In 2014, when it seemed the El Mocambo was closing for good, Wekerle knew he wanted to save the sign. As the story goes, he contacted the building's owners, who told him he could have it for free, if he bought the whole property.
At the time, Wekerle said he was paying $3.8 million for the space, but the neglected 73-year-old building needed extensive renovations to get it back into shape.
By the time it was finished, saving the El Mocambo cost something closer to $35 million. Representatives for the venue say much of those expenses were for gutting the entire building and restarting from the ground up so it could survive well into the future.
Wekerle said he still got the neon sign for free.
The new "El Mo" will be unrecognizable to concertgoers who held a fondness for its dingy floors and tattered decor. All of that has been stripped out and replaced with a neon-bulb hue that evokes the Las Vegas Strip more than it does a Toronto dive club.
On the second floor, the original sign once outside now adorns the wall, split into two and framing both sides of the main stage. The one outside the venue is a replica that Wekerle calls the "2.0 sign," ready to survive many Canadian winters.
The new El Mocambo is a multimedia monster filled with state-of-the-art equipment capable of recording and live streaming concerts, as well as shooting videos. There's also a production studio on its top floor where performers can lay down an album.
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