LGBTQ community loses safe space
Church Street’s Club 120 and the 120 Diner closing doors for good with debts piling up
It was a sanctuary for “extreme diversity,” a place to call home and a space where people of Toronto’s multifaceted LGBTQ communities could let loose and be themselves for a few hours. Now, because of COVID-19, Club 120 is gone for good.
The Church Street nightclub and its sister live music and comedy venue,120 Diner, announced recently that they won’t be opening again.
“We tried very hard to navigate the system and hang in there … but with the way the world is turning, there is no sane or rational way that we can keep this space alive,” co-owner Todd Klinck wrote in a lengthy Facebook post, where he noted that the businesses have monthly expenses of $90,000 when open at full tilt.
While their landlord offered them a part deferral of rent for April and May, they wouldn’t remove a clause in the lease saying Club 120 could be kicked out with nine months’ notice if the building’s owner wanted to tear it down and build condos.
“If we were going to go into debt even further, we would need to know that we weren’t reopening and then being given a nine-month eviction notice right away,” Klinck wrote.
In an interview with the Star, Klinck said it would have been a financial struggle even if the landlord had accepted his and co-owner Mandy Goodhandy’s proposal for rent reductions, given the unclear timelines for the reopening of restaurants, bars and clubs.
“Even if they’d accepted the proposal, it would have been difficult. We would have still had expenses, but no revenue.