#exploringwithjosh

I’d like to set the record straight on the story behind this house once and for all, after hours of research and talking to the former residents I think I have a fairly good idea of what is the truth and what is strictly rumour.  This place absolutely blew up on social media, with dozens of videos on youtube referencing the house as a “Drug Dealer Mansion” or “Illegal Grow Op Mansion”. But none of those claims are true, the real story just doesn’t make as good of a clickbait title.

MYTH: The house was owned by a lady with cancer who grew medical marijuana, and when she died the real estate agent started growing illegally. TRUTH: The house was a federally licenced medical marijuana growing location and was never run illegally.  MYTH: Despite what people like “ExploringWithJosh” have said (and then others perpetuated through online forums, youtube videos, etc.) the house was NEVER owned by a drug dealer, nor did a drug dealer ever live there. 

TRUTH: The home was owned by [Name Redacted for Privacy] and was sold in 2012 to a real estate investor.  MYTH: The reason the house is abandoned is because it had a fire then the owner was busted for growing marijuana. TRUTH: The house had a fire in 2015 that resulted in minor smoke/water damage. This was likely the cause for being abandoned, but there was no “drug bust”. Here’s the true story behind the infamous “Grow Op Mansion” [Originally Posted March 23rd 2017, Edited for updated information April 4th 2017]

[History Pre-Abandonment]

The 9000 SqFt mansion situated on 5 acres of land at 14740 Keele St in King City, ON was custom built in 1995 for British businessman George Fejer. Fejer moved to Canada in the 90’s and founded a business selling kit-car parts titled “Canadian All-Terrain Vehicle Manufacturing Co.” The company had several non-compliance issues and was dissolved in 2004. The business was co-owned by his son Robert Fejer who also lived in the residence but later moved back to the UK to start a new business venture, becoming the first developer of an android-based live streaming dash cam system.

In 2008 [Name Redacted], the founder of a moving company bought the home and lived in it with his 4 children, 3 sons and 1 daughter between the ages of 8 – 17. In 2012 [Name Redacted] listed the house with Martin Sheikhan of the “Remax Performance Realty Inc.”. This is when the youtube video showing photos of the house was made.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhP3Vk80q0w

The 6 bathroom, 5 bedroom house sold for approx. $1,700,000 in late 2012 to a Real Estate Investor. The investor never took residence in the home, instead obtaining a license to grow medical marijuana there. This caused a fair bit of concern with neighbors who complained about the dangers of growing marijuana inside a home (fires, smell, etc.). A neighboring community had a public meeting to discuss mitigating the exposure of marijuana to children on Wednesday February 11th 2015.

In the early morning hours of Thursday February 12th 2015, just a few hours after the public meeting a fire in the foyer of the home was reported to local authorities. The cause of the fire was never publicly released, although it is suspected to be an electrical fire. No charges were laid and the property was abandoned.

That is all that is known about the home for sure. I suspect if the fire was caused by the electric system, the owner would’ve realized the property was no longer viable as a marijuana growing facility and that would explain why the smoke damage was never fixed and the house was no longer cared for. This would also make obtaining insurance for the house very hard and likely not worth it to the owner.

[Post-Abandonment]

Shortly after an explorer by the Alias “Drifting Pablo” discovered the home was empty it became a coveted top-secret location for urban explorers, with only a few people posting images from the pristine home in August of 2015. Around the summer of 2016 the real estate listing was found and publically shared on social media, which began the steady decline of the location. By the time November of 2016 came, the location had made its way onto Youtube,. With careless explorers giving full address details to anyone and everyone, this was the beginning of the end for 14740 Keele St. This was also supposedly where the rumors and clickbait stories began popping up, including the popular “old lady with cancer” and “drug dealer grow op” ones that gave the mansion it’s now infamous title of “Illegal Grow Op Mansion”.

In December 2016 the entire home was boarded up, although this didn’t stop vandals from prying off the boards, breaking windows and spray painting hate speech and racial slurs on the walls, the couches were thrown down the stairs and all remaining glass inside was broken and shattered. By 2017 the home was unrecognizable. In March the iconic clam shell tub was broken, the lid hauled out to the front foyer and thrown over the railing, slamming to the floor below. Finally by the end of March 14740 Keele St was demolished.

  My photos from before the majority of the vandalism can be seen here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/skye_ann/albums/72157674290714282

  More recent photos that show the destruction can be seen here:

https://www.facebook.com/AsbestoPhotography/posts/1306870219388574

And the way Steve was talking to the child spirit was so sweet 🥺

He spoke so softly and gently