junctionist
Senior Member
John Goddard
staff reporter
The city of Toronto is taking steps to turn the storied Matador Club – after-hours honky-tonk to waiters, rounders and Hollywood stars – into a parking lot.
Co-owner Ann Dunn has rejected the city's $800,000 purchase offer, saying, "I've paid more than twice that in taxes over the past 43 years."
City officials say they will make another offer and, if agreement cannot be reached, recommend to city council next month that the land be expropriated.
"We've identified that area as high-demand (for parking)," Toronto Parking Authority president Gwyn Thomas said this week.
Levelling the Matador would create a 20-space lot, he said, handy for people using the West End YMCA at 931 College St., kitty-corner to the club at 466 Dovercourt Rd.
In its heyday, prior to anti-smoking bylaws, the Matador teemed most weekends with musicians, bar servers, bikers, late-night revellers and other night owls who appreciate casual house rules in a down-home setting.
It remains open every Friday and Saturday night from 1a.m., but co-owners Ann Dunn and her daughter Charmaine Dunn no longer run it themselves.
"Yes, we're ready to sell," said Ann Dunn, 79. "Charmaine just wants peace and quiet, and so do I."
But not sell at any price, the elder Dunn said.
The lot represents prime downtown real estate zoned for a three-storey building – perfect for a boutique condominium development. It can only appreciate over time.
"I used to sell real estate," she said.
The Matador was built as a dance hall during World War I and was being used as a bowling alley when the Dunns, mother and daughter, first saw it in 1964.
They bought the building, stripped it to its original hardwood floor and redesigned it as a country music hangout for the after-hours crowd.
"Harrison Ford loved the place," Ann Dunn recalled this week of one of many actors who discovered the Matador over the years.
"He showed up the first time with a bunch of groupies and I stopped him. I said, `You can't come in.' I didn't know who he was and I thought he was tagging along with the others, who I'd already let through.
"They said, `That's Harrison Ford.'
"I said, `Well, who's Harrison Ford?' They said, `Indiana Jones.'
"I said, `Oh, I love Indiana Jones' – and I let him in."
____
It's unfortunate that the city is intending on a vigorous pursuit of a club with such a colourful past. There is that bizarre aspect is, of course, the plans to put in a parking lot of 20 spaces. But while blogTO made a link to the city's budget problems, it's hardly definite. This Toronto Star article was the only professional coverage I could find, and it's a broad overview. So what is going on here? Could it be conflicts with neighbours? Or is the club simply empty these days?
staff reporter
The city of Toronto is taking steps to turn the storied Matador Club – after-hours honky-tonk to waiters, rounders and Hollywood stars – into a parking lot.
Co-owner Ann Dunn has rejected the city's $800,000 purchase offer, saying, "I've paid more than twice that in taxes over the past 43 years."
City officials say they will make another offer and, if agreement cannot be reached, recommend to city council next month that the land be expropriated.
"We've identified that area as high-demand (for parking)," Toronto Parking Authority president Gwyn Thomas said this week.
Levelling the Matador would create a 20-space lot, he said, handy for people using the West End YMCA at 931 College St., kitty-corner to the club at 466 Dovercourt Rd.
In its heyday, prior to anti-smoking bylaws, the Matador teemed most weekends with musicians, bar servers, bikers, late-night revellers and other night owls who appreciate casual house rules in a down-home setting.
It remains open every Friday and Saturday night from 1a.m., but co-owners Ann Dunn and her daughter Charmaine Dunn no longer run it themselves.
"Yes, we're ready to sell," said Ann Dunn, 79. "Charmaine just wants peace and quiet, and so do I."
But not sell at any price, the elder Dunn said.
The lot represents prime downtown real estate zoned for a three-storey building – perfect for a boutique condominium development. It can only appreciate over time.
"I used to sell real estate," she said.
The Matador was built as a dance hall during World War I and was being used as a bowling alley when the Dunns, mother and daughter, first saw it in 1964.
They bought the building, stripped it to its original hardwood floor and redesigned it as a country music hangout for the after-hours crowd.
"Harrison Ford loved the place," Ann Dunn recalled this week of one of many actors who discovered the Matador over the years.
"He showed up the first time with a bunch of groupies and I stopped him. I said, `You can't come in.' I didn't know who he was and I thought he was tagging along with the others, who I'd already let through.
"They said, `That's Harrison Ford.'
"I said, `Well, who's Harrison Ford?' They said, `Indiana Jones.'
"I said, `Oh, I love Indiana Jones' – and I let him in."
____
It's unfortunate that the city is intending on a vigorous pursuit of a club with such a colourful past. There is that bizarre aspect is, of course, the plans to put in a parking lot of 20 spaces. But while blogTO made a link to the city's budget problems, it's hardly definite. This Toronto Star article was the only professional coverage I could find, and it's a broad overview. So what is going on here? Could it be conflicts with neighbours? Or is the club simply empty these days?
