Landlord sold notorious downtown building, but didn’t pay hefty fines

A notorious rooming house in downtown Sault Ste. Marie was sold at the end of last year — but the owner did not use the proceeds to pay any of the $120,000 in outstanding fines owed to the city for fire and building code violations linked to the property.

Land registry documents obtained by SooToday show that a numbered company operated by Jim Brogno sold 314 Albert Street East to a local company last December for $270,000 — $50,000 more than it was acquired for two years ago.  

The 15-unit rental building is well-known to both the fire department and the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service. As SooToday first reported last year, Brogno’s numbered company was found guilty of nine provincial fire code offences related to the building and given 30 days to pay a staggering $120,000 in provincial fines. 

An appeal by the company was considered abandoned and was subsequently dismissed in provincial offences court this past November. 

As SooToday reported earlier this month, the numbered company that lists Brogno as president now owes more than $381,000 in unpaid fines linked to fire and building code infractions at two Sault Ste. Marie rental buildings: 314 Albert Street East and 342-346 John Street.

And despite 314 Albert Street East being sold, the City of Sault Ste. Marie ultimately had to resort to placing Brogno’s numbered company in collections in hopes of recouping the outstanding fines associated with the property. 

Melanie Borowicz-Sibenik, an assistant city solicitor and senior litigation counsel for the city’s legal department, confirmed to SooToday that the bulk of the defaulted fines on the property — now totalling more than $129,000 — were moved to collections in January. 

Two more provincial offences convictions from earlier this year totalling $6,400, meanwhile, are slated to go into collections soon.  

By the end of June, all outstanding fines and other costs related to Brogno’s numbered company will have been moved to collections — an action taken by the city only after a provincial fine has been in default for a period of 150 days. 

In an email reply to questions, Borowicz-Sibenik said provincial fines go into default 30 days after the due date. If fines remain unpaid 60 days after the default date, the provincial offences office can begin enforcement measures and an enforcement date is set.

For Highway Traffic Act convictions, a defendant could stand to have their driver’s licence suspended or their licence plate could potentially be affected. 

“These enforcement options are not available to building code and fire code fines,” Borowicz-Sibenik wrote. 

If the defendant still fails to pay within 60 days after the enforcement date, any outstanding fines are sent to a third-party collection agency retained by the City of Sault Ste. Marie.    

“The city has commenced enforcement measures on the matters it can pursue and will continue to evaluate all enforcement measures available,” Borowicz-Sibenik wrote. 

The city also has authority under section 441.1 of the Municipal Act to register a defaulted fine against the property taxes of any property owned by the convicted person in Sault Ste. Marie. It may also seek to collect the outstanding fine by way of available civil remedies. 

Borowicz-Sibenik said in the case of 314 Albert Street East, the closing date for the sale of the property was prior to the December 8, 2022 default date for the $120,000-plus in fire code fines. “As such, the registration of taxes was not an available remedy to the city prior to the change of ownership,” she wrote.

Brogno has not responded to multiple requests for comment from SooToday.

Land registry records show that the Albert Street property was purchased in cash by a company called The DK Royal Star Groups Inc. The company director who signed for the transaction was Dasa Kumar Subramaniam, a well-known local entrepreneur with business interests in both Sault Ste. Marie and White River, Ont.

Although 314 Albert Street East sustained its fair share of damages over the past couple of years — resulting in the property being boarded up due to unsafe conditions and a number of its displaced tenants establishing an encampment on the corner of Gore Street and Albert Street East — Subramanian told SooToday that a complete overhaul is currently in the works in an effort to modernize the building for prospective renters.

He said a number of new items had to be purchased for the renovations, including new doors, windows, flooring and drywall. “It was in bad shape — really, really bad shape,” Subramaniam said.  

Due to the demand for affordable student housing, Subramaniam said he hopes to rent units in the renovated building to post-secondary students in time for the fall semester. He said the interior is about “90 per cent” done, with renovations to the exterior of the building expected to be completed over the summer.

“It used to be not as livable, but we’ve made lots of improvements,” he said.

Subramanian made the news earlier this year after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a female employee more than three years ago. Although he was granted a conditional discharge — which means a conviction was not registered — Subramanian is appealing his sentence, which included 18 months probation.

The Crown has filed a cross appeal, seeking a sentence of 30 days imprisonment. A court hearing on the matter is scheduled for May 17.

“None of those things happened,” Subramanian told SooToday. “It’s unfortunate nobody contacted me.” 

He said he wants to tell his side of the story to the media in the future. “Otherwise, people know what happened — I don’t want to tell anything,” he said. “From my side, there’s nothing wrong.”