Ontario Realty says no to ghost walk
[attach]764[/attach]There will be no ghost hunting in the gallows of one of the city’s oldest buildings this Halloween, as elaborate plans for tours and events at the historic Don Jail have come to a screeching halt.
Bridgepoint Health, who currently leases the building, hired event planners Slingshot to run tours and book events for the pre-Confederation building. However, approval is needed from the building’s owner, Ontario Realty Corporation, for the public to be allowed inside the jailhouse due to its advanced age.
No such approval was granted before the events were planned.
Chris MacKechnie, Slingshot’s president said he thought his company would be able to hold both and events tours from May 24, when their contract with Bridgepoint began, through Halloween.
On May 25, Slingshot moved into the jail and in the early afternoon of May 26, the Ontario Realty told them they would have to leave and most of the events were cancelled.
“Some of them were angry, some of them just felt sorry for us,” MacKechnie said of those who booked events with Slingshot. “We had a very good reputation in the industry … Some of the ones that had already made financial commitments had threatened to sue us.”
When the Slingshot employees were kicked out, he said they were facing unemployment.
“We thought everything in our lives would be consumed with the jail until November,” MacKechnie said. “At this point, we wish we never even considered doing business with Bridgepoint.
“We expected more from a hospital.”
MacKechnie said his company spent five months working full-time cleaning up the empty jailhouse and making it safe. He added they also hired a researcher to plan both regular tours and ghost tours of the historical building.
Although they are not offered through October as originally planned, Ontario Realty did honor Bridgepoint access agreements for a limited number of dates on four weekends in August and September.
Public access tours were not the only hot tickets, according to MacKechnie. He said demand for the space as an event venue was high and they were sure to sell out. The building, which cost at least $8,000 per night to rent, was booked to host events for Toronto festivals like Luminato and the Toronto International Film Festival.
Paula McColgan, vice president of public affairs at Bridgepoint, said the hospital has plans to restore the Don Jail, while the Toronto Jail next door will be moved to a new facility in Mimico and will be torn down to accommodate a health centre to replace Bridgepoint’s aging facility.
When Bridgepoint takes ownership of the 150-year-old jailhouse, with the help of historical architects, they plan to restore its famed rotunda and chimneys back to their original state and will save both the gallows and a few cells to retain a piece of Toronto’s history.
