SEATTLE — There’s no word yet on whether neighbor-appreciation night will include black robes and gavels, but Seattle’s first new strip club in 20 years is going in next door to the federal courthouse.
And from his chambers on the 14th floor, U.S. District Judge James Robart — who struck down the city’s ban on new cabarets two years ago — has a bird’s-eye view.
“There is some irony there,” said Marty McOmber, a spokesman for Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels.
Deja Vu Showgirls is planning to open the club, the city’s fifth, in the basement of Fantasy Unlimited, an erotic boutique and movie theater less than a block from the U.S. Courthouse. A small sign in the window — barely noticeable amid the posters advertising erotic films and mannequins in electric-pink netting — advertises “Seattle’s newest gentlemen’s club coming in 2008.”
An employee at the shop said she wasn’t allowed to speak with reporters, but that she had been told the opening was planned for the middle of the year.
David Hasson, the architect on the project, said he has submitted plans with corrections requested by the city and expects to receive a building permit within two weeks. He described the design as standard strip-club fare, with a “cave-like atmosphere,” and said construction would take about six months.
After that, the new club will undergo police, fire and other inspections.
The judge declined to say whether he ever expected a strip club next door when he made the ruling two years ago. Robert Lasnik, the chief U.S. district judge for Western Washington, also declined to comment, except to confirm the view with a slight note of resignation: “Yes, we can all see the Fantasy Unlimited.”
No strip joints have opened in Seattle since the late 1980s, when the number jumped from two to seven, prompting the city to impose a 180-day ban on any new cabarets. For the next 17 years, the City Council repeatedly extended the moratorium.
But in 2005, Robart struck down the ban at the request of would-be strip-club proprietor Bob Davis as a violation of the First Amendment’s free-speech rights. The ruling stoked fears of a rash of new clubs, and the mayor and council responded by passing rules — including a lap-dance ban and increased lighting — designed to dissuade clubs from opening.
The city’s voters quickly threw out the new rules by a 2-to-1 margin, rendering Seattle safe for lap dances once again. But still, no cabarets opened while the City Council did the politically sensitive zoning work of deciding where they could be located.
Deja Vu already operates a strip club on First Avenue, near the Pike Place Market. The new location is on the just-completed line of the South Lake Union trolley (popularly known by its acronym), and it’s not only members of the federal bar and judiciary who might find it convenient.
To wit, undercover vice cops from the Seattle Police Department. The West Precinct is just around the corner.
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