The City Council will have to approve a zoning change, but neighbors love the idea of legal eagles replacing rowdy partiers at Club Atlanta.
By RON MATUS
Published May 2, 2003
A Kennedy Boulevard nightclub that tormented neighbors for years with noise, crowds and occasional violence is about to mellow considerably.
In March, a company with ties to a local law firm bought the Club Atlanta building at the corner of Kennedy Boulevard and Fremont Avenue. If the City Council approves a zoning change May 22, legal eagles will replace rowdy partiers.
"I think people will be pleased," said Jim Mikes, an attorney with the Solomon Tropp Law Group, which plans to move into the building in early 2004.
Pleased is an understatement.
Neighbors complained to police and City Council members for more than a decade. They said clubgoers blocked streets and cranked stereos at 3 a.m. Sometimes, violence erupted. In 1999, a 19-year-old Fort Lauderdale man was stabbed and killed inside the club. Last summer, a 21-year-old St. Petersburg man met the same fate after he and a friend were shot in the legs.
"Rowdy behavior, and noise, and urinating in public - I guess those things aren't so bad," said Ben Buckley, who lives a few blocks away. "But when someone gets killed, I tell you."
The property was owned by Broadway Development Co., a corporation owned by the family of Ybor City businessman Joe Capitano Sr. Broadway sold it to Chayim LLC, a corporation whose principal is Stanford Solomon of Solomon Tropp.
The price: $1.13-million.
Robert Allen, president of the North Hyde Park Civic Association, said he was grateful that Capitano sold the property to lawyers, rather than another entertainment venue.
From nightclub to law firm is "a huge jump," Allen said. "We are so thankful."
After renovations, the building will grow from 15,000 square feet to 23,000 square feet. Assuming a City Council blessing, work will begin this summer.
The law firm, now in the round building at 400 N Ashley Drive, liked the site because it was close to downtown and on a Kennedy corridor that "is getting better all the time," Mikes said.
Buckley said if he had his druthers, the club would morph into a restaurant, "something a little more refined."
"But lawyers are all right," he continued. "It's better than that club."
