The Wooden Monkey restaurant is “leading the march” in filing its claim with the Utility and Review Board, says lawyer Ray Wagner.
Wagner is representing multiple downtown businesses in a lawsuit against the municipal, provincial and federal governments, the Halifax Convention Centre Corporation as well as Argyle Developments Inc. and its parent company Rank Incorporated.
Construction on the Argyle Street Nova Centre began more than four years ago. Nearby business owners have repeatedly said the disruptions caused by work on the convention centre has resulted in lost revenue and damages. For the Wooden Monkey, those losses add up to $508,107, as outlined in a statement of claim filed this week with the NSURB.
Wagner says there are multiple factors involved in the claim, such as power and water getting cut off with little notice and even an instance of basement flooding.
“There was, of course, the damage to the structures that took place as the result of the dynamite that was used to clear excavate the site,” he adds. “There was debris that was flying around, dust—very little that was done in terms of mitigating all those impacts.”
Other businesses including Biscuit General Store, the Carleton and the Economy Shoe Shop joined the Wooden Monkey in announcing the planned legal action last summer. Given the cost and time-consuming nature of the expert reports needed to file a claim, Wagner says they are going forward “in a serial manner.”
“We’ll proceed with the Wooden Monkey, deal with the jurisdictional issues at the outset, and if we have to go to the Supreme Court we will do—and we will do for all the plaintiffs,” he says. “Or, if the UARB is the proper form and that’s determined, then we will continue to file the additional claimants in that form.”
Up to this point, Wagner says they haven’t received a reply from any of the respondents.
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This article appears in Feb 23 – Mar 1, 2017.
Weird that Durty Nellys and Maxwells aren’t complaining.
Attica – formerly in an old, un-renovated building on BARRINGTON and Salter are also making a claim.
Back to the story, she can fIle all the bogus claims she wants, she’s only bringing a bad name for her and her restaurant. And WTF was up with running for Mayor? Something is wrong somewhere but not under these circumstances.
It’s sad when a bar owner has to go and blame 4 years of bad revenue on something that they knew was coming and had time to prepare for. As an industry professional of 14 years I can tell you that even with a major disturbance to a business like the construction that is going on at the Nova center any restaurant in that area still has a viable chance to draw business and keep it. 500k in losses over 4 years tells me that there are far more issues in the Monkey than they are letting on. “Hey monkey owners if you need me to come run your place successfully for you let me know.”
The fact that the people of Halifax would even allow that building to be built will forever leave that city with a mistaken identity of economic progress and more low income jobs. Halifax in general seems to be taken over by developers and foreign companies.
Good for them. I hope they recoup their losses.