Texas- Applications for two sexually oriented businesses within sight of each other have been permitted by city officials, and both are making plans to open at their South Longview locations.
The businesses are in a heavy industrial area off FM 1845 and received their permits in August.
The first business, at 1200 FM 1845 in Longview and adjacent to the city’s wastewater treatment plant, will be called the Adult Super Store. The business will sell mainly adult videos and should be open by the end of the year, said owner Buddy Robinson.
Robinson is not new to the adult video industry. He is the former owner of two Video Zone stores, and both sold adult films. Robinson also owns a club featuring strippers west of Kilgore, and De Ja Voe, a recently opened club on Eastman Road.
In August 2005, Longview police raided the McCann Road Video Zone and confiscated more than 5,000 adult films. Police spokesman Shaun Pendleton has said the store did not have the required sexually oriented business license.
No criminal charges were filed against Robinson, but the city filed injunctions prohibiting the McCann Road store and a Video Zone on Eastman Road from remaining open, Pendleton said.
Robinson regained possession of the adult movies about six months after they were confiscated. Since then, he has been searching for a legal location for his next video store.
“Suitable buildings were scarce. It’s like searching for a needle in a haystack,” he said.
Robinson applied to the Gregg County Sheriff’s Office earlier this year for a sexually oriented business in the 4700 block of Estes Parkway, between Longview and Lakeport. Sheriff’s investigators determined that the proposed strip bar would have been within 1,000 feet of another sexually oriented business, a violation of county ordinances.
County Judge Bill Stoudt denied Robinson’s application, and his appeal was denied by a former district judge.
Only a couple of weeks after Robinson applied for a permit for sexually oriented business, a Kilgore woman, Nicole Pierce, applied for a license to operate a sexually oriented business at 212 Michael Drive, a dead-end street. Located at the end of the street, the business is across the highway from Robinson’s proposed business.
Though Pierce could not be reached for comment, Bill Bolls, the owner of the Michael Street property, said Pierce signed a year’s lease on the building. Pierce’s husband, Jason, is getting ready to move merchandise into the building, Bolls said.
Pierce said in a previous interview that she planned to sell adult videos, magazines, lingerie, shoes and games.
Bolls said since renting the building to Pierce, he had received numerous complaints, but went ahead with the rental.
“I saw nothing wrong with it,” he said.
“There may be a few smutty movies, but I have a concrete lease. I don’t know how long they will be there, but they are there now.”
In both cases, police had 30 days to determine whether the businesses met guidelines established in the city’s sexually oriented business ordinance.
There were about a half-dozen complaints from people opposed to the businesses, Pendleton said.