Limits Imposed on Former Nightclub Property

The Los Angeles City Council ended another round of squabbles Wednesday over a former nightclub by adding more restrictions for the Ventura Boulevard property.

By a vote of 12 to 0, the council approved several conditions for the new operator at the former Aftershock nightclub at 11345 Ventura Boulevard. Those limitations include closing the business by 11 p.m. during the week and by midnight on weekends, and a ban on couples’ dancing.

The council’s decision echoes the review and recommendations of the city’s zoning administrator, the Board of Zoning Appeals and a council committee.

Local residents who have long opposed the Aftershock because of noise, litter and and cars parked in their neighborhoods, praised the decision, saying it would help to ensure an end to the problems.

“The decision is the way it should have gone,” said Arthur Howard, executive vice president of the Studio City Residents Assn. “It’s fantastic, but it was deserved.”

Attorneys for the property owners and leaseholders, however, said they would continue the fight.

“The problem with this approval is that it imposes conditions on the property which are attached to the land,” said Roger Diamond, the attorney for Richard Kritzer, who is the primary leaseholder for the building. “Since the problem was with a particular operator named Aftershock, the city should have taken action against [them].”

As a result, he said, the new business operator and tenant will bear the brunt of problems generated by the old nightclub.

That new tenant, Universal Entertainment and Hospitality Inc., of Rhode Island, has spent about $500,000 on improvements to open a restaurant and supper club, said Noel Weiss, the attorney representing the building’s owners, H.T. Chen and H.S. Chen of Taiwan. The Chens have owned the building since about 1980, Weiss said.

Universal Entertainment plans to open a restaurant/supper club that is “a cross between Hooters and the House of Blues or B.B. King’s,” said Edward Roane, construction manager. About $100,000 was spent on a sound wall in the front of the building, he said.