Simi Valley : Owner Rents to Club With Nude Dancers

The new owner of a Simi Valley shopping center said he has agreed to lease about half of his retail space to a Las Vegas entertainment company planning a club that would feature nude dancers.

Philip Young, a Las Vegas real estate entrepreneur, bought the center at 999 Los Angeles Ave. from the Resolution Trust Corp. at a Dec. 8 auction.

The sale is expected to close escrow in two weeks.

Separately, Young received city approval late last month to remodel the center to accommodate the adult business.

The next step in opening the business would be the issuance of city building permits for the remodeling after a review by building inspectors, said Wolf Ascher, the city’s deputy director of current planning.

Young said the club, which would not sell alcoholic beverages, would feature a stage with a catwalk for dancers, semi-private booths and other facilities. It would be the only club with nude dancers in the city.

Simi Valley officials are drafting an ordinance to regulate adult-oriented businesses, but Mayor Greg Stratton said Friday that even the proposed ordinance would not preclude a nude establishment in Young’s shopping center.

“Apparently, it is a site that would have been acceptable under our proposed ordinance,” Stratton said. “It’s not near a school or church or residential area.”

But Stratton said the unnamed proprietor of the club, which would tentatively be called “The Simi Dancing Bear,” should reconsider the move strictly on business grounds.

“I suspect that once they really start thinking about this and really look at the community, they’ll back out,” Stratton said. “There’s no demand for it. It would be like opening a feed store in downtown New York. It’s just not the right place.”