On a warm October evening last year, a few hundred residents of a small Ontario village crowded into the community hall at the local hockey rink. As their mayor strode around the room like a talk-show host, they listed off a litany of complaints about garbage, rising rents, traffic and parking.
Shawn Watters, the landscape architect turned mayor of Centre Wellington Township, had organized the town-hall-style meeting to address concerns about a spike in tourism that some say has overwhelmed the town. The list of grievances was long.
But when a resident named Trevor Wedgewood brought up what he called “the elephant in the room,” a company called Kat Florence, the mayor cut him off. The same thing had happened when a woman tried to raise the issue earlier.
“We’re not going there,” Mr. Watters said, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The Globe and Mail.
In Elora, a village of about 8,000 around 25 kilometres north of Guelph, the name Kat Florence seems to divide the community almost as deeply as the gorge that runs through it. The luxury hotel company, which has origins in Thailand’s gem trade, has bought up historic properties and become one of the village’s largest landlords in just six years.
Mr. Wedgewood says the mayor’s unwillingness to allow public discussion about the company is proof of the influence Kat Florence has in Elora. The mayor says he was only worried about the risk of a potential lawsuit.
Some who were at the meeting that night told The Globe that Kat Florence has come to wield too much power over the municipality. They allege its promise of donations to the township has given it too much sway within local government, providing a rubber stamp to buy public property and fast-track the zoning and permitting process – something both the company and township flatly deny.
Kat Florence has also been pushing back against its loudest critics in Elora, suing three people for defamation and serving at least a dozen residents with cease-and-desist letters. In May, the company’s lawyer named eight people in a libel notice for comments they posted in a Facebook community forum.
The company’s supporters say legal action was the only way to put a stop to defamatory attacks that have unfairly vilified the couple behind Kat Florence, Kristy Hillis (who sometimes goes by Kristy Florence) and Don Kogen.
“It’s been hard to watch the public narrative surrounding Kristy and Don become really, honestly, very disconnected from the people that I know. They’re good people,” said Teal Parkinson, co-owner of the Ayrshire Hotel, which opened after a private loan from Ms. Hillis and Mr. Kogen.
Open this photo in gallery:
The Ayrshire Hotel in Elora is co-owned by Teal Parkinson, one of the local supporters of Kat Lawrence’s founding couple, Kristy Hillis and Don Kogen.
Open this photo in gallery:
The Kat Florence brand has been increasingly visible around Elora, Ont., since 2020, as the luxury hotel company has bought many properties here.
The couple, in a statement from their lawyer Kim Ferreira, say they’re only trying to preserve and revitalize Elora’s historic downtown “as part of a long-term commitment to the community and its downtown.” Their businesses are focused on creating employment, attracting visitors and contributing to the “community’s economic vitality,” they said.
Since buying its first property here in 2020, Kat Florence has contributed to an economic boom in a former mill town that has reinvented itself into a high-end tourist destination.
But it has also helped fuel concerns over rising real estate values and sparked a debate about who gets to decide how a community grows and changes.
Before it even arrived on the scene, that question was already causing stress in Elora, part of a sprawling rural township mandated by the province to nearly double in size to 60,000 people within 25 years. The tourism issue may be the single biggest topic in the municipal election here on Oct. 26.
For a lot of Canadian tourist towns, the tension over an influx of money and newcomers flooding in since the pandemic is still playing out.
In picturesque Elora, where annual visitors have grown from less than 500,000 to more than 750,000 in the span of a few years, this friction is particularly pronounced.
Elora’s main pedestrian bridge spans the Grand River, which the first settlers used to power timber industries. Visitors can learn about that era from the heritage buildings and archival photos around town.
As Elora’s population and tourist trade grow, some are worried the changes are not sustainable or beneficial to everyone. ‘They’re turning this town into a playground for the nouveau riche,’ local photographer Sophie Hogan says.
Founded by Scottish pioneers in 1832, Elora sprang up around a limestone gorge that cuts deep into the rock of Wellington County.
The settlement relied on the power of the Grand River to run mills that cut lumber from surrounding forests and ground grain from local fields. Blacksmiths, furniture makers, distillers and wagon-wrights followed, and the market town they built remains a charming example of 19th-century Ontario stone architecture.
Elora has long been known to visitors for its river tubing, small-town charm and weddings at the historic Elora Mill. The mill’s owner, Pearle Hospitality, has also invested heavily in the village in recent years, and its condos, hotel, restaurants and other developments have brought a fair share of tourism traffic to the small town.
By the summer of 2020, Kat Florence bought its first property in the village, an 1851 row house in downtown for $2.2-million. Three months later, the company bought an anchor commercial property on Elora’s main intersection for $1.1-million.
Open this photo in gallery:
Kat Florence’s first acquisition in Elora was 59 Metcalfe St., in August of 2020.
At first, people hardly noticed these new owners. It wasn’t until the following July, when the company bought the former Commercial Hotel, a three-story building originally built in 1848, that residents began to talk about the ambitious restoration plans that would create the posh Kat Florence Hotel. A few months before that hotel opened, the company bought a 19th-century flatiron building that was once the Dalby Hotel, which they later resold.
Mr. Kogen drew attention to these ambitious plans when he announced to the Wellington Advertiser newspaper in 2022 that he and his wife had a “$30-million plan for downtown Elora.” Kat Florence eventually bought at least 19 properties worth $32-million, according to publicly available records.
The company now owns nearly a quarter of all commercial real estate in the four blocks that make up the heart of Elora’s small downtown, including a former municipal laneway turned into an outdoor market, according to an analysis by The Globe.
At Kat Florence’s hotel and private suites, well-heeled guests are pampered with personal chefs, French champagne, massages and access to a chauffeur who tours them around town in Bentleys and Rolls-Royce limos – all included as part of packages that start at $1,300 a night and reach upward to $5,000.
Critics of Kat Florence say it has taken a much more aggressive approach than other tourism operators to doing business here – in its marketing of the village, real-estate acquisitions and legal responses to criticism.
In a 2025 essay in Toronto Life magazine, Ms. Hillis talked about the skepticism she and her husband encountered when they revealed plans to renovate the landmark Commercial Hotel and adjacent movie theatre in Elora. “Backlash soon followed, with accusations that Don and I were ‘buying up the town’ – this despite half the building sitting vacant and the cinema nearing closure. It took time, but eventually, people began to see that I wasn’t trying to erase history but instead to preserve and celebrate it,” she wrote.
The village’s reinvention into a luxury destination owes a lot to Kat Florence’s ability to build an upscale brand around the idea of exclusivity – a skill the company’s founders polished over their years in the global gem trade. Mr. Kogen, a Texas-born, self-styled gemstone trader who starred in the reality TV show Game of Stones as “America’s most extreme gem hunter,” was once called Thailand’s leading Internet impresario by Forbes for his ability to sell precious stones online. Ms. Hillis, a former teacher who grew up on a dairy farm not far from Elora, is the face of both the Kat Florence jewellery and hotel brands.
Both declined interview requests for this story.
Open this photo in gallery:Open this photo in gallery:
The Kat Florence Hotel in Elora caters to a luxury clientele.Kat Florence Hotel
Mr. Kogen has told interviewers he was a high-school dropout living in Southeast Asia when he taught himself how to trim and polish rough-cut sapphires.
As a teen, he learned to speak Thai and how to haggle with sellers and buyers, eventually starting a mail-order business. In 1998, he sold his first gemstone over the Internet, according to an interview he gave to Forbes in 2002.
He became skilled in the world of gem trading, a field that attracts big personalities and rewards those who can take raw and unpolished stones and bring out their inner beauty.
In interviews for Game of Stones, originally broadcast on the Discovery Channel in 2014, Mr. Kogen said he was “a driven individual” with a competitive personality that has helped him succeed in the wild fringes of the gem-hunting world. The series features Mr. Kogen and his team racing to remote corners of the world to buy rare stones.
In one scene, Mr. Kogen says his obsession with gems came from his difficult childhood and going through his teenage years without parents. He lost his mother when he was a child and has told colleagues he was living on his own by age 13.
“Sometimes you had to question your purpose in life. You wish, you cry, you hope someone would listen,” he said. “So the gems were my saviour. They kept me from losing my mind.”
Ms. Hillis grew up in Belwood, Ont., and left home at 19 to be a teacher overseas. She met Mr. Kogen at a casting call for Game of Stones in Thailand and appears on the show as his assistant.
Mr. Kogen and Ms. Hillis said in the statement from their lawyer that the Kat Florence group of companies employs more than 100 people and is “committed to revitalizing Elora’s historic downtown while preserving the character and architectural heritage of Elora’s historic buildings.”
Ms. Hillis, through her lawyer, told The Globe that she initially came back to Ontario for personal reasons in 2018, but travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic caused the couple to think about moving back permanently. They resettled in Elora in 2024 with their two daughters.
“During this period, Ms. Florence Hillis began taking a closer look at Elora and the increased investment and redevelopment occurring in Elora, including outside of its historic downtown. She saw an opportunity to invest in the downtown community and to contribute to the preservation and revitalization of its historic commercial core,” the company said in the statement provided by Mr. Ferreira.
Kat Florence’s holdings in Elora include 8 W Mill St., 54 Metcalfe St. and 61 Metcalfe St.
Elora, a progressive-minded, artsy town, has long been a haven for creative types and retired professionals, the kind of place where newcomers could go to find refuge and a gentler, quieter pace of life. But as more and more buildings fell under Kat Florence’s control, the town began to change in ways that rubbed some people the wrong way.
People complained to the mayor and vented in online Facebook groups and letters to the editor.
“They’re turning this town into a playground for the nouveau riche, without any consideration of the impact on local residents,” said Sophie Hogan, a local photographer who recently received a warning from Kat Florence’s lawyers.
In January, 2025, she wrote a letter to the editor of the Wellington Advertiser, complaining there was “a conflict brewing” in Elora between residents and tourists drawn by Kat Florence.
This summer, her opposition to changes in the town drew the attention of Mr. Ferreira, who warned her not to protest the opening of a new restaurant partly registered to the couple, which was replacing another bar whose lease was recently ended. Ms. Hogan, now running to be a municipal councillor, insists she had made no such plans and the letter didn’t articulate what she did to trigger the legal threat.
Open this photo in gallery:Open this photo in gallery:
Summer is a busy time at Elora’s natural attractions, but social media influencers are a mainstay in town throughout the year.
In December, 2024, Kat Florence organized a holiday marketing campaign that it said would draw nearly 400 social media influencers to Elora.
The company said it spent $312,000 on Christmas lights, $32,000 on hotel rooms and another $70,000 in “Santa cash,” a promotional currency, according to an e-mail Mr. Kogen sent to downtown merchants.
A focal point was a new pedestrian marketplace on Francis Lane, a property bought from the municipality after a closed-door township council discussion earlier that year.
“Elora at Christmas just hits different,” gushed a post from Caroline Serpe, a Toronto-based Instagrammer. “Our favourite small-town escape outside of Toronto, full of Hallmark-worthy streets, twinkling lights, and the coziest holiday market.”
The campaign attracted thousands of visitors, according to local news reports, but residents complained the town was overrun and unprepared on the opening weekend of the company’s Christmas festival.
Garbage piled up, shops ran out of basic goods and traffic stretched for kilometres, prompting the mayor to call for more police and a shuttle service to ease congested streets.
In an e-mail sent to downtown Elora businesses on Dec. 16, 2024, Mr. Kogen complained the company had spent “millions” on the holiday campaign, and said some people didn’t seem to appreciate that Kat Florence had given the township a $400,000 line of credit to help build public washrooms.
The mayor said that while Kat Florence did provide about $100,000 for Christmas lights and beautification of the village’s green space, the rest of the money Mr. Kogen pledged publicly was never provided. The township later told The Globe it would need to file a Freedom of Information request to confirm how much money the company had given the municipality.
Kat Florence confirms they did not provide the money because, Mr. Ferreira said, plans were shelved after opposition from residents.
Mr. Watters said the company, which made the donation as part of a program to fund community upgrades without raising local taxes, has not received any special treatment.
He said he couldn’t comment on individual companies, but said the township has no control over who buys properties in town and everyone is subject to the same planning processes. Mr. Watters added that as someone who grew up in Markham, Ont., he’s seen a community go through explosive growth before and understands why people are protective of the things that make Elora special.
He also said the municipality is trying to strike a better balance between tourism and the costs associated with it. That includes the creation of a new hotel tax and economic development corporation intended to use tourism revenues to help address some of the challenges caused by visitors, he added.
“Being a popular destination can create pressures, and it is important that tourism is managed in a way that balances the economic benefits of tourism with the needs of residents and the character of the community,” Mr. Watters said in a statement.
Open this photo in gallery:
Shawn Watters, who is running for re-election as Centre Wellington’s mayor, says the municipality is trying to strike the right balance between tourism and the community’s concerns.Cole Burston/The Globe and Mail
Kat Florence’s owners acknowledged that increased visitors have brought some growing pains to Elora.
“Ms. Florence Hillis, Mr. Kogen, and Kat Florence recognize that tourism brings both opportunities and challenges. Their objective has always been to support local businesses and encourage economic activity while working with the Town and the broader community to address the challenges associated with increased visitor activity,” said the statement from their lawyer.
The Christmas market was created to boost tourism for merchants at a time of year when visitors typically drop off, they said. They added that after the Christmas market, the company worked with the municipality to help fund a visitor shuttle and additional garbage removal services.
This spring, Kat Florence evicted a well-known steakhouse owner, Geoffrey Wild, who acknowledged failing to pay employees and hydro bills. Mr. Wild alleged the company owed him mortgage payments for another building he’d sold them, and complained his rent had been increased significantly.
In May, the company did not renew the lease for a separate popular cocktail lounge, the Lobby Bar, and announced plans for a new tapas bar to take its place, prompting calls for boycotts from some residents.
In a case heard in Ontario’s Superior Court, Kat Florence alleged another tenant, an ice-cream shop owner, allowed a squirrel inside their building and refused to open the business year-round. A judge dismissed Kat Florence’s claim to terminate the lease, calling it an “increasingly transparent effort to evict the ice-cream shop for financial gain.” The company’s lawyer said they declined to comment on “individual tenant matters.”
More criticism came after Kat Florence bought the town’s only cinema, which was adjacent to their luxury hotel, and closed it down, citing water damage. The company says it still intends to reopen the movie theatre.
Mike von Massow, a University of Guelph professor who has lived in Elora for 30 years, said the village had tourism long before Kat Florence arrived on the scene. But he said it’s reached a tipping point where residents are avoiding going downtown on most days because of the crowds.
“Tourism has been part of Elora for a long time, but I think what’s happened is we’ve just sort of got tourism on steroids now, and we’re getting to the point where it’s affecting the livability of the community,” he said. “We’ve got this disruption to the village with not very proven economic benefits, and I think that’s where people are getting concerned.”
Open this photo in gallery:
Mike von Massow, pointing out the properties of downtown Elora, has lived here for three decades.
Kat Florence’s supporters, however, say the company has accelerated an economic boom and restored many underused, and sometimes derelict, properties in the village. They point out there are no more vacant shops in the downtown. Realtors say property values have risen in lockstep with Kat Florence’s investments in the community.
“I can tell you that Kristy’s commitment to Elora, and particularly to preserving and restoring pieces of its history, is absolutely genuine,” said Ms. Parkinson, co-owner of the Ayrshire Hotel.
Ms. Parkinson said some residents don’t see the level of investment Kat Florence has made. She acknowledged the influx of tourists has caused some headaches, but said there’s an upside to having so many visitors.
“Are there hiccups? Of course there are,” she said. “We manage to sustain restaurants and shops and art galleries, events and experiences that I think would be incredibly difficult to support exclusively, you know, through the resident population. So tourism helps us stay alive.”
Lisa MacDonald, a township councillor, said she’s disappointed the opposition to Kat Florence has become what she described as “hateful.” She argues the township is taking steps to get more revenue from tourist traffic, which will allow the village to fund things such as public washrooms.
She defended the mayor’s decision to prevent people from discussing the company at the town hall-style meeting last October, saying it was never supposed to be a venue to complain about specific developers.
On an August day in Elora, visitors queue for ice cream near the now-closed Elora Cinema. Kat Florence says it plans to reopen the theatre, which is next door to its hotel.
The launch of Kat Florence as a global jewellery brand a few years earlier had its own challenges.
There was a short-lived boutique in London, England, which opened in October, 2016, and closed after only a few months. Kat Florence had flown in dozens of customers to celebrate the opening. Mr. Ferreira said his clients “were given the option to leave the location” after the building was sold. That same year, the company reported losses of US$2.9-million in an annual report filed in Cyprus, where Kat Florence Designs was initially based.
Another promotional event at a Berlin hotel that year had to be cancelled because of a court injunction filed by a German company, sparked by a dispute with Kat Florence over its customer list. As part of that conflict, jewellery retailer Elumeo filed a motion to seize the company’s trademark in the European Union.
Kat Florence eventually filed a lawsuit in the United States, in which the company alleged Elumeo had made “slanderous accusations” against Ms. Hillis and Mr. Kogen. In a counterclaim, Elumeo alleged Mr. Kogen had transferred tens of thousands of rare gems stored in a jointly owned Thailand facility to a shell company he controlled in Hong Kong. The German company alleged it was never paid for those gems, which it says later resurfaced for sale in Georgia.
Mr. Ferreira said these “allegations are completely false and were not proven.” The judge ultimately dismissed both Mr. Kogen’s lawsuit and Elumeo’s counterclaim, citing a lack of jurisdiction.
Open this photo in gallery:
Actress Sarah Jessica Parker settled out of court with the Kat Florence founders after a business dispute between them.Tierney L. Cross/Getty Images
In 2018, an endorsement deal with Sex and the City actress Sarah Jessica Parker dissolved into another legal fight that was eventually settled out of court. Kat Florence sued the actress, claiming she failed to fulfill her promotional duties. In a counterclaim, Ms. Parker alleged Kat Florence had signed a contract for US$7.5-million to use her image to promote its gemstones, but had paid her less than US$1.4-million.
In a legal filing in a New York court, Ms. Parker’s lawyer said that when Kat Florence learned the actress planned to sue, the jewellery company “rushed to the courthouse and filed the present action in the hope of presenting itself, falsely, as the aggrieved party.”
Ms. Parker’s lawyer also claimed during the dispute that Kat Florence Designs moved its assets and operations to a similar-sounding company, Kat Florence Atelier, to protect it from any court judgment. The company denies this.
“The allegations are not true and were not proven,” Mr. Ferreira said in a further statement. “Kat Florence and Sarah Jessica Parker had differences of opinion regarding their business relationship.”
Whether they’re enjoying ice cream at the Elora Mews or scenery along the Grand River, visitors to downtown Elora are seldom far from a Kat Florence-owned property. The company owns nearly a quarter of all available real estate in the four downtown blocks.
By early 2025, Mr. Kogen began pushing back publicly against Kat Florence’s critics in Elora. He told the Wellington Advertiser that he’d been accused online “of bribery, smuggling, money laundering, prostitution and worse.”
He announced he was pausing what he said was nearly $3-million that Kat Florence had planned to give the municipality for the public washroom project, green space upgrades, Christmas lighting and a raceway shuttle.
A few weeks after announcing the funding pause, Mr. Kogen told the online news site Elora Fergus Today that he was pledging $500,000 to help business owners “take on online bullies” by identifying anonymous commenters and pursuing legal action.
His lawyer, Mr. Ferreira, told The Globe “the $500,000 was not used for an online-bullying initiative.” Instead, he said that money was earmarked for the construction of much-needed public washrooms. Kat Florence signed a contract with the municipality to pay for the project, but those plans were ultimately shelved by the company “as opposition to the proposal emerged among some residents,” he said.
In June, 2026, Mr. Ferreira started legal action against online commenters on behalf of his clients.
Kat Florence filed lawsuits against three people: Paloma Von Fielitz, administrator of a local Facebook group; Ben Williams, who was a member of two online forums; and Mr. Wedgewood, who spoke up at the town meeting in October. The company is seeking combined damages of $425,000, plus costs, and an injunction that would prevent all three from commenting publicly about Kat Florence.
Open this photo in gallery:
Trevor Wedgewood tried to bring up Kat Florence at an October, 2025, meeting of Centre Wellington Township’s council, only to be cut off by the mayor.
The libel claims say the company is painted as “cutthroat” and the online comments are aimed at “discrediting their reputations and holding them up to public scandal, ridicule and contempt,” with a “reckless disregard of the truth.” Mr. Ferreira says his clients are only trying to protect their reputation and their businesses.
“They have exercised what they believe to be their legal rights in response to statements they believe to be defamatory. They do not agree that their actions are intended to silence public speech or legitimate criticism,” he said in an e-mail.
In their statements of claim filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Mr. Kogen and Ms. Hillis complain that online commenters have accused them of predatory business practices and portrayed their company as a “villain” acting “without regard for the rights or interests of others in the community.”
Paul Dollak, the lawyer for Ms. Von Fielitz and Mr. Williams, argued the lawsuits appear to be an attempt to frighten and silence Kat Florence’s critics. He said he intends to defend his clients using anti-SLAPP motions, designed to counter “strategic lawsuits against public participation.”
“My clients made comments, in good faith, because they believed them to be in the public interest,” Mr. Dollak told The Globe.
In the claim against him, Mr. Wedgewood is accused of alleging Kat Florence is involved in “criminal conduct” and forming a “corrupt syndicate” that has “improperly influenced the mayor and municipal decision-making processes in Elora.” Mr. Wedgewood, who said he’s on the brink of homelessness, said he believes he was asking fair questions about what’s happening in his town.
Ms. Hogan, meanwhile, complains the company’s actions and aggressive marketing of the village’s charms have taken pre-existing tension over the tourism issue and put it in a pressure cooker. Elora, she worries, may never be the same.
“They’ve built an invisible dividing line through the town. There’s division here that was never there before,” Ms. Hogan said.
With reports from Stephanie Chambers and Anna Sophie Kühne