City Places Operating-Hours Limits on Controversial Blue Moon Nights Club

When we last reported in November on the controversial club on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood, it seemed unlikely the popular after-hours spot would still be around in 2012, as it had just been by the Claremont-based Community Commerce Bank. 

"It is going to be closed, that is for sure. It is in foreclosure," Eduardo Hernandez, the club's operator, told Patch.

The foreclosure seemed like it would soon put an end to years of struggles the club had with its neighbors, the city and the Los Angeles Police Department. But the club continued to operate, throwing a large New Year's Eve party among other regular weekend events. On Tuesday, responding to complaints, a city committee placed operating hours on the club, according to a report in the Los Angeles Daily News. The club had previously been allowed to operate 24 hours a day, and the new restrictions will force Blue Moon Nights to close at 2 a.m. on weekends and 12 a.m. during the week. It was one of 23 new conditions placed on the club, according to the report.

The club had previously had no restrictions on its hours and was a popular after-hours hot spot that would frequently throw all night dance parties lasting into the daylight hours. It was legally not supposed to serve alcohol past 2 a.m.

In July, about two dozen North Hollywood residents came to the Van Nuys Civic Center to attend a public hearing meant to address complaints the club had received, with police reports ranging from theft and battery to illegally serving liquor after hours.

Los Angeles Police Department Sr. Lead Officer Rob Benavidez has spoken out against the club's operating hours and that when undercover officers visited the nightclub, they were able to buy ecstasy and a manager gave them water bottles to pour their alcohol in after 2 a.m.

"They are finding creative ways to sell liquor after hours," said Benavidez. "This could have been squashed from the beginning if we were able to get conditions that LAPD had asked for years ago."

Shots were also fired outside the club on the night of July 24, and multiple Patch readers wrote in, reporting the shooter had been a patron inside the club. No one was shot during the incident or arrested that night, but it didn't help the club's reputation with its neighbors.

Hernandez told Patch in November that he had already implemented new hours on Oct. 1, but a large portion of Blue Moon Nights' profits had come from it being known as an after-hours club, and he said that the change in hours had affected profits significantly and led to the foreclosure.

"The change of hours is what did it. We used to be open five, six nights a week until 6 a.m., now we have maybe one, two nights, and we are always closed now by [2 a.m.]," Hernandez said.

But Patch reader reported seeing the club open past 2 a.m. on several occasions after Oct. 1, along with police and an ambulance.

The foreclosure was supposed to render moot all these issues and it didn't add up that the club was still operating into 2012. But Jay Martinez, real estate broker for the bank, shed some possible light on the issue when he expressed surprise to learn that the club was still operating and suggested that Hernandez is squatting at the property, according to the Daily News.

"He isn't paying ... but he's still doing events there," Martinez told the Daily News.

Martinez also told the Daily News the site is now being shopped around to other buyers who are interested in turning the site into a restaurant or office space. The new operating restrictions would carry over to the new venue, according to the report.