Professor may pull out of strip club

Mathis Winkler

Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2001 | 10:33 a.m.

Bare-all dancers at the Palomino Club may no longer strip for the good of science after a Stanford University medical professor who owns the club said today that he's thinking about selling the establishment because of bad publicity.

Simon Stertzer, a cardiovascular surgeon, bought Clark County's only all-nude strip club that also sells alcohol in September to finance medical research with the profits. But although he planned to use the club's revenues for research, the university was not at all involved, he said.

"This was a real estate deal that was entered into by a holding company that has most of its equity in medical devices," Stertzer said when reached at his office at Stanford's medical center, near San Francisco. Stertzer also has invested in a Las Vegas car-repair business.

He added that buying real estate in Clark County seemed a "very intelligent" way to diversify the company.

"Hopefully we could have developed the property in time with partners to build a hotel, to upgrade the community," Stertzer said of the five-acre plot of land on Las Vegas Boulevard in a dilapidated area of downtown North Las Vegas.

He added that such a development might still be an option.

But continuing media interest in his involvement with a striptease club reflected badly on his employer, Stertzer said.

"It's been adverse to the university," he said. "It seems that there is no way that people will leave it alone and that it would be better to divest myself of ownership" of the club.

University officials have viewed Stertzer's investment as a private business transaction, Stanford Medical Center spokeswoman Michelle Brandt said today. She added that to her knowledge, no discussions took place between Stertzer and university officials about the issue.

"Stanford isn't involved," she said.

In 1998, Stertzer gave $2 million to endow a chair at the medical school after selling a medical instruments company.

When and if a sale of the club really happens is still unclear, Stertzer said.

"It's not something that can take place quickly," he said, adding that the new owner would have to go through a background examination before the city could approve a business license.

North Las Vegas City Council members approved Stertzer's business license for the Palomino Club as well as the adjoining Lacy's and Satin Saddle Club on Sept. 5.

Stertzer said he couldn't discuss whether people had already expressed interest in the club. He added that the establishments would remain open for the time being.