In the News

Landlords Try To Evict Nightclub

By Van Williams and Dion Lefler
The Wichita Eagle
February 4, 2005

Two prominent downtown developers said Thursday that they plan to evict a controversial Old Town nightclub that's embroiled in a legal dispute with the city over dancers with painted-on tops.

Building owners David Burk and Steve Barrett said they will try to shut down the Babes & Booze Cabaret at 235 N. Mosley.

The club will fight to stay where it is, said Steve Joseph, a lawyer for the club.

Modeled after the wild nightlife portrayed in the movie "Coyote Ugly," Babes & Booze came under attack from Mayor Carlos Mayans on Tuesday after a police sting there resulted in charges of public nudity and prostitution.

Burk and Barrett, who have been partners with the city in multimillion-dol lar deals to develop Old Town and Wichita WaterWalk, said their lease with Babes & Booze requires the club to comply with local ordinances.

"Neither I nor Steve have, or have had, any interest in the current Babes & Booze concept," Burk said in a statement he read. "We are dismayed at the current use, and it was not the intended use at lease signing. We are pursuing everything we can do legally to terminate the lease."

Joseph said he had received no notice of a pending eviction attempt.

"I'm sure my client will resist the effort," he said. He said the only way Burk and Barrett could legally evict Babes & Booze would be if the business violated the terms of its lease.

"If the client has violated some condition of the lease that would merit eviction, they go," he said. "If there are no violations of the lease and the (building) owners are just sucking up to the mayor, we certainly will resist."

Mayans called for changes in how the city regulates adult-oriented business after the police Friday issued four citations under the city's public nudity ordinance and made one arrest on suspicion of solicitation of prostitution at the club.

Mayans was in Topeka on Thursday and could not be reached for comment.

The city contends that the dancers' costumes, a sprayed-on opaque latex, violate the nudity ordinance, which requires coverage of women's breasts in public.

Joseph has argued that the latex covering complies with the ordinance.

Beyond trying to just shut down the club, Mayans also wants a citywide moratorium on new adult book and video stores. Joseph said such a broad moratorium would probably trigger a federal lawsuit against the city.

The club is part of the original Old Town redevelopment district, where the city has invested millions of dollars -mostly through Burk as the preferred developer - to bring bars, restaurants, shops and apartments to what was once run-down warehouses.

The Babes & Booze property has gone through several incarnations, including a ballet academy, a restaurant and a dance club.

The current flap with the city is not the first brush with controversy for Babes & Booze and its owner, John Hennessy.

The club was originally named Budd Ugly's Babes & Booze, but changed to Babes & Booze after Ugly Inc., owner of the original Coyote Ugly Saloon in New York City, threatened to sue for trademark infringement.

In 1992, Hennessy stepped down as Gov. Joan Finney's nominee to head the Kansas Department of Administration.

He quit after an anonymous group revealed that 11 years earlier an oil company

Hennessy owned had distributed a calendar containing racial slurs and photos of scantily clad women. Hennessy declined to comment Thursday, according to Elizabeth Dutton, general manager at Babes & Booze.

Inside the club late Thursday afternoon, Dutton scoffed at Burk and Barrett's plans to terminate the lease and Mayans' call to close the club.

"I've got nothing to hide from," Dutton said. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm open for business."

She said since the club opened last summer, business has been good.

While several men were buying drinks at the club's bar, a young woman with a painted-on top was dancing around a pole on stage.

"This is what all the hoopla is about," Dutton said.

Reach Van Williams at 268-6269 or vwilliams@wichitaeagle.com.