City of Winnipeg sues owners of long-vacant Rubin Block on Osborne, alleging code violations, unpaid fees
Lawsuit seeks close to $40K in inspection fees for Rubin Block and Assiniboine Avenue building
The City of Winnipeg is taking the owners of a long-empty building on Osborne Street to court, alleging they haven't kept it up to code and have failed to pay close to $40,000 in inspection fees for the derelict building and another owned by the same company.
A statement of claim was filed by the city last week against Composite Holdings, which is the owner of the Rubin Block, a building at the corner of Osborne Street and Morley Avenue that has been vacant and boarded up since a fire in 2014.
The company also owns 432 Assiniboine Ave., near the Manitoba Legislature, the city's lawsuit says.
From 2018 onwards, city staff entered the Rubin Block building numerous times to inspect its condition and take steps to enforce standards set out in the city's vacant buildings bylaw, the lawsuit says.
Staff found mould in the basement, suites that had fire and water damage and no power or fire alarm system in the building, among other issues, the city's claim says.
The Assiniboine Avenue property was also inspected several times by staff, who found various issues with that building, including no heat or power in parts of the building, a hole through a bathroom floor, graffiti on the exterior, trash bags and litter around the property, and a mouldy smell inside, the city says.
As a result of these issues, the city has fined Composite Holdings 18 times for the two properties since 2018, for a total of $39,754, but those fines remain outstanding despite demand for payment, the lawsuit says.
CBC attempted to reach Composite Holdings to comment Tuesday but was unsuccessful.
None of the allegations in the city's lawsuit have been proven in court and no statement of defence has been filed at this time.
'Nothing else has worked'
South Osborne residents have been pushing the city to do something about the Rubin Block building for close to a decade, even holding rallies — to no avail.
Jeff Palmer, who has lived near the building since 2006, says he's not sure if the city's lawsuit will be enough to get it back up to code.
"[The owners] may pay it, and then in a few years things will go on as they are today, and that doesn't get anybody any further ahead," he said.
Palmer said he'd like the city and province to take steps to expropriate the building so that it can be used for housing and/or commercial activity.
"It's not the first option that should be exercised, but after this amount of time, nothing else has worked," he said.
"I don't know that increasing the fines will make any difference, and I do think that it's a reasonable thing to pursue under certain circumstances and I think that this building meets those circumstances."
The building, which was built in 1914 and designed by acclaimed architect Max Zev Blankstein, was dropped from the city's list of historic properties in 2014.
Cindy Tugwell, executive director of Heritage Winnipeg, said her organization has been fighting to get it restored for a decade.
"It is a beautiful building, and it's really a shame," she said.
She still hopes it will one day be restored but realizes that becomes less likely the longer it remains vacant.
"Each year, it [is] in more and more jeopardy of being so far gone and derelict it would be demolished. And that's always the fear," she said.
Coun. Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry), who is chair of the city's property and development committee, couldn't comment on the lawsuit directly but said she knows vacant and derelict buildings are a major concern for Winnipeg residents.
The city is trying to strengthen its bylaws to address the issue, Rollins said.
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With files from Cam Maclean