Much has been written in the past few days about Déjà Vu’s purchase of the old bakery/event space at 1418 Church Street and the possibility of their being our neighbors. This letter is meant to provide clarity on where we stand about Déjà Vu and the concerns we have about them becoming our neighbors.
First, our concerns have nothing to do with the “adult” nature of their business. We have a long and positive relationship with Hustler Hollywood, an “adult” business just next to the proposed Déjà Vu location. We’ve sponsored events with Hustler Hollywood in the past, and have had them as guests in our businesses to promote their store. We are proud to be good neighbors with them.
That said, this week our intentions were not clearly stated as we were asked to share a Facebook post of a neighboring business that is planning to develop a 100-unit apartment complex across the street from the Déjà Vu location.
The language of that post reflected their desire not to have a “strip club” in the residential neighborhood they are creating, and asked folks to sign a petition if they agreed. This was their language, not ours. It was removed in less than 2 hours from our Facebook pages, and we sincerely apologize to anyone that was offended by the language of this post or who thought for an instance that we support discrimination of any kind.
Our concerns about Déjà Vu are two-fold. First, we are concerned about a business moving into a 10,000 square foot space without ANY parking. We rent the large parking lot across the street, and have exclusive rental rights for this space at night. It will be a constant and nightly conflict to insure that this lot is available only to our customers, and this is not something with which we want to burden our security, staff, and management.
Second, Déjà Vu is a 24-hour/BYOB business. Many of you may remember the after-hours club that went into the old Lucky’s building next to Hustler Hollywood several years ago. There were countless problems and incidents that involved our customers in and around the parking lot described above. We do not believe that unregulated drinking in the surrounding area as our customers come and go is a good thing for our business or our customers.
While we have never been an "adult" business as defined by Metro Code and don't plan to be, we have no judgment on other's businesses. Our concerns about Déjà Vu are solely based on the issues above.
Our businesses have a 14-year history of being “everybody friendly,” inclusive places, and that is reflected in our staff, management, and customers. We probably have one of the most diverse staff and customer bases in the city, and we are enormously proud of that.
We are well aware that our business’ success depends on our customers, and our entire crew works very hard to provide a great customer experience to everyone who comes through our doors, and we are always grateful to everyone who comes out and supports us.
Please know, too, that if Déjà Vu becomes our neighbor, we will welcome them to Church Street, work hard to be good neighbors, and address the issues we have above as best we can.
See also:
Déjà Vu wants to relocate to Church Street
Morals-based opposition to Déjà Vu relocation is the wrong kind
Photo: Hannah Epelbaum