Pittsburgh- The last of the Liberty Avenue strip clubs Downtown has closed its doors.
After reaching a settlement with the property owner, city Urban Redevelopment Authority officials were expected to close on the purchase of Chez Kimberly, which had a 27-year run at 966 Liberty Ave.
The club’s closing is a milestone for Liberty Avenue, which in the 1970s and 1980s was a haven for adult movie theaters, strip clubs, massage parlors and adult bookstores.
Now, in large part because of the work of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and the city, only one adult bookstore remains on Liberty.
Gone are Casino Royale, which offered nude dancing; the Gemini and Roman V massage parlors; the Palace burlesque house; Art Cinema, which showed XXX adult films; and assorted porn shops. The only strip club now in the vicinity is Club Elite on Ninth Street.
In place of the adult clubs and parlors, the trust has created amenities that have transformed much of Liberty into a cultural hot spot. The Harris Theater now stands at the site of the Art Cinema. An elegant open-air park now sits where the Gemini Spa once stood.
Chez Kimberly, which shut down April 29, was the last piece of real estate needed by the URA for the African American Cultural Center, a $33 million project that will occupy a block of Liberty near the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.
The club was one of six properties targeted for acquisition by the URA in February 2004 to clear the way for the center, which is scheduled to open in 2007.
Sally Maiette McKenzie, part owner of Chez Kimberly, raised preliminary objections to the taking, touching off nearly a year of legal wrangling before the parties reached a settlement.
The URA paid $525,000 for the property, according to Ira Weiss, the attorney who represented the agency in the negotiations. It initially had offered $212,000.
Weiss said the final price was in line with what the URA paid for other properties within the block.
“I think it’s a very positive development for the area,” he said. “It will do for that part of Liberty Avenue what the cultural trust has done for a lot of the other parts.”
“Quite frankly, when it came down to the final process, I thought the URA was more than fair,” said Bob Garber, McKenzie’s attorney. “That’s how you achieve settlements. Both parties give.”
Now that Chez Kimberly has closed, McKenzie plans to open a restaurant in Castle Shannon, Garber said, but it will not be a strip club.
Liberty Tavern, at 972 Liberty Ave., also has closed after the URA terminated the lease. That property, which the URA purchased from William Zotis for $525,000, also was needed for the cultural center.
The closing came over the objections of restaurant operator Denise Gaynor, who wanted to stay in business. She had owned the restaurant since 1998.
“It was one of the hardest things losing it,” she said. “I enjoyed my business and I enjoyed my customers.”
Gaynor also owns Tonic Bar & Grill across the street.