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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A downtown strip club that the city would like to get rid of is for sale.
Owner Daniel Darger said he is asking $3.1 million for the Crazy Goat Saloon, formerly known as the Dead Goat. Along with the club comes the Glass Factory building, which houses the saloon, and the neighboring Hotel Albert building.
Interest in the two buildings has increased ever since Darger gained a sexually oriented business license for the saloon, which opened as a strip club last weekend.
Many local businesses have complained about the possibility of a strip club downtown. Property Reserve Inc., the real estate arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has sued in an attempt to get a 3rd District Court judge to revoke the saloon's license.
Darger said the buildings, which border the north side of Arrow Press Square near the corner of West Temple and 100 South in downtown Salt Lake City, were listed for sale Thursday.
The saloon has a 24-year lease at the Glass Factory building but if someone wanted to pony up the $3.1 million and kick the saloon out, "that's all negotiable," said Darger, an attorney who has frequently challenged Utah liquor laws.
Bob Farrington, executive director of the Downtown Alliance, said Darger's sexually oriented business license has increased the price of the two buildings as various downtown interests have considered buying him out so they can close the club.
The City Council has issued a moratorium on sexually oriented business licenses in the downtown zoning districts for six months.
Darger had requested permits to build seven more stripper stages at his former blues bar but Salt Lake City Attorney Ed Rutan has squelched those plans.
In a letter to Darger last week, Rutan noted that Darger's original request for a sexually oriented business license included plans for only one stage.
Normally, Darger would be able to amend that license to include more stages. However, given the City Council's moratorium on such licenses, Rutan concluded Darger couldn't amend his original plans.
Darger said he will send Rutan a letter protesting the decision.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
