sinister...

I think (but don't know) that there is probably some major MAJOR family money involved (ie from the Middle East ?). He (or his corporation, or holding company or whatever) own and operate some lucrative, occupied commercial buildings, and have done some development. I am guessing that with such a real estate portfolio that it becomes important to also have property that is purchased/designated as a write off. Many of the heritage buildings are in prime locations downtown. IF the issues with the downtown core were corrected (much of this decline was probably also due to death by suburban mall in the 80's and 90's ) then the buildings would be worth more. Or if they can be ignored until they fall down, then another parking lot can happen. It is easier to get a demolition permit for compromised property on the heritage inventory, too.

As far as I know this dude does not have a slumlord history with residential property - I don't even know if he owns much of that. There may not even be sinister motives except for real estate consumption on a grand scale. This way his holding company is able to own probably 20x the square footage that could have been purchased in a more expensive market like Toronto. Of course the property in Toronto would have rapidly escalated in value and could have easily been resold for great profit.

This a podcast from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation about a terrible slumlord in Edmonton who owned HUNDREDS of residential properties under various names, with all kinds of crazy, sketchy legal shenanigans. His awful management and neglect of the properties had a devastating effect on entire neighbourhoods that had previously been reasonably safe and stable. It is worth a listen:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/slumtown-edmonton-problem-properties-podcast-1.5200015

Here's another story about the Farhi dude. He is rich enough to not even have to bother with presenting a professional appearance at a press conference about a $ 250M development. Like he is standing around with his two DOGS IN CUTE OUTFITS ON LEASHES, like any CEO does, right ?

https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/farhi-development-unveiled

[GinaC]

This reminds me of what happened in Newport.

https://www.concordmonitor.com/Vermont- ... e-17642075
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLsitqTUNBg

[Gothichome]

I to do not believe hime to be a slum lord. Seems he buys up undervalued properties and holds on to them till they can be sold off or developed.
I’m of two minds of his efforts in purchasing heritage buildings. First, he is not tearing them down which give these building a chance to be saved. On the other side, he’s not doing any thing with them. I don’t think you can accuse him of practicing demolition by neglect either, he has to maintain a minimum standard of structural stability do to local bi law controls.

[Willa]

I to do not believe hime to be a slum lord. Seems he buys up undervalued properties and holds on to them till they can be sold off or developed.
I’m of two minds of his efforts in purchasing heritage buildings. First, he is not tearing them down which give these building a chance to be saved. On the other side, he’s not doing any thing with them. I don’t think you can accuse him of practicing demolition by neglect either, he has to maintain a minimum standard of structural stability do to local bi law controls.

The problem is that he (or his holdings co.) buy up buildings that sit vacant - some for a decade or more. Many press conferences are held but there is little follow through. I think the purchase of heritage property is only incidental to its address and selling price. If you drive through downtown London the name Farhi is plastered everywhere - particularly on vacant buildings. The high vacancy rate downtown is one aspect of why it is so derelict. This in turn makes neighbouring businesses suffer. There has been concern voiced by the heritage committee that the historical buildings are not being kept to the minimum standard to prevent structural damage - ie heated. There has also been little concern for making these buildings look maintained, and impenetrable to transients and squatters.

The flipping of commercial heritage property is only attractive to those whose portfolio it benefits. If this developer had a consistent pattern of acquiring heritage property, then making a thorough and sympathetic restoration, then selling that for a profit to an entity that gainfully occupies it - that would be fine. This is NOT what is happening.

[phil]

here we have a relatively new "empty homes tax"
a lot of people from places like Hong Kong came here and bought houses. a lot of them have money so they buy houses and leave them empty. Then return to china to make money while keeping the house and their property rights and immigration status active. The houses are often in fancy areas and are left vacant and unattended. The vacancy rate is very low for rentals as there is a lot of demand. The tax was introduced to make those investments less attractive and to encourage landowners to rent the houses that are being held. Maybe something like that would work to deter heritage buildings being held as investment properties.
https://vancouver.ca/home-property-deve ... s-tax.aspx