Grassroots politics are alive in Lakewood, where more than 400 neighborhood residents banded together to push back plans for a proposed nightclub on West Alameda Avenue.
Art Cormier, who ran the former Regency Hotel and an adjoining nightclub before the city of Denver condemned it, on Thursday withdrew his application to open a 47,000-square-foot nightclub, the Lakewood Events Center, at South Harlan Street and West Alameda. A public hearing Thursday night was canceled.
Area residents collected more than 400 signatures in opposition to the club, which was to be in a vacant Hobby Lobby store, according to attorney Mike Feeley, representing the opposition. Some 200 neighbors planned to attend Thursday’s public hearing.
The club was to have a capacity of 3,340 patrons and parking for more than 1,000 cars, according to the application. Cormier had a three-year lease, with an option to renew for another three years, with landlord Al Martischang calling for Cormier to pay in excess of $1 million in rent over three years.
Reached Thursday afternoon, Cormier refused to comment. His attorney, Alan Dill, did not return phone calls. A history of drugs, violence and prostitution at the Regency followed Cormier to Lakewood.
“We just don’t need it in our neighborhood,” said Lee Wellbrock, a board member of the O’Kane Neighborhood Association. “We expected it would bring in the same problems that he brought to the Regency.”
City Attorney Paul Kennebec sent a letter to the Lakewood Liquor Licensing Authority objecting to the license because of previous problems. The Lakewood Police Department said its investigation of the Regency found that from July 2002 to June 2004, police were called 525 times to the hotel and the Los Caporales nightclub, including complaints of 63 vehicle thefts, 29 assaults, eight vice-narcotics cases, six shootings and four stabbings.
Another neighbor to object was the Gold Crown Foundation, which operates a baseball field and clubhouse with six basketball courts, all for school-aged children, across Alameda. A state high school baseball tournament will be played there this weekend.
“We’re glad they withdrew,” said executive director Jay Clark. “It wasn’t going to be a good mix.”
Staff writer Mike McPhee can be reached at 303-820-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com.
