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Harry Stinson can hang up his apron
Peter Kuitenbrouwer, National Post
Published: Tuesday, January 02, 2007
The venerable Ontario Club is getting a new home, thanks to a curious merger uniting the pinstripe crowd of Bay Street with maverick condominium developer Harry Stinson.
On March 1, The Ontario Club, founded 1909, will leave its longtime address on Wellington Street in Commerce Court South, to set up shop at One King West, the condominium hotel that incorporates the former Dominion Bank of Canada building, built in 1911.
Mr. Stinson saved the Dominion Bank's grand hall, with its Tennessee marble floors and nine-metre ceilings, when he built his 52-storey tower above it, in a project largely bankrolled by impressario David Mirvish.
Looking to use the cathedral scale room, Mr. Stinson added a 30-metre lng bar and sold 350 memberships, at $5,000 each, to his "Dominion Club." But the club has been struggling to survive.
Now, the spot will make a perfect home for the 1,000-plus members of the Ontario Club, according to its chairman, Bob Clark.
"The restoration work he's done with the ceilings, you know, God bless him for that," Mr. Clark said. "We're merging our 98-year history with his vision. I think it will be the premier club in Canada."
Mr. Stinson, who on New Year's Day doffed his black velvet jacket and washed dishes from 2 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. in the kitchen at One King West, said the 32 staff from the Ontario Club can't arrive soon enough.
"The dishwashers were exhausted and we had a brunch coming in quite early," Mr. Stinson explained of his dishwashing effort in One King West's state-of-the-art kitchen.
"This for us is one of the biggest advantages," he said.
"We've got the digs, they've got the staff. We started feeling we were a bit in over our heads," he said.
On New Year's Eve, Mr. Clark, decked out in full Scottish Highland dress with a kilt and black jacket, left his own party at the Ontario Club and headed over to the party at One King West.
"I gotta hand it to him," Mr. Clark said.
"They had over 300 people there. They had the bank vault open with a big screen TV, a cotton candy machine, face-painting for the kids.
"Upstairs in the bank hall they had a dance floor with a DJ, and two rooms with casinos. I won one of Harry's million-dollar bills. It was packed."
Mr. Clark said the Ontario Club, a favourite haunt for Toronto's mining executives and diplomats, and home of the National Press Club, wants -- along with the history of the austere bank building -- the youthful energy of the One King West crowd.
"We want to get away from that old stigma of a couple of old guys in wingback chairs drinking brandy," he said. The Ontario Club has now signed a 99-year lease with One King West, he said.
Mr. Stinson said the new club will have two private dining rooms on the south end, for members only, to which he plans to add grand oak doors from the Ontario Club.
"We're bringing the chandeliers and the art," he enthused, "and the artifacts and curios, sow he can take this space and add those little accents. This will have a timelessness to it."
Peter Kuitenbrouwer, National Post
Published: Tuesday, January 02, 2007
The venerable Ontario Club is getting a new home, thanks to a curious merger uniting the pinstripe crowd of Bay Street with maverick condominium developer Harry Stinson.
On March 1, The Ontario Club, founded 1909, will leave its longtime address on Wellington Street in Commerce Court South, to set up shop at One King West, the condominium hotel that incorporates the former Dominion Bank of Canada building, built in 1911.
Mr. Stinson saved the Dominion Bank's grand hall, with its Tennessee marble floors and nine-metre ceilings, when he built his 52-storey tower above it, in a project largely bankrolled by impressario David Mirvish.
Looking to use the cathedral scale room, Mr. Stinson added a 30-metre lng bar and sold 350 memberships, at $5,000 each, to his "Dominion Club." But the club has been struggling to survive.
Now, the spot will make a perfect home for the 1,000-plus members of the Ontario Club, according to its chairman, Bob Clark.
"The restoration work he's done with the ceilings, you know, God bless him for that," Mr. Clark said. "We're merging our 98-year history with his vision. I think it will be the premier club in Canada."
Mr. Stinson, who on New Year's Day doffed his black velvet jacket and washed dishes from 2 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. in the kitchen at One King West, said the 32 staff from the Ontario Club can't arrive soon enough.
"The dishwashers were exhausted and we had a brunch coming in quite early," Mr. Stinson explained of his dishwashing effort in One King West's state-of-the-art kitchen.
"This for us is one of the biggest advantages," he said.
"We've got the digs, they've got the staff. We started feeling we were a bit in over our heads," he said.
On New Year's Eve, Mr. Clark, decked out in full Scottish Highland dress with a kilt and black jacket, left his own party at the Ontario Club and headed over to the party at One King West.
"I gotta hand it to him," Mr. Clark said.
"They had over 300 people there. They had the bank vault open with a big screen TV, a cotton candy machine, face-painting for the kids.
"Upstairs in the bank hall they had a dance floor with a DJ, and two rooms with casinos. I won one of Harry's million-dollar bills. It was packed."
Mr. Clark said the Ontario Club, a favourite haunt for Toronto's mining executives and diplomats, and home of the National Press Club, wants -- along with the history of the austere bank building -- the youthful energy of the One King West crowd.
"We want to get away from that old stigma of a couple of old guys in wingback chairs drinking brandy," he said. The Ontario Club has now signed a 99-year lease with One King West, he said.
Mr. Stinson said the new club will have two private dining rooms on the south end, for members only, to which he plans to add grand oak doors from the Ontario Club.
"We're bringing the chandeliers and the art," he enthused, "and the artifacts and curios, sow he can take this space and add those little accents. This will have a timelessness to it."