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Legal issues keep tours, parties out of Old Don Jail
Building owner, events planner did not get access agreement from leaseholder
Anthony Reinhart
Toronto — From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Last updated on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009 03:06AM EDT
Staying out of jail is generally considered a good thing, but not for an event-planning company that had a contract to host functions in the Old Don Jail this summer.
The company, Slingshot Inc., says it could lose out on $1-million in profits after it was ordered out of the historic jail by Bridgepoint Health, owner of the site, due to concerns raised by the Ontario Realty Corporation, owner of the adjacent and still-operating Toronto (Don) Jail.
The provincial government agency still has a lease on the old jail, and as such, must agree before Bridgepoint allows anyone into the facility, shuttered since 1977.
Slingshot partner Chris MacKechnie said he thought such consent had been obtained when he signed a contract with Bridgepoint on May 8. The agreement would have allowed his company to promote and operate ghost tours and private functions in the spooky, architecturally prized building throughout the summer.
He learned otherwise a few weeks later, when Bridgepoint informed him of “sensitivities” at the realty corporation around such things as security, parking and building safety, and told Slingshot to suspend its event planning.
“Because we had a solid contract with the hospital, we thought our plans were approved,” Mr. MacKechnie said. “We had no idea that there was another party who could pull the plug.”
The resulting cancellations forced Slingshot to lay off 11 employees and have damaged its reputation among suppliers who now doubt the company's ability to follow through, he said, adding that the company is considering suing Bridgepoint.
Paula McColgan, spokeswoman for Bridgepoint, said the prospect of legal action prevented her from answering whether it was Bridgepoint or Slingshot that jumped the gun by allowing events to be booked before access agreements with the realty corporation were in place. However, she said “it would be up to Bridgepoint [and not Slingshot] to get those access agreements.”
Ms. McColgan said public tours of the jail will proceed as planned over the next four weekends for people with tickets bought during the Doors Open Toronto event in May, for people with prepaid tickets bought during the Doors Open Toronto event on May 23 and 24. For the purpose, Bridgepoint has hired three of the nine tour guides that Slingshot had to let go, she said.
The dank, 145-year-old jail, which features a gallows and an atrium fitted with iron brackets shaped like snakes and dragons, was flooded with eager visitors during Doors Open, which Bridgepoint hosted while Slingshot operated a booth to sell hundreds of tickets for the tours.
Mr. MacKechnie said his company was inundated with requests for wedding and corporate bookings, and for the rights to mount the last party before Bridgepoint renovates the jail as office space later this year.
On May 25, the day after Doors Open ended, Slingshot moved a larger crew into the jail to plan those events, but “around noon on the 26th, we were booted out,” he said, after the realty corporation made its objections to Bridgepoint. Slingshot workers wereallowed back into the jail while the parties tried to hammer out a solution, but by mid-June “it appeared that we weren't going to be able to figure it out,” and they left again.
Yesterday, in a bid to restore its reputation and recover lost business, Slingshot went public and issued a news release detailing the saga. “It has hurt us,” Mr. MacKechnie said.
Julia Sakas, a spokeswoman for the realty corporation, said “it's a given” that access agreements would be necessary for a site flanked by a functioning jail and a hospital, and that such agreements were in place for the public tours operated by Bridgepoint, but not for the Slingshot events.
“A licensing agreement allowing for more extensive use of the facility has been discussed by [the corporation] and Bridgepoint,” Ms. Sakas said, “but currently there is no agreement in place for that.”
She said she could not comment on any dealings between Bridgepoint and Slingshot, but wanted to make clear the corporation “didn't actually cancel any of [the] events” Slingshot had planned.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...article1247428/
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