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Drake owner denies east-end strip club purchase (Post)

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gigantichound

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Rob Roberts, National Post
Published: Friday, June 16, 2006

It's the rumour that won't die: Drake Hotel honcho Jeff Stober wants to buy/has bought the grand old building at Queen Street East and Broadview Avenue that houses Jilly's strip club and wants to turn it into a hip hotel/bar a la the Drake.

It's easy to see why the rumour makes the rounds: The surrounding area (known variously as South Riverdale, Leslieville, or more recently Riverside) has quickly gentrified, and well, Jilly's is a strip club. The gorgeous Romanesque building -- built in 1893 by Archibald Dingham -- is tired, but otherwise fully qualified for the Drake treatment.

''I heard about [the rumour] a year and a half ago,'' said Mr. Stober, acknowledging the symmetry to the conditions that led to his transformation of the Drake on Queen West. ''Resurgent neighbourhood, beautiful building ...''

And yet: ''I've never even had a walk-through of the building.''

Entrepreneur Harold Kamin -- who bought the building 20 years ago for less than $2-million -- says his only talks on the future of the building have been with the owner of a neighbouring property about the prospect of building condos. They even spoke to an architect, but the idea has so far gone nowhere.

''I've had the building for a number of years. I'm at the stage of my life where I don't want any other problems,'' Mr. Kamin said.
© National Post 2006

This is the kind of rumour that should be true, even if it's not. Along with closing the jail, it's one of the better things that could happen to south Riverdale.
 
Yes, this one has been going around for a while. I think it would be great, but I'm not so sure if I'd like to see us lose a strip bar.
 
^Not even if it were turned into a totally "in" strip bar?
 
Jilly's is one stripbar we can lose, but only under the condition that it is re-opened elsewhere in the east end with better looking girls.

Seriously though, the area is due and will happen sooner or later. A part of me would miss the sketchiness of this stretch b/w Broadview and Pape.
 
Jilly's is one stripbar we can lose, but only under the condition that it is re-opened elsewhere in the east end with better looking girls.
All strip clubs have been grandfathered in T.O. Therefore if Jilly's closed down, it couldn't open up somewhere else (unless it took-over an existing strip joint somewhere else).
 

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