Work On Building Of Wall Collapse Could Take Weeks
Posted April 19, 2010 8:01 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It could be a rough few weeks for six businesses affected by the wall collapse on Gould Street.
City building officials estimate it may take that long before operations at 335 Yonge St. can resume after a large chunk of the structure’s Gould Street façade crumbled Friday afternoon.
“It’s just a shock. You never expect something like this will happen. Even I can’t go to sleep sometimes, thinking what am I going to do tomorrow,” said Robert Ayoub, owner of Wanda’s Belgian Waffles Café.
Ayoub – who does not have insurance to cover the interruption – is losing thousands of dollars every day he is forced to stay closed.
Renovators reportedly removed a door lintel and that may have caused the outside wall to crumble, according to city officials.
But some have questioned whether the 122-year-old building was being properly maintained and some in the area reported seeing a sign mounted on the building before the incident.
“I’ve heard from people in the neighbourhood that they saw a big sign for the restaurant go up early last week and then it came down late last week,” said City councillor Kyle Rae.
The City is now trying to stabilize the building. Once that is completed the structure has to be rebuilt and it’s not known how long that could take.
The outside wall of the newly-opened Sushi Tatami crumbled just after 12:30pm Friday, sending a large cloud of dust into the busy restaurant and a large amount of bricks and other debris onto the sidewalk. No one was hurt.
Two lanes of traffic – one in each direction – are now open on Yonge Street.
