New club to feature female dancers

Harrisburg might get its first upscale "gentlemen's club" featuring female dancers along with beer, wine, liquor and a full food menu.

Owner Joshua Kesler said he is working toward what he described as a gentlemen's club that would be away from the city's Restaurant Row, tucked discreetly off South Cameron Street at 730 S. 10th St.

Kesler was cagey about the details he would release, but said last week that the club would feature liquor, food and women -- but he wouldn't explicitly say whether nudity would be involved.

"Did I say anything about nudity?" Kesler said during a phone interview. "It's a gentlemen's club."

Kesler said he would have his attorney get back to a reporter with additional details.

The attorney, John J. Baranski of York, said the building's tenant, Dustin Malesich, plans to operate an "executive-style, upscale gentlemen's club" with full restaurant and bar. Baranski declined to comment beyond his one-paragraph written statement.

The club would be the first adult entertainment business in the city since an adult book and video store on the 300 block of Market Street closed in 2004. Kesler would not say when he planned to open the club.

There are no outright bans on strip clubs in the city, but there are regulations that the proposed club appears to meet, city spokesman Matt Coulter said.

The business received a city building permit dated Oct. 28, and remodeling work inside the building is ongoing. The establishment has yet to pass a final city inspection to open, Coulter said.

There is an adult video store and a strip club along Route 22 at the border of Susquehanna and Lower Paxton townships, just west of the Interstate 83 interchange. There are several adult video stores and strip clubs along U.S. Routes 11/15 and Routes 22/322 north of Duncannon.

Traditionally, night clubs that feature nudity have been prohibited from selling alcohol under the state's liquor laws.

However, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board said those regulations have been eroded by court rulings.

Federal court decisions in 2005 and 2006 found the terms "immoral" and "improper" in Pennsylvania's liquor code to be unconstitutionally vague. The courts also ruled that the state's liquor regulations prohibiting lewd entertainment on licensed premises were "unconstitutionally overbroad" and unenforceable, said LCB spokeswoman Francesca Chapman.

"There is nothing in the liquor code that currently regulates exotic dancing," Chapman said. "We will grant a license if the establishment qualifies. Whether there are naked ladies serving is not a concern for us."

However, she added that municipal zoning codes and criminal laws can and do regulate such establishments.

The LCB has no record of any liquor license or license application in Kesler's name or under the establishment's corporate name, 730 South 10th St. LLC, Chapman said.

The proposed club's location is a tan-painted brick building and garage bay in the city's warehouse district off Cameron Street. It's just south of Paxton Street at Hanna and 10th streets.

Several workmen who were painting and doing mortar work inside the building on Thursday said the plans call for a kitchen, along with a spacious open area for dancing, lounging and entertaining.

The workers did not know the timetable for when the club would open.

Harrisburg's regulations dictate that adult entertainment businesses be in areas zoned to allow adult entertainment. Such establishments cannot be within 1,000 feet of another adult entertainment facility. They may not be within 500 feet of any residential use, school, public playground or related property or any religious property.

Coulter said that while there are not many districts within the city that would allow such a use, Kesler's property appears to meet all the city regulations.

Coulter described the project as being in the "permit stages" with the city codes department. He said he had few other details.

"Normally at this time in a new business or restaurant's planning process, we just defer to the business owner until something's actually ready to open," Coulter said.

JOHN LUCIEW: 255-8171 or jluciew@patriot-news.com