5ive
All things change.
The owners of the buildings occupying more than half the city block my shop is on, my ex landlords, went to city hall to seek approval for redevelopment.
I attended the meeting and spoke on behalf of the businesses and residents in the area.
City council approved the re-zoning of the properties to be raized and rebuilt, The store fronts facing all three sides (Yonge, St. Joseph and St. Nicholas streets) will be rebuilt to their original state as heritage facades. There will be 5 stories of retail and office space with a 49 story condo tower set back 100 feet from Yonge Street above.
I wandered around the corner from my shop and came upon a crew of construction workers building a show room/ model suite where there was once a club.
I walked into the space with an air of authority.
Not one of them questioned me as I inspected the state of things.
This was a space that as 5ive nightclub, hosted Fetish Night for years, until the management fell behind in paying rent, hydro and taxes, forcing the closure of the club.
It was also a space that saw me go from fetishist to Dom Daddy in my evolution over the period I hosted fetnite there.
I stepped over the work of a man on his knees cutting steel studs and walked to the spot where a reserved booth once was. I gazed across the stripped bare space to where there once was a bar, to a spot that once held a couch.
Memories came flooding back of the good times and the 5 women I shared them with through those years.
I especially recalled my time spent with an individual seated there one night that had captured my attention with a dangling stiletto, an event that eventually led me to follow this person into the washroom downstairs. This individual would come to share that reserved booth with me, under My collar, much to my satisfaction and delight, so many years ago.
Ashes to ashes...
Years passed.
The building will rise above the original locations of Galaxy Leather Goods (circa 1970) and Leathercraft Ltd. (circa 1978), These were two of my father's shops.
The site is also the original home of Northbound Leather Ltd. (established 1987), my shop, also the place where my third child was conceived. With 40 years of history on this block, I feel as though a phoenix is about to rise from the flames.
I intend to buy one of the condos in the building when the showroom opens.