London, Ont. developer rant caught on tape during BIA meeting

The issues and frustrations of downtown business people came to the forefront on Tuesday when Shmuel Farhi went off on a rant at a London Business Improvement Association meeting.

“Everything else here is a bunch of bull****,” he said during Tuesday's meeting.

Farhi’s message included the closure of a number of downtown businesses, concerns over WSIB leaving the core, and hundreds of employees relocating to the outskirts.

BIA Chair Scott Collyer has known Farhi for 30 years, and was not surprised by the outburst.

"I very much agree with many of the frustrations [of] that sentiment because it's obviously being felt by the entire membership,” he said.

However, Collyer didn’t agree with the way Farhi went about conveying it. 

“How I do things is, 'It’s praise in public and correct in private,’” he explained.

Fanshawe College journalism student Ibrahim Lynn was expecting to cover a quiet meeting, but ended up recording the rant.

"I thought this was going to be my down day. Meanwhile it just completely exploded,” he said.

After the meeting, CTV News London reached out in an attempt to speak with Farhi.

In a statement, he said "I chose to express the frustration that our tenants are feeling and be honest and present the true picture of downtown that so many people are afraid to address."

According to Farhi, downtown London’s commercial vacancy rate is 30 per cent, or “the highest in Canada.”

Farhi said crime, homelessness and drug use have reached “crisis levels” which is deterring people from living and working in the core, and which has already caused the mass exodus of major tenants, such as federal, provincial and municipal offices.

“Despite substantial spending on studies, strategic plans, conferences, and task forces, the downtown's socio-economic conditions have continued to worsen year by year,” Farhi's statement reads.

While the BIA only has a budget to make so many changes, Collyer believes they may need to reassess the future of downtown London.

"We need to step back and take a longer look, 15 to 20 years, look at what the downtown looks like in 2040 to 2050,” he said.

In his statement, Farhi reiterated that he remains committed to closely collaborating with the city and the BIA in order to revitalize the downtown core.

“We consider the downtown as both our calling card to the world and the heart and soul of our community,” Farhi’s statement concluded.