Billboard nightclub scratched at Venetian

Friday, Aug. 20, 1999 | 3:41 a.m.

A Billboard Live nightclub won't be built at the Venetian hotel-casino.

Hatch Brothers Inc. of California sued B.L. International Inc. of Las Vegas, which does business as Billboard Live International Corp., alleging it defaulted on payments of $22,106 for design services Hatch claimed it had made.

It is unclear whether the design services were performed for a nightclub Billboard had planned to build at the Venetian hotel-casino. Hatch Brothers could not be reached for comment.

But Billboard was surprised by the complaint, saying the suit was already settled. Dolly Schreter, Billboard's administrator, said the suit had been dismissed because Hatch Brothers never did any work for the company.

Meanwhile, Billboard Live International won't be building its nightclub at the Venetian, but is planning to open a club instead in South Beach, Fla., she said.

Heftel Entertainment, one of several financing partners involved in the aborted project at the Venetian, took charge in 1997 and said he is now planning to open the Carnivale 2000 club in October in the Billboard location.

"There were some differences in opinion on how the project will move forward, and Heftel emerged in 1997 as a controlling interest in the final development and opening of the facility," said Peter Aaronson, Heftel's head of entertainment.

"But Heftel was still in discussions with Billboard in 1998 to build a Billboard Live club on a franchise basis, " said Dean Harris, a Heftel vice president. "But after further analysis, Heftel decided it wasn't economically feasible to pay the franchise fees, so we decided to build our own club instead."

The Carnivale 2000 club will have the capacity to seat a maximum of 3,500 people and will feature variety shows, traditional Las Vegas production shows and nightclub after hours.