Anyone looking forward to cavorting with the spirits this Halloween at the Don Jail is going to be disappointed.
A partner at event planning company Slingshot Inc. announced yesterday that a run of special events and tours it had hoped to host at the historic facility will not happen. The Don Jail is owned by Bridgepoint Health, and construction is to begin this fall to make it part of the adjacent hospital facility.
"We had a contract with Bridgepoint, signed by their CEO and vetted by their law firm ...We left that meeting saying, `Great, everything is a go'" to hold corporate events and daily tours until the end of October, said Slingshot's Chris Mac- Kechnie. In a news release, he said he believed Bridgepoint had "jumped the gun" and signed without the consent of the leaseholder, Ontario Realty Corp.
That prompted ORC to put a stop to the events, MacKechnie said.
"I think there is an impression that ORC came in and cancelled the events," said ORC's Julia Sakas.
"That is definitely not the case. From our point of view, the licensing agreement was not in place."
Sakas said because there is an operational jail next door, requests to host events there are evaluated case by case. Bridgepoint and ORC must agree before an event can proceed. She referred any contract questions to Bridgepoint.
MacKechnie said Slingshot signed a contract with Bridgepoint in April that would allow the company to host film events, fashion shows, corporate parties and, potentially, weddings at the site between May 25 and the end of October.
On May 26, a day after the contract was to come into effect, MacKechnie said Bridgepoint told Slingshot that it could not use the facility to host events.
Meanwhile, MacKechnie said that close to 1,000 tickets for daily tours of the historic jailhouse, including "ghost tours," had been pre-sold, most during May's citywide Doors Open event. Bridgepoint is honouring those tickets for a limited run of daytime tours on 12 days between Aug. 14 and Sept. 6.
Slingshot spent time since May 26 trying to convince Bridgepoint and ORC to agree to hold the special events, MacKechnie said. No contracts for such events were signed.
Paula McColgan, Bridgepoint's vice-president of public affairs, would not comment on the contract for legal reasons, but said when it comes to events: "I think there are a lot of logistical issues. The impact on security is really contingent on the type of event."
She added that Bridgepoint has an "excellent relationship with ORC," and the two are in regular contact.
McColgan said the refurbishment of the Don Jail will be limited because it is a heritage building. Construction is to be finished in 2013, and will include restoring the main rotunda – a space that eventually will be accessible to the public.
People who purchased jail tour tickets through Slingshot should send an email to donjailtours@bridgepointhealth.ca or visit bridgepointhealth.ca for more information on available dates and times to use the tickets. A limited number of additional tickets may be made available.
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