[URBAN NOTE] On the upcoming changes at Queen and Broadview

[rfmcdonald]

Torontoist was one of many sources yesterday to note that the Broadview Hotel, located on the corner of Queen Street East and Broadview Avenue towards the southern end of the neighbourhood of Riverdale and famous host to strip joint Jilly's, had been sold to developers.

Streetcar Developments—which has worked on other projects in the area—has announced that it has purchased the building, originally constructed in 1893. Jilly’s, whose lease was on the verge of expiring, will be departing, as will those who’ve made the hotel home.

Streetcar will begin by addressing “significant structural issues” and then turn its focus “to revive this building to a landmark everyone in the area can be proud of.” According to the news release, that likely won’t involve condominiums—so is the Drake Hotel poised to face some healthy east-end competition?

Torontoist's Jamie Bradburn posted a great history of the building, including its recent shift.

Jilly’s earned notoriety for its loud and public promise of “Girls! Girls! Girls!”, but it wasn’t always the dancers who drew attention. Local animal activists were horrified in December 1991 by the “Jane Jones Exotic Circus.” Ms. Jones’s striptease routines were accompanied by a boa constrictor, a python, and a 450-pound defanged Siberian tiger named Qedesh. “She brings out the animal and the tiger just lies there on the stage,” activist Liz White told the Star. “She takes off most of her clothes and kind of lies all over the tiger while a male commentator talks about how this is an endangered species. It’s unreal.” Jilly’s staff noted Qedesh was “just a pussycat.” The complaints reached city council, spurring debate on outlawing the display and ownership of wild animals.

As faded west-end hotels like the Drake and Gladstone revived in the mid-2000s, speculation about the future of the Broadview increased. Drake owner Jeff Stober fended off rumours he was interested in the property. Kamin admitted to speaking with condo developers and architects, but, as he told the National Post in 2006, “I’m at the stage in my life where I don’t want any other problems.” Articles focused on its gritty nature and the fact that it, as well as being a strip club, was home to a number of low-income tenants.

A brief closure in November 2013 for renovations renewed interest in the Broadview’s future. Councillor Paula Fletcher moved a motion at Toronto and East York Community Council to assess the possibility of a heritage designation. (The site was listed in 1975.) Yet the National Post’s Peter Kuitenbrouwer felt secure that Jilly’s would serve patrons for years to come: “As long as I live, Toronto will never again grant a licence to a strip club. Grandfathered strip clubs cling jealously to their status.”

The views expressed by the Toronto Star's Christopher Hume--that this building will be transformed in the manner of the Drake and the Gladstone--seem entirely right.

Jilly’s occupies the ground floor of a four-storey building, the New Broadview Hotel, that has been a landmark since the early 1890s. This wonderful Romanesque Revival heap was designed in the same spirit as Old City Hall. At first it appears imposing, even dour, then suddenly, smiling, you notice the fabulous terracotta panels of animals and story book figures that decorate the exteriors.

Few buildings in the city are as fanciful, even fewer take such delight in the details of their own materiality or architecture. Though the hotel has suffered many indignities over the years, it remains the most important structure in the area, let alone corner.

When word came that Streetcar Developments has bought the building, most assumed it was to turn it into a condo. Worse things have happened, but the company says no, it thinks otherwise.

Though what will come to pass has yet to be determined, the purchase will be cheered throughout the east end. Jilly’s is a relic of an earlier Toronto. It’s not that men have lost interest in naked women, but the male gaze is so easily satisfied today, and so distracted; strip clubs seem unnecessary, almost obsolete.

For the yuppies now fully ensconced in the vicinity, Jilly’s is an embarrassment, a ghastly reminder that until fairly recently this was a part of town unabashedly rough around the edges.

But that’s not the whole story, either. As the building stock on Queen east of Broadview makes clear, in 19th{+ }century Toronto this was a street where property owners hired the best architects available — including E.J. Lennox, best known for Old City Hall and Casa Loma — and used the finest materials.

The gentrification of Queen East is well underway, of course, but the New Broadview Hotel will be its most visible manifestation so far. Because of its location, it is both a landmark and a gateway to the east end. Its potential is huge.