Mary Spicuzza

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Another strip club is trying to open in downtown Milwaukee.

The group applying for a liquor license for the club, which would be located on Old World Third St., includes Silk Exotic strip club business partners.

Three men affiliated with Silk Exotic and other Wisconsin clubs — Joseph Modl, Radomir Buzdum and Scott Krahn — are listed in the application, which was filed Thursday with the city's License Division.

But Silk's Jon Ferraro, who was indicted last year in a sprawling racketeering case targeting the Russian mob, is not mentioned in the application. Ferraro was indicted in federal court in California as part of a case involving money laundering and cocaine dealing that stretched from coast to coast and grew to a dozen defendants. That case was dubbed “Russian Laundry."

The trio applied for a license as PPH Properties I LLC to open the Executive Lounge Gentlemen's Club at 730 N. Old World Third St.

That's the same location where Boro Buzdum, Radomir's brother, recently tried to open another strip club he wanted to name 10 Exotic. That move came after another member of the Buzdum family, Diane, and her business, Rusty's Old 50, lost her license at the same spot.

Rusty's, which was managed by Radomir Buzdum, quickly ran into trouble with the law when Milwaukee police officers doing a "license premise check" in January 2015 found dancers, many of whom were wearing just "pasties," underwear and high heels, as well as vertical poles for dancing, according to a police report. The poles were later removed.

The location was also previously home to The Velvet Room and Martini Mike's.

The city has battled for more than five years with Silk over efforts to open a strip club downtown.

In July, city officials approved a nearly $1 million payment to Silk.

The nearly $970,000 payout to Silk Exotic comes about a month after Milwaukee's city attorney urged the Common Council to authorize the deal to avoid further legal fees.

The city is facing additional lawsuits over the issue.

"We don't have anything to say right now. We applied, and we just want to see what happens in front of the council, and then we can pretty much talk to reporters and such," Joseph Modl said Friday. "We've got to give it a little bit of time right now just to see what happens."

According to the application: