A provocative business that just opened downtown is raising eyebrows – and questions.

The business is located in the alley between Union and Cass streets, just behind Union Street Station, and in the heart of the downtown shopping district. A sign on the door of the business – the Tabu Lounge – says it’s a “membership-only club with live showgirls and complimentary hookah.”

The Downtown Development Authority (DDA) staff says the new club on 113 E. State St. came to their attention only after some downtown shopkeepers called in with complaints.

“We hadn’t even heard about it, but some of the merchants were calling and saying some provocative activities were taking place in there,” DDA Marketing Director Colleen Paveglio told The Ticker.

The lounge appears to be open only Friday and Saturday nights.

“I never see any activity … except just before New Year’s I saw them taking a large, chrome pole in there,” says Cindy Hardy, whose floral shop, Lilies of the Alley, is located across the alleyway. “It would be great to have a retail store in there again.”

For a short time, the building housed The Garage, an after-hours dance lounge and, before that, fair trade stores Unity and Small Planet.

The sign on the business’ front door includes the phone number and photo of local adult sex-toy store Fantasies Unlimited, which is located on Cass Road near the NMC University Center. When contacted, a female store manager refused to comment.

The Traverse City ordinance that focuses on sexually-based businesses lists several allowable but “regulated uses,” including:

* Adult book or video stores
* Adult cabarets (go-go dancers, strippers, or similar entertainers)
* Adult motion picture theaters
* Adult novelty stores
* Adult panorams
* Burlesque halls

However, to be allowed, these kinds of businesses must be within a C-3 zoning district. The issue for Tabu? It’s located in the C-4 Regional Center District -- downtown TC.

"A sexually-oriented business is not permitted in the C-4 district,” confirms Zoning Administrator Dave Weston. “So, the question is, what is [the owner] doing? I haven’t determined if it’s a sexually-oriented business, as defined by the ordinance. If it is, he’s not going to be able to operate there.”

Who exactly is operating the club is unknown to the city, and building landlord Mark Dancer had no comment.

But state documents list First Amendment rights attorney Greg Fisher Lord of Bloomfield Hills as the resident agent of Fantasies Unlimited. Lord has defended northern Michigan cases involving township ordinances banning adult entertainment stores.

When contacted by The Ticker, Lord said only that he does “not represent Tabu Lounge.”

Whoever owns the lounge might not be able to fly under the radar much longer.

“It sounds like, according to the landlord, that [the owner] has read the ordinance and feels that he’ll be meeting it,” says Weston. “But I’m going to be needing to determine that.”
 

Editor's Note: In the original story Greg Fisher was reported to be listed as the owner of Tabu Lounge on state documents; he is listed specifically as "resident agent," a classification that generally features but is not limited to the name of a business' owner. The Ticker has made a change to the story to reflect Fisher's official "resident agent" status.