The Montreal International Jazz Festival has not been all that festive for a group of downtown business owners.
Restaurants at the corner of Ste-Catherine St. and Jeanne-Mance St. say they have been cut off from the main festival site by construction work, and they are having one of their toughest years in recent memory.
"There's a fence with construction that was supposed to be done before the Francofolies," said Nikitas Fotakis of the Eggspectation Restaurant. "They've been telling us, and it's still there. They just keep on postponing and postponing."
Postponing completion of the $200 million Quartier des Spectacles. a project that has reduced this stretch of Ste-Catherine to rubble – rife with detours, metal fences, and bulldozers.
Fotakis says business at his restaurant is down 60 per cent at a time when it should be booming. Instead, he says he's had to reduce staffing, and getting a table is not a problem.
"Business is really down," he says. "Usually we have a stage, people are running in to sit on a terrasse to watch the stage. But lo and behold there's no stage for jazz, no stage for Francofolies, and God knows if it's going to be ready for Just for Laughs."
The city admits to a two-month delay for this particular part of the project, citing minor problems with underground pipes. But they say it's short term pain for long term gain, and they're asking vendors to be patient.
But with so much revenue on the line--patience is running thin.
"It's hard to get the same numbers because people, first of all, can't get to us," said Demitri Gofman of the Baton Rouge Restaurant. "It's not as attractive."
The city hopes to wrap up construction by the end of September, long after the Jazz Festival – and all of its paying customers – have gone away.
