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Property owner denies ever having abandoned project

Property owner denies ever having abandoned project
By Jeremy Walsh

A proposed strip club near the Queensboro Bridge that Community Board 2 members thought had been scrapped by the property owner is back on track, board members warned last month.

GLC Entertainment Corp., which also runs a strip club called Sin City in the Bronx, submitted a liquor license application to the state Liquor Authority in May. CB 2 members caught wind of the plan and expressed their displeasure with the property owner, Gus Drakopoulos.

They believed he had abandoned the strip club plan until last month, when the board office got a call from GLC Entertainment. The Liquor Authority had sent the application to CB 2 for a hearing and an advisory letter regarding the application.

“This really is consistent conduct with the [owner’s] disingenuous approach,” said Patrick O’Brien, chairman of CB 2’s City Services Committee. “This isn’t the kind of establishment we want nor the conduct of an operator.”

But when reached by phone, Drakopoulos said previous reports that he was abandoning his plans for the strip club were “false information.” He had no further comment.

A Liquor Authority spokesman said Drakopoulos had never withdrawn the application.

The two-story brick building was formerly the site of Smiley’s Flowers, a wholesale company. Construction plans show the converted building would have 12 karaoke rooms and a main lounge with two cash bars on the lower floor and a service bar on the upper floor, according to application documents. The plans call for a maximum occupancy of 299 people.

CB 2 Chairman Joseph Conley said he was waiting for more information from the Liquor Authority before proceeding.

“They can do it as of right,” he said of the strip club itself. “But we’re trying to make sure they don’t get a liquor license.”

O’Brien told CB 2 in June that the Bronx establishment opened despite community protests and that the local community board and police precinct said there had been no problems in the area due to the club.

The building is in an industrial zone overshadowed by the bridge and just across 21st Street from Silvercup Studios. Strip clubs have been a fixture of Long Island City business around the bridge in the past, but with the advent of numerous high-rise residential towers in the area and the redevelopment of the deteriorating Queens Plaza, community leaders appear to want other kinds of establishments.

Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e-mail at jewalsh@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.