By Lincoln Anderson
A new topless club on E. Houston St. and new adult store on Seventh Ave. S. both are taking advantage of a loophole in the city’s adult-use zoning laws.
Moby may approve — but Community Board 3 hasn’t weighed in yet on the strip club. The techno rocking Melville-descended musician is reportedly a regular at the Manhattan Gentlemen’s Club at the corner of Essex and E. Houston Sts., in the building formerly occupied by Chaos nightclub.
Mike Mueller, general manager of the club, who said Moby routinely patronizes the place, mantained it’s a big improvement over Chaos, the scene of shootings, stabbings and rowdy parties. According to Mueller, Tony Theodore, who owned Chaos, is no longer an owner.
Mueller said the club has an agreement with C.B. 3 but needs to sit down with the board and discuss the club’s operations.
“We made a deal with them that we would not open up till seven o’clock,” he said. “Gentlemen’s clubs generally open up at five in the afternoon.
“Every strip club has to meet with their community board,” he asserted.
On a recent evening, the sidewalk in front was orderly and quiet.
“We try to keep it very upscale,” said Mueller, noting he plans to put a few more awnings and some bushes in front.
As to whether it’s legal to operate an adult-use establishment at the location, Mueller said, it’s a commercial neighborhood and that they are operating under the “60/40” rule, under which 60 percent of the space has to be used for non-topless activity; he said they might put a sushi bar in the basement.
Although he admitted the club is within 500 ft. of a school — P.S. 20 on Essex St. — which is illegal under the city’s adult-use zoning, he said they applied to the city for a variance from this rule and were approved.
However, Alexandra Militano, chairperson of Board 3’s S.L.A. committee, said the board has no deal with Manhattan Gentlemen’s Club. A discussion on the matter keeps getting deferred by the club, she said, because the 60/40 loophole is being challenged in court. But the club’s liquor license is on her committee’s agenda again this month.
However, Militano said, there is a concern that when the liquor license was transferred and type of business changed the community board wasn’t notified. Also, she said, it has to be determined if the club, even with a 60/40 setup, can legally operate there. Militano said it’s a first for her because there are no topless clubs in C.B. 3 — at least none have come before the board on business while she’s been a member.
Asked her thoughts, she said, “It’s awfully close to a school…. At some point, we’re going to have to resolve it.”
The Department of Buildings previously told The Villager the strip club is illegal because, while adult uses are permitted in some commercial zones, this spot is not one. Adult uses are also allowed in manufacturing zones.
The place opened recently after a $500,000 renovation. As Mueller offered a look inside, a bare-breasted woman was dancing onstage while another was entertaining patrons at a table. The inside is modern with pink neon tubing running around the wall. Asked if he has celebrity clients, Moby came to mind.
“I run several strip clubs in New York and Moby pretty much follows along…. A few of the Yankees stop by” at Essex St., he said.
On the West Side, residents are concerned about a new business, Fantasy World, in a one-story building at Seventh and Greenwich Aves., formerly Mr. M. Discounts health and beauty products store.
Local resident Sheldon Moskowitz said when he went in to look, he didn’t see 60 percent of its space, or any space, set aside for non-sexual goods. He thought Fantasy World is probably within 500 ft. of two churches, on Waverly Pl. and 11th St. Under the city’s adult-use zoning, such businesses can’t be near houses of worship.
“It just doesn’t seem to be appropriate. Even P.S. 41— it’s more than 500 ft., but it seems pretty close,” he said of the 11th St. elementary school.
He said he feared Seventh Ave. could become like Sixth Ave. between Cornelia and Carmine Sts., which is lined with tattoo parlors and sex-toy shops in a condominium building where the developer retained the commercial space.
Though he added, “There’s a store nearby that sells condoms and stuff that’s been there a while, Pleasure Chest. That’s not an offensive place.”
Pleasure Chest’s window features non-sexual, mechanical scenes like fish swimming in a circle, as opposed to Fantasy World, which sports mannequins in black vinyl underwear.
Art Strickler, Board 2’s district manager, said, “I got a lot of complaints. But if they follow the 60/40 rule there’s nothing you can do about it — that’s 60 percent ‘Bambi’ and 40 percent ‘Bambi Does Dallas.’ ”
Luis, the manager, said their merchandise falls under the 60/40 exception. (Printed matter and videos are defined as pornographic under the adult-use zoning, while “sexual aids,” lingerie and the like aren’t.)
Elizabeth Stewart, 42, who works in Midtown, was shopping in the store Friday morning.
“It’s not that bad. It doesn’t have a lot of dirty movies. It’s classier,” she said. “I think it’s like good party favors, jokes.” (The dirty movies are downstairs.) She said a lot of her friends shop at stores like this for gifts to give at parties and bridal showers.
“You can take it as a joke — or you can use it,” she said.
