Petition Seeks to Keep Strip Club Out of Midtown Nashville

NASHVILLE, TN — An online petition has garnered more than 80 signatures in an effort to keep a strip club from relocating to Church Street.

The petition on change.org aims to keep Deja Vu, one of the city's longest-running exotic-dance bars, from moving to a building the club's owners purchased near the corner of 15th Avenue and Church Street in Midtown. The club's current location on Demonbreun Street was sold to a real-estate investor for $6.5 million in February. Under the terms of that agreement, Deja Vu can continue operating at the location, where it has been since 1990, until August 2017.

Deja Vu bought the Church Street property in a sale recorded last week for $3 million, but an ordinance making its way through the Metro Council could hamstring the club's move.

The petition looks to gain support for that ordinance, which passed on first reading and is set for a public hearing Oct. 4. Under the ordinance, sponsored by downtown councilmember Freddie O'Connell and councilmember-at-large Bob Mendes, adult-oriented businesses would no longer be a permitted use on the block.

The stretch of Church Street includes a Hustler Hollywood store which, despite its name, is not classified as an adult-oriented business under the Metro code, because less than 35 percent of its sales are of adult materials. The street is also the center of Nashville's LGBT nightlife and the neighborhood, which was dominated for years by light industry, is seeing an influx of hotels and high-density residential projects. In addition, former Metro Councilmember Jerry Maynard launched a church in the area, leasing space in a medical-office building for twice-weekly church services.

According to The Tennessean, there are legal concerns regarding the proposed block of the Deja Vu move, because the building's owners have been issued various permits by the Codes Department and have spent money renovating the building, which is currently used as event space, which may give Deja Vu vesting rights that would prevent any new zoning change from taking effect.

Image courtesy of Davidson County Assessor of Property