Ybor club breaks silence

Club Fuel maintains it's getting a bad rap from police, others.

By ALEXANDRA ZAYAS, Times Staff Writer
Published October 16, 2007

TAMPA - When a Tampa police major stood before City Council last June, describing Club Fuel's clientele as dangerous, the Ybor City hip-hop club never responded.

The club's silence continued while neighboring Empire Nightclub reached out to the Historic Ybor Neighborhood Civic Association.

And when angry business owners hung a sign just across the street, warning visitors of violent incidents outside the club.

And when the Times asked for comment before writing a story about state allegations that the club was refilling bottles, a crime that often involves passing off cheap alcohol for the expensive kind.

Now, for the first time, Club Fuel is speaking up. Spokesman Richard Mackizer issued a statement saying that in the past four years, Fuel has spent $260,353.50 on extra-duty police officers to watch over the club. As for the $5,120 that the Police Department says the club owes, the statement says Club Fuel is auditing the city's billing statement.

As for allegations by the Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco that Fuel is refilling bottles, "Club Fuel has contested these current charges, and Club Fuel maintains its denial."

The statement says Fuel has "generated significant revenues to the city. The building we currently lease sat vacant for almost five years before we spent significant time and money to renovate it, in the hopes of revitalizing that end of the strip once again, long before anyone built their first condominium.

"Unfortunately, lost in the translation and negativity are the good things we have done for the community.

"It is terribly disturbing to realize that in this day and age the intolerance that still exists in both attitude and behavior towards our customer base."

It goes on to say: "It has clearly become the mission of certain agencies to purposefully deter customers from coming to Fuel."

Alexandra Zayas can be reached at azayas@sptimes.com or 813 226-3354.

[Last modified October 16, 2007, 00:01:41]