NW Strip-Club Operators Expand To Pricey Aspen

Gucci couldn't get in. Armani, either.

In ultra-chic downtown Aspen, Colo., where the big-ticket designers couldn't find a slice of prime real estate, overnight a three-story building has changed into the city's latest apres-ski offering: the strip joint Club 81611.

And its management has Seattle-area connections.

As Puget Sound cities adopt stricter adult-entertainment rules, strip clubs are looking for less-regulated areas to call home.

Until the Aspen City Council scrambled to adopt an ordinance Tuesday, the city had no adult-entertainment regulations, except for those pertaining to prostitution.

"I don't think any of us truly expected to see an establishment of this nature," said Aspen Police Chief Tom Stephenson. "In some ways we were caught unprepared."

When a strip club opened about 30 miles away in Garfield County, Colo., in early April, Aspen began to consider an ordinance, but no one thought a club would move into town.

"This is an upscale ski resort. We host kings and queens, presidents and film stars. It's very expensive," Stephenson said.

The club's principal partner is David Parr, owner of a Vancouver, B.C.-area all-nude juice bar and in 1989 the manager of the Federal Way Deja Vu.

The manager and president of the Club 81611 corporation is Sunny Marie Kopczenski, a former dancer at Deja Vu, Honey's in south Everett and later Parr's Vancouver-area club. The club features dancers from the Seattle area.

Parr's Aspen venture began in late April. As principal partner in Club 81611 Inc., he obtained a business permit for a non-alcohol

nightclub.

Within days Club Soda, the existing nightclub, closed, and the strip club - named after the Aspen ZIP code - opened, featuring all-nude entertainment. Employee housing - a rare commodity in the city - is above the club.

Parr, who could not be reached for comment, made a similar entrance into New Westminster, B.C., when he opened the Paramount in 1993. He applied for a license to operate a non-alcohol nightclub with entertainment. And to city officials' surprise, the entertainment was sans clothing. New Westminster officials objected but weren't able to shut it down.

Parr tried to expand to Vancouver but found the laws too restrictive.

Today, Aspen officials and some residents wonder how the strip club infiltrated the city so quickly.

"This is a town where everybody wants in," Stephenson said. "Real estate is so limited here that landlords can pick and choose who occupies their buildings."

World-famous clothing designers have been turned away for lack of available business space, real-estate agents say.

Joe Edwards, the attorney for Ted Koutsoubos, owner of the building Club 81611 calls home, said his client did not know the building would be used as a strip club. He agreed to a six-month lease for $480,000. He said the club has an option to purchase the property for $8.5 million.

"That's a lot of lap dances," said Stephenson.

A number of clubs are choosing to leave Washington state, said King County Police vice-unit Detective Steve Ellis. "I would imagine they're going to all the states that have less stringent regulations than this state does."

Hawaii is one common destination, Ellis said, and now Colorado.

While the adult-entertainment industry and cities have been fighting legal battles for years, in 1994 a Bellevue ordinance severely affected the industry by requiring dancers and patrons to remain four feet apart, outlawing the profitable "couch dances." Two strip clubs closed and one decided not to open.

Federal Way enacted a similar ordinance in September and other cities from Auburn to Marysville are considering them.

In the meantime, Bellevue - which has won challenges to its ordinance in Superior Court, federal court and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals - this week is defending its ordinance in the state Supreme Court.

Now that the Club 81611 has arrived in Aspen - and shutting it down could be considered a violation of dancers' constitutional rights to free speech and expression - the City Council is trying to regulate it.

The new ordinance is similar to the ones used in the Puget Sound area.

The club manager must be at least 21 and licensed, 21 and tips must be placed in jars, not dancers' G-strings. But the regulation Parr told the council he objected to the most was the requirement for dancers and patrons to stay at least three feet apart.

As club owners have told cities in the Seattle area, Parr said the dancer-patron distance regulation may be the motivation to sue.