The largest condo project in Beaconsfield is in trouble. The construction of West Hill, 50% owned by a company of the son-in-law of Tony Accurso, has been interrupted for more than a year. The partners in the project no longer speak to each other, have lost their building permits and are being sued for millions by their lenders, including a company owned by the family of a close mafia.
Posted at 12:00 a.m.
110434 Canada Inc. is claiming 1.6 million from the promoters of the project, which should eventually have up to 150 apartments in four four-storey buildings at the corner of Elm Street and Alton Drive.
The numbered company belongs to the children of Antonio Pietrantonio, alias Tony Suzuki, 59 years old. The gangster received a three-year prison sentence in the early 1990s after Operation Jaggy seized 740 kilograms of cocaine off Nova Scotia.
PHOTO CATHERINE LEFEBVRE, ARCHIVES SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Antonio Pietrantonio, aka Tony Suzuki, at the wedding of Hells Angel Martin Robert on 1er December 2018 in downtown Montreal. He owes his nickname to the Ville-Marie Suzuki dealership that he operated with his family until 2007.
In the early 2000s, the Colisée anti-mafia operation described his multiple contacts with Vito Rizzuto, the godfather of the Montreal mafia until his death in 2013. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police considered Pietrantonio to be the leader of one of the cells that were targeted its investigators. The police, however, had focused their efforts on other suspects and did not arrest him.
His son Gabriel is president of 110434 Canada Inc., which is suing the promoter of West Hill, 50% owned by Karol Fortin, husband of Lisa Ray, daughter of Tony Accurso.
PHOTO FROM INSTAGRAM
Karol Fortin and Lisa Ray, daughter of Tony Accurso
According to our police sources, members and relatives of organized crime attended the wedding of Gabriel Pietrantonio on August 27 at Club Atwater, including the influential Hells Angel Martin Robert and Francesco Del Balso, a major player in the Montreal underworld.
Tony Suzuki’s two other children, Adriano and Marina Pietrantonio, are shareholders with Gabriel in the private loan company.
Expired building permit
When the continuation of the Pietrantonio company fell last July, the West Hill site had already been paralyzed for almost a year.
Today, the building permits have expired and to restart work, the promoter will have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to obtain new ones. He will also have to sign a new agreement with Garantie de construction residential (GCR).
“The company no longer has the right to build, so the project can no longer go ahead,” said François-William Simard, vice-president of communications for the organization, which protects buyers’ deposits. One of them has just sent him a first request for compensation to recover his deposit.
The main lender to the project, HMT Holding Inc. of Toronto, is also claiming more than 2.3 million on first-tier financing that the promoter of West Hill has not reimbursed since last May.
Subcontractors who worked on the project are also claiming more than half a million from the company that owns the project.
Hard-to-reach associates
Another Karol Fortin company has already built a first building with 24 apartments on the West Hill site. The promoter then teamed up with promoter couple Frank Scartozzi and Stéphanie Gould. Together they formed a new company to build an identical second phase. But as the problems pile up, communications break down between the associates.
PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK
Stéphanie Gould and Frank Scartozzi, partners of Karol Fortin at the West Hill
Karol Fortin therefore filed a motion to force his co-shareholders to hand over the project to him, or to complete it without him if they refuse. “We have made so many offers, and the other, he does not respond, so we are going to ask a judge to make the decision,” said the businessman, in an interview with The Press.
According to him, it was Frank Scartozzi who was responsible for finding financing from private lenders who are now trying to recover their marbles.
He first found a loan of 5.9 million HMT. “There was still a lack of money, explains Karol Fortin. He said, “I have one of my buddies who does financing.” »
the boyfriendis Gabriel Pietrantonio, son of Tony Suzuki.
PHOTO FROM LINKEDIN
Gabriel Pietrantonio, son of Antonio Pietrantonio and president of 110434 Canada Inc., who is suing the West Hill promoter for 1.6 million
Contacted by The Press by telephone and through his lawyer Ciro Cucciniello, Frank Scartozzi did not call back.
An impromptu visit
In interview with The PressKarol Fortin’s lawyer, Audrey Lanctôt, tells how Gabriel Pietrantonio and his father visited him unannounced last July, after the filing of their lawsuit against the West Hill partners.
“They came to my office on the spur of the moment,” she said. They then asked him to be reimbursed.
They called me and they were in the conference room. I went to see. I just spoke with Gabriel, but his father was there.
Audrey Lanctôt, lawyer for Karol Fortin
Karol Fortin assures that he did not know who the father of his lender Gabriel Pietrantonio was. “My lawyer tells me that Gabriel has a financing company of his own”, unrelated to his father, says the entrepreneur.
Contacted by The Pressthe lawyer for the Pietrantonio company, Kristen Petitclerc, did not call back.
Karol Fortin assures that this legal conflict “is about to be settled”. “At the end of the line, I will pay them,” he says.
Protected buyers
Joined by The Pressa client who booked an apartment in September 2020 says he got in touch with GCR to get his $41,000 deposit refunded.
Zach Herskovitz is pleased not to have entrusted more funds to the promoter.
“He asked us for an additional $80,000 in February 2021 so that we could keep our [logement] he says. However, the guarantee plan provides for a ceiling of $50,000 as an insurable deposit.
“We said yes, but in the end, he never came back to see us,” said Zach Herskovitz.
GCR invites all buyers left behind to contact the organization.
“The entrepreneur seems to want to reimburse people,” says François-William Simard. In any case, since he was registered with the guarantee plan when he received these sums, the deposits are protected under the program.