Since freshman year, the Cape Elizabeth High School class of 2008 has been raising money to host this year’s junior/senior prom. Now, just eight weeks away from the date of the dance, its venue has gone under and taken the $2,500 deposit with it.

Junior Carolyn Doane, head of the high school’s prom committee, said a local florist tipped the school off to the closing of The Pavilion, a nightclub and banquet facility on Middle Street in Portland. The Cape Elizabeth prom was scheduled to take place there on May 12, which Doane called “the perfect date” because it didn’t interfere with any other school events.

According to Doane, no one from The Pavilion ever called to tell the school about the closing, and management hasn’t returned any phone calls since the students found out on their own.

The Cape prom organizers aren’t the only event planners left scrambling in the wake of The Pavilion’s closing. Throughout the area, other schools and organizations are seeking alternative locations and are without their deposits.

No one associated with The Pavilion would comment for The Current, and the club’s Web site has been suspended. Paperwork filed with the city of Portland shows that a company called First Class Enterprises owns the business, with Lisa Oldakowski named as president and attorney Peter Edmands as secretary.

Edmands did not return calls and Oldakowski directed calls to her lawyer, John Turcotte, who would only say that Oldakowski was surprised to hear that The Pavilion was closing.

“It was a real big shock,” said Doane, who is also a member of the student council, which is in charge of the fundraising. She said a lawyer is looking into the case. Portland police said the department has received no complaints.

Every year, the junior class raises the money to host the prom for the senior class. Doane said that fundraisers included selling Cape Elizabeth water bottles and sweatpants and hosting two dances during the school year.

Doane said the class was having a hard time finding another venue that is not booked for that date, and if the date is changed, some athletes or musicians might not be able to attend due to prior commitments.

Despite the setbacks, Doane remains optimistic. “I’m not scared it won’t happen,” she said.

One possible venue is a Kennebunkport hotel owned by the mother of a Cape student. Doane said the dance has been penciled in to a few other venues as well.

“I’m really excited for it and I know a lot of other people are, too,” she said. “It’s a big deal.”

In Saco, Thorton Academy is also trying to find a new prom site and has also not gotten back its depost from The Pavilion.

The March 17 opening night party for the Maine Jewish Film Festival was moved from The Pavilion to One Monument Square. Nancy Rosenbaum, executive director, said the festival lost a $500 deposit, and will look further into getting that back after the festival is over.

Portland’s Multilingual Center’s fundraiser, “Rock Around-the-World,” a benefit for mutilingual summer academic programs, was supposed to take place Friday night at The Pavilion. The loss of a $500 deposit has been a setback in efforts to raise money.

According to Margie MacDonald, program manager, the center was able to book the event at Mariner’s Banquet Center on Fore Street at the last minute, but posters have already been printed and put up with The Pavilion location. She is afraid some people won’t know where to go and will not come to the event.

MacDonald said she heard a rumor over a month ago that The Pavilion was having problems, so she called Oldakowski, the business’s manager. MacDonald said Oldakowski assured her that, though the business and the building were for sale, her event would run as planned.

When rumors persisted in the past week, MacDonald tried to contact Oldakowski again. She said she was unsuccessful through phone, e-mail and certified letter.

“We were really stuck,” MacDonald said.

She called Black Tie catering company, which shares the building with The Pavilion and was once the exclusive caterer for venue. but said she was told Black Tie was no longer taking orders for events there.

According to Black Tie owner Chris Weber, the two businesses have not been associated for over a year. Weber also said the building is not for sale. According to Weber, the business closed last Thursday, but had not been in operation for the past three weeks. Weber said she had been in contact with Oldakowski, but hasn’t seen her at the building in two weeks.

Over the past few days, Weber said she has seen people cleaning out the building in order for the building’s owner, Dick McGoldrick of Commercial Properties Inc., to show it to potential new tenants. CBRE/The Boulos Company is handling the leasing of the building.

Contacted by The Current, McGoldrick said he had no comment.

According to the news Web site The Bollard, Oldakowski took over the business from former owner Jim Albert last summer. Albert had renamed the club 188 Bourbon Street, but problems arose when police were called to fights and other disturbances outside the club. Oldakowski changed the name back to The Pavilion and promised to solve those problems.

For now, Weber has been trying to help the victims of this murky situation – the people who have lost a place to hold their events. Though Weber is neither affiliated with nor responsible for the events that were booked at The Pavilion, she said she feels obligated to try to find new venues for their events.

“I feel I have no choice,” she said, “No one will help them.”

The editor of the Portland news Web site www.thebollard.com, Chris Busby, contributed to this story.

Club vanishes with prom money

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