Contractor at centre of massive lawsuit by City of Winnipeg asking for refund on fine

The contractor at the centre of a massive lawsuit involving renovations to Winnipeg Police Service headquarterswants the city to refund a $35,000 fine he received for a property he owns at2233 McGillivray Boulevard.

The city slapped the fine onArmik Babakhanians' company,Jags Development Ltd., for allowing the building to remain empty.

The building was inspected six times since 2015; the most recent in July of 2021. Ultimately the city's fire prevention officers declared the building vacant.

The $35,000 the contractor was chargedis based on a calculation of one per cent of the value of the building.

The empty building fees became part of the city's by-laws last year.

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Pamela Anderson came to Wednesday's meeting of thecity's property, planning and development committee to speak on behalf of Babakhanians. She has been identified in the pastas the office manager for Caspian Constructionand she and her company, Triple D Consulting Services, are named in the city's lawsuit regardingthe headquarters project.

A notice of motion filedin January 2020 in theManitoba Court of Queen's Bench by several of the defendants, including Anderson and her company, asserts that even if the city's claims are true, the facts laid out in the lawsuit don'tsupport the city's accusations.

Anderson, who has worked as the officer manager for Caspian, told the councillors the company has struggled to lease out the building because of recent economic conditions, but acknowledged it had been used mostly for storage from 2015 to 2019.

"As a landlord we are finding itvery difficult to lease our properties. This property in particular, we had had two leases established in early 2019. Well, the pandemic hit and our two tenants backed out," Anderson told the committee.

The building has office space anda portion dedicated towarehouse/storage.

After some questions for the public service, councillors on the committee voted unanimously to decline the request by Babakhanians for the rebate of the fee.