photo by: Rochelle Valverde

The building at 913 N. Second St., is pictured on April 27, 2022.

The owner of the building that has housed what the City of Lawrence says is an illegal strip club will not be dismissed from the case as requested.

In a lawsuit filed Feb. 2 in Douglas County District Court, the city alleged that Allstars has been operating without the license required for a sexually oriented entertainment business. The city also claimed Allstars is ineligible to receive such a license and requested that the court permanently prohibit Allstars or any other sexually oriented entertainment business from operating at its current location at 913 N. Second St.

The lawsuit is filed against Lawrence Entertainment Inc., which is doing business as Lawrence Allstars The Gentleman’s Club; Topeka residents Karim V. Crim and Kenneth Troupe, the owners of Lawrence Entertainment; as well as Riverfront Business Park as the property owner. Riverfront previously argued that the court should dismiss the case against it as the property owner, stating in part that Riverfront does not operate Allstars and has no relationship with Allstars other than leasing it the property. Allstars has operated at the building on North Second Street since March 2000, according to other case filings by Crim.

In response to Riverfront’s dismissal request, the city specified that the building is not eligible for a sexually oriented business license under city code because it is less than 1,000 feet from several residentially zoned properties and a city park, Riverfront Park. The city argued that even if Riverfront Business Park is nothing more than the landlord of the property, it is a proper party in the case because the city is seeking for the court to rule that the location of 913 N. Second St. is not eligible for a license to operate a sexually oriented business. The city states that Riverfront Business Park was named so that it would have the opportunity to argue to the contrary, should it care to make such an argument. The city also argues that Riverfront should have to provide proof to the court regarding its contractual relationship with the other defendants.

District Court Judge Mark Simpson ruled Tuesday against Riverfront’s request to be dismissed from the case. Simpson said in part that the city sufficiently alleged that Riverfront provided the premises where Allstars operated an unlicensed sexually oriented business. He said that this established a sufficient basis for declaratory judgment that Riverfront may not allow use of its property for the operation of a sexually oriented business.

“Likewise, if (the city’s) allegations are taken as true, then (the city) makes a valid claim for injunctive relief prohibiting Riverfront from providing the premises where a sexually oriented business operates in violation of the City Code,” Simpson wrote.

Riverfront filed another response to the city’s claim on Wednesday. In that response, Riverfront confirmed that it is the owner of the property but denied that the building on North Second Street houses a business doing business as Allstars. Riverfront then provides several reasons why the city’s claim against it should be barred, including that it is the wrong party.

There are indications that Allstars has stopped operating at the building. A sign on the front of the building states the business hours for Allstars as beginning at 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, but the door was locked on Wednesday at about 4:30 p.m. Allstars also has not advertised anything on its social media pages in recent months.

In its original filing, the city also alleged that Allstars has been the site of “serious and numerous criminal infractions,” as the Journal-World previously reported. Crim has stated that Allstars has not had out-of-the-ordinary criminal infractions compared to other bars and that Lawrence Entertainment has remained compliant with all city codes known to it.

A hearing in the case has not yet been scheduled.