Daily BrewElliot Lake mall owner calls building a ‘black hole’, wouldn’t pay to fix collapsed parking structure
By his own admission, the owner of an Elliot Lake, Ont., shopping mall that saw its parking structure collapse and kill two people last year had the money he needed to address the safety concerns he knew plagued the structure. He just chose not to.
Bob Nazarian made the admission while appearing at the Elliot Lake Inquiry late yesterday, calling the Algo Centre Mall a "black hole" and stating he didn't want to spend any more money trying to fix the rooftop parking structure.
"[The] Algo mall was a black hole. That no matter how much money put in … even before I purchased that mall, [it] was doomed," Nazarian said, according to CBC News.
"I would not put my life in it, no. I worked 42 years to gather some fund for my family. I'm not going to put everything in this building and … everything goes down the drain."
This came late Thursday, during Nazarian's third day of testimony in front of the Elliot Lake Inquiry, which was called to investigate what caused the July 19, 2012, rooftop parking lot collapse that killed Lucie Aylwin and Doloris Perizzolo.
The inquiry has been ongoing for months, investigating the cause of the collapse. A second leg of the inquiry delving into rescue efforts will begin in August.
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Throughout his testimony, Nazarian clashed with commission counsel Peter Doody, who questioned how long the mall owner knew safety improvements were necessary. At the outset of the inquiry, Nazarian rejected responsibility for the collapse and denied that he failed to properly maintain the structure.
He has said he previously tried to address leaks in the parking structure, but nothing seemed to work. The money Nazaraian says he had, but declined to use to fix the structure, went instead to fund a separate real estate deal.
On Friday, more details about how Nazarian managed his property came to light in a resignation letter authored by a former manager, which described horrific working conditions he was forced to deal with.
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According to the Canadian Press, Henri Laroue quit on May 3, 2011, claiming in a letter that she was on call day and night without receiving extra money.
"When I spoke to you in regards to this fact that I am sometimes working 60 hours per week yet I am in trouble if I am one day late, you advised that you could make me work 90 hours per week," she wrote in the letter. "If I am sick one day, this day's pay is deducted from my pay."
The letter went on to claim Nazarian failed to follow safety measures, telling her to ignore following the fire code. Nazarian has conceded that he hadn't followed fire regulations for years.
So, in summary, Nazarian owned a property he knew was structurally unsound and had the money to try and fix it, but didn't. He had a history of ignoring safety measures, and two people are dead because a parking lot collapsed in on itself.
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