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There’s a David versus Goliath battle going in the heart of Mile End, and it looks like Goliath has the upper hand in this all-too-familiar tale of gentrification in a hot hip neighbourhood.
Goliath in this case is Montreal real-estate firm Shiller-Lavy Realties, which owns several buildings on St-Viateur St., and the underdog fighting for its life is the venerable independent bookstore S. W. Welch. The used bookstore is currently paying $2,000 a month in rent and owner Stephen Welch last week told Schiller-Lavy, his landlord, that he could afford to pay about 25 per cent more when the new lease would start in August.