|
|
| LiquidX |
| quote: | Posted on Thu, Feb. 05, 2004
MIAMI BEACH
Unplugged: Club Maze will close
One of South Beach's largest nightclubs will be replaced by an Office Depot.
BY NICOLE WHITE
nwhite@herald.com
Club Maze, among the largest nightclubs in South Beach, will shutter its doors after next month's Winter Music Conference.
The 22,000-square-foot club at the corner of 18th Street and West Avenue, once home to the wildly popular Salvation nightclub, opened 1 ½ years ago. Office Depot has leased the space but has not yet set an opening date, according to company spokesman Brian Levine.
The club's website, clubmaze.com, notes that all Maze equipment will be on sale after April 1. The Winter Music Conference, an electronic music conference that draws upward of 10,000 music industry executives and fans, will take place March 6-10.
Co-owner Stacy Gallowhur cited several factors for the club's demise.
For starters, Gallowhur said, he underestimated the amount of work that went into running the nightclub.
It was also hard to crack the monopoly other nightclub promoters had on the Beach, said Gallowhur, and as such it became difficult to generate a continuous buzz for the club.
''It was just an impossible situation,'' he said. ``We put in a great sound system, had no cover and had an open bar until 2 a.m, that did not sit well with other nightclubs.''
Even worse, said Gallowhur, was navigating the maze of bureaucracy at City Hall that comes with running a club in Miami Beach.
''I would fix one problem for the code enforcement team and then the fire department would issue a violation for the exact same thing,'' said Gallowhur. The general consensus at City Hall, said Gallowhur, is that nightclub industry is not important.
``I don't know what they want Miami Beach to be, but it can't be Palm Beach unless they plan to get rid of a whole segment of the population.''
The club had at least seven code violations in its tenure, said city spokeswoman Nannette Rodriguez, who said the city must be responsive to the complaints from the community.
''We want our businesses to succeed as they are important to our thriving economy,'' Rodriguez said. ``It is unfortunate that there are businesses that continually violate the codes. All that the city asks for is compliance so that we can have a better quality of life for everyone.''
But Gallowhur's complaints aren't isolated. Many members of the city's nightlife community have long complained that the city, now home to many new high-rise condominiums, some next door to thriving nightclubs, would rather see the nightlife scene disappear.
Opium Garden last year successfully fought the city's attempts to suspend its license over a series of noise violations.
''The city, more than any other municipality, is too bureaucratic,'' said David Kelsey, president of the South Beach Hotel and Restaurant Association.
But Kelsey admits there have been some improvements in the last few years. For example, the city started a nightlife task force after fallout from the rowdy behavior that plagued Memorial Day Weekend 2001 to improve communication with those in the industry.
''There is an open policy which just frankly did not exist 10 years ago,'' said Kelsey. |
- Well, what can I say. This was the first club I got into heh, first place I saw EdgarV spin, as well Acosta....have some very good memories at that club mmmm, it had potential, sucks it was not able to battle it out. Oh wel, Home Depot it is. |
|
|
| DarkAngel |
| Ultra mega BUMMER. I wanted to check this club out at least once...what's realy weird, is, i was actually at Salvation once... Saw Naline and Kane, they performed Beach Ball live, which is one of the few 'trance' songs I actually HATE...:whip: |
|
|
| mdamon7278 |
Yeah this is old news, knew about it a while ago!!!
Damon 2.0 |
|
|
| fr0st |
| illl buy some stuff |
|
|
| maddhatterradio |
| The good news is....it will be open for WMC :) |
|
|
CLICK TO RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
tranceaddict Forums Archive > Local Scene Info / Discussion > USA > USA - Florida
|
