The end of Uptown 7th is nigh

View of 1st Street C-Train platform and bubbles from 129 – 7 Ave SW / November 14, 2016

Recently, at the beginning of this month, I wrote something about the high possibility that changes to the 100 block of 7^th Avenue SW may be coming.

Apparently, those changes are coming sooner than I anticipated.

Last night, as the train I was travelling on stopped at the 1^st Street platform I noticed that all four panels of Uptown 7^th had a new message on them. It was a message that obviously were meant to read as one. The four panels read:

•     (Panel 1) Good News! / Good Bye Bye!!
•   (Panel 2) All of us are getting EVICTED VACATED this FRIDAY NOON.
•   (Panel 3) As if this city isn’t depressed enough as it is. Six Families . . . Out!
• (Panel 4) Who’s Kicking us out? It’s the MAN
  •   Below the fourth panel is a series of arrows on the sidewalk pointing toward text on the street directly in front which reads:
•   (Street text) THE MANNIX FAMILY!!! From Calgary

Panels 1 & 2 on façade of 125 – 7 Avenue SW / November 14, 2016 at night

Panels 3 & 4 on façade of 125 – 7 Avenue SW / November 14, 2016 at night

Text on street and façade in front of 125 – 7 Avenue SW / November 14, 2016 at night

As I was photographing the panels for this posting, I happened upon activity in one of the spaces and as a result had the opportunity to visit with Jonathon Sunstrum and get some background on what has gone down in that block recently. He was able to provide a timeline of recent activity relevant to his continued occupancy:

• October 03 – Court approval received for the purchase and sale of the buildings
• October 25 – Sunstrum and other tenants are served with notice to vacate by the new landlord
• October 27 – due to an error the tenants were “officially served” with notice to vacate and informed that the landlord’s leasing agents would meet them on the following Monday
•   October 31 – landlord’s leasing agents met with Sunstrum to discuss the exit of their properties

Johnathon Sunstrum standing in office window at 129 – 7 Avenue SW with bubble machine / November 14, 2016

Interior of the 127 – 7 Avenue SW space / November 14, 2016

Interior of 127 – 7 Avenue SW space / November 14, 2016

Exterior of the 121 and 123 – 7 Avenue SW spaces at night / November 14, 2016

It appears as if my hunch as evidenced by previous blog post was spot on. I even got the timing right. Notwithstanding that, I found that some information in that blog post was not entirely correct. They are as follows:

• Spelling of Sunstrum’s name (which has been corrected in the previous posting) 
• Assumption that the 129 space was used as a residence (this is incorrect. The space is used as an office instead)
• Stuart Block and eviction of “undesirables. (from discussions with Sunstrom last night, November 14, 2016, this occurred during time that Heritage Properties owned the building as indicated. The update is that the building was sold at some later point, possibly around 2012, to corporate interests owned by members of the Mannix family and has remained boarded up as seen in the photo below and owned by that group since that time).

 

Stuart Block building (113 or 115 – 7 Avenue SW) and a lone female transit customer on 7th Avenue at night / November 14, 2016

It would appear that unless something changes in the next couple days, that the small businesses and the Uptown 7^th spaces have been given 21 days to vacate and will need to find new premises, on short notice – one month prior to Christmas.

Their final date of occupancy being this Friday, November 18 vacating no later than 12:00 Noon.

I wonder what impact this will have on perceived safety at this C-Train platform after hours, without having those eyes on the street.