Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Center Stage : Exotic Dance Club Opens Amid Court Battle With Landlord

The Santa Clarita Valley area’s only exotic dance club opened for lunch for the first time Wednesday, despite a legal battle with Newhall Land & Farming Co., its landlord.

Castaic Junction: A Gentleman’s Club had hoped to feature all-nude dancers. Newhall, however, obtained a court order last week that has forced women who work there to wear bikinis until the dispute with Newhall is resolved.

Newhall, which owns the building at the intersection of Interstate 5 and California 126, hopes to keep Castaic Junction from ever offering nude dancing.

About 20 men wandered into the club’s neon pink and green lounge during the noon hour, where a 22-year-old dancer performed onstage in a green thong bikini that left little to the imagination. Most lunchtime customers said they had heard about the nonalcoholic club and just came by to check it out.

“I’ll probably just have a couple of cranberry juices and be on my way,” said Clark, a 41-year-old television engineer who--like all of the other customers interviewed by The Times--declined to give his last name.

Several customers came to the club by themselves. Some of them sat as close to the stage as possible, while others watched discreetly from the back, as they ate lunches ranging from a $3 order of onion rings to a $7.50 steak dinner.

Jasmin, a young woman who works as a dancer and bartender at the club, said she answered a newspaper ad for the jobs and has no reservations about working there.

“Basically, I see this as a kind of art,” she said. “I like doing it. I like showing off my body. I have a lot of confidence in my body.”

Jasmin said she also runs a day-care center out of her Palmdale home. She said parents who drop their children off know about her “other” profession.

“They really don’t think anything of it,” she said.

But many customers said they would not return to the club unless all-nude dancing or alcohol is offered. A manager at the club said alcohol is prohibited with all-nude dancing, but that they will very likely be forced to serve alcohol to ensure survival if the restraining order is upheld.

Newhall Land has said it was not told by Castaic Junction owner Stuart Cadwell that he planned to offer exotic dancing when he leased the building. The company has also said the lease prohibits “lewd or offensive” entertainment.

Cadwell said he did not know there were any restrictions on the type of entertainment he could offer when he signed the lease. “I honestly didn’t know what kind of entertainment we would offer,” he said.

Marlee Lauffer, a spokeswoman for Newhall Land, said Wednesday the company also considers the club inappropriate for a “family oriented” community. In the past, the club’s building has housed popular, family oriented eateries, including Castaic Landing and the Blue Moon Restaurant.

Some local residents have said they oppose exotic dancing being offered in the area, and some Castaic Junction customers said they understand that concern.

“This is a nice conservative valley . . . a bit removed from big city things,” Clark said. “If someone opens (an exotic dance club) here, what’s to stop the next person?”

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Cadwell said he decided to offer exotic dancing about three weeks ago after considering other forms of entertainment.

He said calls he has received from residents since the club opened on a part-time basis last week have been “overwhelmingly supportive.”

Cadwell said he met with Newhall representatives Wednesday, but they failed to resolve their differences. A hearing on the restraining order is scheduled July 15 in Van Nuys Superior Court. The club featured all-nude dancing when it opened Thursday night, but Newhall Land obtained the temporary restraining order the next day. The club was open evenings during the weekend before beginning daytime hours Wednesday.