Advertisement

Trouble leads to stringent controls for Tampa's Playpen nude dance club

 
The owner of the Playpen nude dance club on N 50th Street agreed to a lengthy list of changes at the club during a hearing this week before the Tampa Public Nuisance Abatement Board.
The owner of the Playpen nude dance club on N 50th Street agreed to a lengthy list of changes at the club during a hearing this week before the Tampa Public Nuisance Abatement Board.
Published Feb. 23, 2017

TAMPA — After a run of trouble with prostitution and drug violations, the Playpen nude dance club this week was told to make a series of changes if it wants to stay open.

During a hearing with Tampa's Public Nuisance Abatement Board, club operator Joseph Alessandro agreed to tear out the club's VIP booths, improve lighting, install surveillance cameras with video available to police, hire armed security guards and increase security and use metal detectors to screen patrons during the club's busiest hours.

The club, at 1715 N 50th St., also will keep a binder available to police with information on everybody working there, including dancers, and agreed to screen out dancers with convictions for prostitution.

"Literally, I know this is my final chance with this club," Alessandro told the board, which assessed him $5,070 in costs associated with investigating and prosecuting violations at the club and a $900 fine, which it suspended as long as he makes the changes he promised.

Alessandro, who has run the club for 6½ years, said he is changing managers, has dropped private promoters who tended to bring in trouble and is hiring a new security company.

Because it has a city license allowing nude dancing, the Playpen is prohibited from selling or serving alcohol and is allowed to stay open after the city's 3 a.m. closing for bars.

But over the past year, according to city records, police detailed problems involving club patrons, dancers or staff, including sales or possession of cocaine, marijuana and ecstasy, felony possession of firearms, not reporting shootings at the club, and offers of sex in exchange for money

Neither Alessandro nor the club's landlord, Tampa attorney Michael Sierra, who is the managing member and sole owner of ASR Tampa Investments LLC, which owns the property, contested the city's complaint about drug- and prostitution-related incidents investigated at the club. But Sierra said he had "zero control" over what had happened at the club.

"I've only been on these premises twice in my life," he said.

The Playpen avoided a city-imposed change that Alessandro said would have amounted to a "death sentence" — being forced to shut down earlier.

The club gets most of its business and generates 90 percent of its revenue from customers who arrive after other bars close at 3 a.m.

Nuisance Abatement Board members discussed the idea of shutting him down earlier, say, at 2 a.m., a time police supported, or 4 or 5 a.m.

In the end, the board decided to require that the club close at 9 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, its three slowest days, but could stay open until 6 a.m. on other days.

But they warned that if the club tolerates further crime, they could impose an earlier shutdown time and more fines.

Keep up with Tampa Bay’s top headlines

Keep up with Tampa Bay’s top headlines

Subscribe to our free DayStarter newsletter

We’ll deliver the latest news and information you need to know every morning.

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Explore all your options

Master Patrol Officer Donald Miller, who coordinated the investigations of the club, said the new conditions of operation could help address the problems, but said the city shouldn't tolerate any further trouble.

"If anything occurs there, if that place even squeaks, I don't think they should be getting any more leniency," Miller told the board. "This has taken many, many hours of manpower. Undercover police officers have put their lives at risk. There's been lots of paperwork, and we've killed a few trees here. So I want the owner to know we're serious, and that's why we're here."

Contact Richard Danielson at rdanielson@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3403. Follow @Danielson_Times