Bob Mackin
The Plaza of Nations concert venue that opened in early April has operated without a business licence and is not allowed to reopen until it satisfies Vancouver city hall.
Pinder Rehal, a City of Vancouver licensing spokesperson, told theBreaker.news on April 15 that the city received the business licence application on March 30 and staff informed The Key that operating without one could mean a $1,000-a-day fine.
“The city is currently investigating the extent of the work occurring without a permit, including plumbing and other structural work,” Rehal said. “At this time, the business is not permitted to operate until all necessary permit and licensing requirements are met.”
The Key at the Plaza of Nations, across from FIFA World Cup venue B.C. Place Stadium. (Mackin)
The Key opened Easter Weekend, in what was originally Expo 86’s 86 Street Music Hall, with concerts by DJ Dr. Fresch, French Montana and Denzel Curry. Curry appeared at the Vancouver Whitecaps/Portland Timbers Major match on April 4 in B.C. Place Stadium and posed for a group photo with captain Thomas Muller.
The Key’s next scheduled event is April 24 featuring Drezo.
No work to stop
The Key is the flagship of The Key Collection and its COO, Matt Coolen, said new screens were added. He denied any electrical work or construction was underway.
“We just painted the walls and put up a production, that’s it,” Coolen said. “There is no work being done, there’s no work happening.”
Coolen said there have been hurdles, but “everything was applied for properly and gone through properly. Our health is in place, our liquor is in place, everything’s in place properly.”
A February advertorial in Vancouver Magazine said Coolen and CEO Justin Smith launched The Key Collection last October with plans to open nine venues within a year.
Osetra Coastal Cuisine opened in November followed in February by Heist, the former Yaletown mainstay Bar None. Coolen told theBreaker.news that a fourth venue is scheduled to open by the end of April in the former Levels Nightclub on Seymour.
Coolen said his wife, Anne Marie Corcuera, is the owner and Smith is not involved in The Key Collection operations, but books and promotes talent through Unlocked Entertainment.
Coolen said The Key Collection, which hopes to benefit from the influx of FIFA World Cup tourists, is financed by a multibillion-dollar tech company based in Maryland “that I know that wouldn’t want to be named.” He said he has offered to show The Key Collection’s corporate records to regulators and police.
Opening weekend headliners at The Key. (Instagram/TheKeyVancouver)
BarWatch concerns
One group that remains skeptical about The Key Collection is BarWatch, the association of 45 bars, nightclubs and restaurants that works with the Vancouver Police Department to keep people with gang, narcotics and firearms records out of their establishments.
“They’re not a member of BarWatch,” said BarWatch chair Curtis Robinson. “They don’t meet the standard.”
The retired VPD sergeant, who founded the program in 2007, said Smith’s involvement is an issue.
Saskatchewan sentence
Court records from 2017 in Saskatchewan say Justin Murray Smith pleaded guilty to 2014 charges of trafficking cocaine, fentanyl, heroin and handguns and participating in a criminal organization, the Fallen Saints motorcycle gang.
Smith’s 18-year jail sentence was reduced to 11 years upon appeal in 2019. Justice J.A. Jackson’s verdict estimated Smith would become eligible for parole in almost four years.
In 2023, the Parole Board of Canada granted full parole, with four conditions: no possessing drugs (other than prescriptions), no contact with anyone involved in criminal activity, disclosure of financial information to a parole supervisor and restrictions on and monitoring of telecommunications devices and accounts.
Smith’s sentence expires in December 2027, according to Correctional Service Canada.
“I’ve tried my best to leave things in the past,” Smith said. “Things from over a decade ago, that I’ve moved on from.”
Unlocked Entertainment’s Justin Smith (left) with Whitecaps captain Thomas Muller (centre) and Denzel Curry (second from right) before his April 4 concert at The Key. (Whitecaps FC/X.com)
Coolen said Smith is “so far-removed from that world.”
“People change their lives,” Coolen said. “The whole point of the rehabilitation program in this country is so people can, if they get in trouble, they go on the straight and narrow.”
Coolen also pointed to a favourable 2024 reference letter written by Robinson.
That letter said that the Vancouver Police Gang Unit and BarWatch cleared Smith’s Love of Live promotion company in 2023 to work in BarWatch venues.
“Speaking as a career operational police officer, it’s rare to encounter a person who has the discipline, character and commitment to truly change their lives,” Robinson wrote about Smith in 2024. “So when you do, I believe it’s incumbent upon those in enforcement or authoritative positions to support them.”
Robinson explained to theBreaker.news that he wrote the letter on request of a parole officer because he did not want to prevent Smith from making a living at the time.
“So with the Vancouver Police Department’s endorsement, we let his company play music in our bars. The rider was Justin wasn’t allowed to be in the bar,” Robinson said on April 14. “But his company could play, so he had a partner or somebody that would go in and play the music. And the same thing happened when he went on to be a booking agent for certain acts.”
In 2026, Robinson said Smith remains inadmissible to BarWatch establishments.
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