Controversial former Tri-Cities strip club sold. New owners have a different plan
A Tri-Cities couple are making sure that the community’s only strip club to operate in more than two decades will not reopen.
The Tri-Cities had not had a strip club for 21 years until City Stars Gentlemen’s Club opened at the end of 2017 in the former Lucky Bridge Casino at 101 S. Gum St., Kennewick, near the cable bridge.
City Stars closed in the spring of 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and its owners announced that summer that the strip club would not be reopening.
New building owners Jared and Stephannie Walther, who helped create the Apostolic Center, a Kennewick church, would like to see the building turned into a small grocery store and Mexican meat market.
Now, there are limited convenient grocery shopping options for Finley residents, they said.
They are interested in a lease-to-own arrangement for a carniceria at the building, he said. It is a popular financial arrangement for Mexican meat markets, but he has not found a tenant yet, he said.
When his real estate agent told him about the strip club site, his first reaction was amusement.
“I said I thought it would be funny if a church bought a strip club,” he said.
He and his wife are investors, whose purchases include the Bateman Building in downtown Kennewick, home to the Sports Page Bar and Grill and apartments that are being used for clients of the nonprofit Community Actions Connection.
“We are just trying to serve the community,” Jared Walther said.
Using the Gum Street building for a grocery store would provide a greater service to the community than a niche entertainment business, Stephannie Walther said. “Everyone needs food.”
Benton County property records show that Walther and Sons Investment Group bought the property, with a 7,557-square-foot building, for $1.2 million in late August.
On Saturday, about 20 members of the Apostolic Center gathered at the former strip club to watch Jared Walther pull down the “City Stars Gentlemen’s Club” sign that hung over its front door.
They cheered as the sign crashed to the ground in two pieces.
“We believe a lot of pain and hurt and heartache comes from this type of industry,” said Jonathan Schlender of the Apostolic Center.
Among the issues the center works on is ending sex trafficking, he said.
City Stars controversial
Before City Stars opened it was picketed by people opposed to a strip club.
The city of Kennewick initially rejected the club’s business license after it applied for a liquor license for a sports pub housed in the same location.
But the owners requested a 20-day extension and were able to complete the work needed to separate the two businesses. Washington law prohibits alcohol sales in nude dancing establishments, and the two businesses would operate independently.
The city of Kennewick cannot legally ban strip clubs, but it can regulate how and where they operate, according to city officials.
The city of Kennewick prohibits adult entertainment businesses within 500 feet of a residential zone, any public or private school, church, park or within 1,500 feet of another “adult concession.”
Kennewick also had a strip club in 1996, but Exotic City on Kennewick Avenue was only open a couple of months before it lost its lease. It also drew protesters.