The topless Penthouse Club is part of a chain licensed by Penthouse Media Group and represents an investment of $1.5 million, potentially 40 non-dancing jobs and thousands of dollars in tax revenue for Los Angeles.
It is slated to open in mid-October on the corner of Vignes and Commercial streets, an area south of the Civic Center and Little Tokyo districts known as the Arts district. Neighbors include the Buddhist temple Nishi Hongwanji Betsuin, the Fukui mortuary and the Los Angeles Daily Journal, the nation’s largest daily legal newspaper, as well as numerous city buildings.
But community activists are using the NIMBY (not in my backyard) angle to help quash plans.
“The idea of having an adult entertainment place down the street gives us concern,” said Eric Kurimura, a temple board member and secretary of the Little Tokyo Community Council. “We just don't want our kids to have to deal with that type of environment around the temple.”
But it may be too late for Kurimura and others in the neighborhood because the city already has OKd the project. A certificate of occupancy from the Building and Safety Department already hangs on the office wall of the club at 711 E. Ducommon St.
Its remaining hurdle — the application for a conditional use permit to serve wine and beer — is before the zoning administrator.
“Somehow there was a breakdown, that this type of business got this far through the planning process without anyone knowing about it,” Kurimura said. “It may be an upscale establishment, but the way the whole process happened, it seemed there was a deliberate attempt to keep the community in the dark.”