Topless club to replace fitness center

Adrienne Packer

Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2001 | 9:42 a.m.

Strip club owner Pete Eliades took seriously President Bush's plea for Americans to live their lives despite terrorist threats and war.

And in his view, what better way to show that Las Vegas is committed to moving forward than opening what is being touted as the world's largest topless club?

"We have to have unique establishments and something different so people keep coming to Las Vegas. That's what it's all about," said Eliades, who bought the Sporting House fitness club for $14 million last month.

"The United States is all about progress, and Vegas is all about progress."

Eliades, who also owns the topless club Olympic Garden on Las Vegas Boulevard, said he and business partner Mike Talla expect to complete the conversion from gym to strip club by summer.

In the meantime, while some residents' New Year's resolution is to join a gym, Sporting House members -- many of whom are politicians or Las Vegas' biggest movers-and-shakers will have to seek out a new gym.

The fitness center that offered a spa, basketball and racquetball facilities in addition to exercise machines, closes this weekend.

Corey Jenkins, a co-owner of the fitness center, did not return phone calls.

Until the Sporting House was sold last month, Jenkins denied that there were imminent plans to convert the health club into a topless bar.

However, plans submitted to the Clark County Planning Department and a lawsuit filed in District Court indicate otherwise.

Sporting House owners submitted an application for a topless club on Sept. 24, 1999. Two days earlier the commission adopted an ordinance requiring adult entertainment stores or clubs to be at least 1,500 feet from each other.

The county rejected the Sporting House's application, and club owners subsequently filed a lawsuit. District Judge Valorie Vega ruled that the Sporting House's application should be grandfathered in because the new county law didn't go into effect until Oct. 6, 1999.

Eliades said he pitched the idea of converting the Sporting House to a strip club to Jenkins about three years ago, but declined to say when discussions became serious.

Eliades, a 45-year Las Vegas resident who has been involved in the taxicab business and adult entertainment industry, said the going price for the Sporting House and the 6 acres it sits on was probably three times what it is worth.

Its location -- on Industrial behind the Las Vegas Strip and down the street from Crazy Horse Too -- made the price worthwhile, Eliades said. Olympic Garden, also on the fringe of the glitz of the Strip, has been a success.

The design and amenities of the new club, which Eliades said he is pushing to name Aphrodite's Garden, have yet to be worked out. But Eliades vows that the new topless club will be unique -- even for Las Vegas.

"We need different and spectacular establishments to revitalize our city; that's my thinking," Eliades said. "Sept. 11 was a tragedy for our nation, but at the same time we have to do our best and make sure we go forward with business."