Private Eyes Strip Club Abandoned Strip Club Urban Exploring

Private Eyes Strip Club Abandoned Strip Club Urban Exploring

Private Eyes Strip Club in St Catharines Ontario, once known as the Rainbow Inn has been an eyesore and serious pain point for the people of Niagara on the Lake Ontario.   Highway 55, also known as Niagara Stone Road is one of the major routes people take when driving into Niagara on the Lake, one of the nicest towns in the province, in my opinion.

The first thing you see as you turn onto highway 55 is the Private Eyes Strip club, it has been there for many many years, much to the chagrin of Niagara on the Lake.  Finally, on Sunday October 14th, 2018 Private Eyes closed its doors for the last time.   The building was listed for sale with all the equipment and four acres of property, it was listed on MLS for $1.7-million.

Being a strip club, the building came with its share of baggage and controversy, in November of 2007, the owners were been arrested and accused of running a business where sex acts from dancers were up for sale.

Police said the charges related to an investigation officers launched in the spring of 2006 regarding complaints of prostitution at strip clubs in Niagara. Undercover officers visited Private Eyes and reported they found acts of prostitution were going on. Police say the owners were warned three times last year that they would face criminal charges.

Undercover officers were propositioned by dancers in November of 2007 during two visits. Nine dancers faced 12 charges of communicating for the purpose of prostitution, the owners turned themselves into Niagara police and were charged jointly with keeping a common bawdy house and knowingly permitting their Niagara Stone Road business to be used as a common bawdy house.

In February 2016, a verbal altercation between two dancers at Private Eyes Strip Club escalated and resulted in one of them being stabbed. Police said two women got into a fight that escalated to the point where one of them, a 24-year-old, was stabbed and slashed with a knife.

Niagara Regional Police said aggravated assault charges were laid against two dancers, the one who was involved in the stabbing and another who helped her immediately afterwards, making her part of the offence.

One of the accused was named Bailey

The exotic dancer who did the stabbing had been ordered to pay for the cosmetic surgery and she was charged with aggravated assault in February 2016 after a verbal altercation between several strippers at the Private Eyes Gentlemen’s Club turned violent.

Reports state that the victim and a second dancer confronted the accused in her locker room, the victim threw a shoe at her, striking the defendant in the head.  The accused then grabbed a knife she kept for protection and stabbed and slashed the dancer.

“Fortunately, the lacerations from the various thrusts did not cause any damage to internal organs,” Judge Tory Colvin told court.

“But, they were disfiguring, which is particularly significant to an exotic dancer.”

Court heard the victim underwent cosmetic surgery, to the tune of $2,000, to “regain her appearance.”

Fast Forward now to mid 2019 and the abandoned strip club has been sold and will renovated and updated.  The new owners are already hard at work updating the building in hopes of a summer 2019 opening of their new (yet to be named) live music and dining facility

The new owner hopes to offer great music and food in an environment where his family and friends will be comfortable — they’re telling him they will be there for the opening. Many have been so supportive of his goal they are offering to help, with friends showing up to dig in with cleaning up the interior — a big project, he says, which will take a while to complete.

As for my experiences here, growing up in Niagara Falls, I spent my share of time here with friends over the years, whether it was a fun filled lunch while attending Niagara College, or during some crazy nights while I served in the Army reserves in St Catherines, Private Eyes was always a dump but provided a few nights of entertainment.

Looking back at my exploration of this abandoned strip club, it was DISGUSTING, there were three areas for private dances and in every one of them I found multiple open condom packages, used and unused condoms and other various and equally disgusting things scattered about the floor, the tables and on the couches themselves.

Upstairs in the change-rooms, lockers still had locks on them some were opened and full of high heels, make up, bras, underwear and more condoms.  I was very careful to touch nothing and only film and take photos.

At the DJ booth there were many photos of various girls who has come and gone over the years, as slimy and sleazy as strip club DJ’s are, I felt bad that they had to work literally a few feet away from the private dancing booths.

The photos do the place no justice in showing you just how terrible this place was, you really need to watch the abandoned strip club video and see what I saw!

This was a very unique explore and one that I did not expect to have the opportunity to see when I did.  I wish the best of luck to the new owners of the old Private Eyes Strip Club in St Catherines, and I can’t wait to stop in and see what you have done with the place when your new establishment opens!