Lizzy Alfs, and Getahn Ward

The Tennessean

Once more prominent in a city known for its bustling nightlife, the flashy neon lights beckoning customers to Nashville strip clubs glow a little less brightly these days.

The adult entertainment business — which some city leaders say peaked in the 1980s with a wide array of downtown pornography shops, peep shows and massage parlors — has been on a slow decline, even as the city’s tourism industry has exploded.

Today, only four licensed strip clubs operate in Music City — Déjà Vu, Pure Gold’s Crazy Horse, Gabrielle’s VIP Club and Cabaret Royale. That’s down from nearly a dozen a decade ago, according to Metro records. Over that period, the number of adult-oriented stores also declined to four from nearly a dozen.

“(Adult entertainment) seemed to be spread over downtown when downtown wasn’t a very attractive destination,” said Butch Spyridon, Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. CEO. “As development has occurred, the adult peep shows and the strip clubs, everything has been moved out or torn down.”

Spyridon said the loss of adult entertainment options hasn’t hurt Nashville’s convention business. The city is riding high on a five-year streak of year-over-year growth in hotel rooms sold and hotel tax collections, outpacing any other top U.S. destination tracked by Hendersonville-based research firm STR.

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At the same time, Nashville has become a major market for bachelor and bachelorette parties, drawing groups of millennials on the weekends for pre-wedding festivities.

“I see no correlation between the growth in our convention business and adult entertainment," Spyridon said. "As a matter of fact, (Nashville) may be the best example of the opposite; (the adult entertainment) business has been dying, and we’ve been on a five-year rocket ship.”

The most recent shakeup to the local strip club industry was the announced sale this month of the longtime home of Déjà Vu at 1214 Demonbreun St. Under terms of the sale, the strip club will have to find a new home after 18 months as the new property owners seek to redevelop the high-profile site.

Déjà Vu plans to relocate downtown, and a representative for the strip club said its business is booming.

Still, the deal marks the latest in a string of real estate transactions involving Nashville-area strip club properties. Other clubs have closed after property owners cashed in on rising real estate values.

“We’ve certainly come a long way from $60 a foot in 2008 until now, where things are generally trading in the order of $200 to $250 a foot in the inner core,” said Tom Frye, a veteran Nashville real estate broker. “Some of the sellers are thinking, ‘we’re near the peak of the market, so I ought to sell now.’ ”

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The list of strip clubs could dwindle further when leases under which some of the remaining businesses continue to operate expire. For instance, under terms of the June 2014 sale of the home of Cabaret Royale in the area south of Broadway, that club can remain until spring 2017. Beyond that, its stay could be extended only with permission from the new property owners who plan a luxury hotel.

In Midtown there are also questions about the future of Gabrielle’s VIP Club, after Vastland Cos. bought that property in fall 2013. Déjà Vu’s location could be redeveloped into condos among a mix of uses, while the former home of Brass Stables Jockey Club in Printers Alley is within the footprint of a planned boutique hotel development.

“As development goes forward and most land values get higher, the income generated by that square foot of dirt is greater than what can be provided by that adult entertainment,” said Larry Frankenbach, a vice president with Vastland. “So the highest and best use of some of those properties is not going to be adult entertainment. They’re probably going to be office or high-rise residential or hotel, depending on the location and the owner’s objectives.”

In addition to properties being sold for redevelopment and a decline in disposable incomes of would-be patrons, easier Internet access to pornography could also be contributing to the declining number of clubs.

Nationwide, the number of strip clubs fell from about 3,800 in 2007 to about 3,500 in 2013, according to a 2014 report on the U.S. strip club industry by Marketdata Enterprises. The number of strip clubs in Nashville pales in comparison to other cities of similar size. Portland has about 54, Atlanta has 30 and Detroit has 32, according to Priceonomics data.

“It’s basically a mature industry that has seen growth level off,” said John LaRosa, Marketdata Enterprises president. “…It’s not a booming industry anymore.”

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LaRosa said local ordinances and community activists can also play a role in closing strip clubs. He said independently owned clubs are giving way to large corporations, such as the publicly owned Rick’s Cabaret.

In Nashville the Sexually Oriented Business Licensing Board started enforcing new guidelines in 2006. That included tightened restrictions on strip clubs, including strict rules against physical contact between a performer and a customer requiring a three-foot separation. The regulations also require dancers to register with Metro.

Tracy A. O’Neill, a representative for Déjà Vu Nashville, called Nashville’s three-foot guideline “archaic” but said the strip club adjusted to the ordinance. She said business has been growing year-over-year at the strip club, and the owners are looking for real estate to accommodate growth.

Déjà Vu’s owners will face restrictions in their quest for a new location.

Under Metro’s zoning guidelines, adult-oriented businesses, including strip clubs, are only allowed in what’s referred to as the adult entertainment overlay. That includes parts of downtown, Midtown and between Interstate 40 and Peabody Street in the area south of Broadway. The only business operating legally outside of the overlay is the Lion's Den adult bookstore on Nolensville Pike just north of Thompson Lane.

Such adult-oriented businesses have to be at least 500 feet from schools, parks, churches and day care centers. They also are required to be at least 150 feet away from other adult-oriented businesses.

Those restrictions — and Nashville's ongoing development boom — could make it difficult for adult-oriented businesses to get a foothold in the city.

But Spyridon said Nashville relies on other draws — music, honky-tonks and dining — and doesn’t need adult entertainment to sell itself as a destination.

“Our brand is built around music, authenticity, creativity and Southern hospitality, and arguably none of that has anything to do with adult entertainment,” Spyridon said.

Reach Lizzy Alfs at 615-726-5948 and on Twitter @lizzyalfs. Reach Getahn Ward at 615-585-1829 and on twitter @getahn.