Nightclub shut down by hospitality police

The city of Columbia on Tuesday revoked the business license of a downtown nightclub in the first tough action by a new “hospitality police” team.

City Council voted to yank the license of Metro Live, 1800 Blanding St., based on three violations within six months of the city’s indoor smoking ban. But the hospitality team – made up of police, Fire Department, zoning code and business license inspectors – has written a total of 10 citations against the club since early August, according to city records.

Though dozens of serious crimes are linked to the club, smoking violations were the easiest and fastest way to build a revocation case, city staffers said.

Metro Live may continue operating by appealing the revocation. The hip-hop club, which bills itself on some websites as Columbia’s largest club, hosted an after-party Tuesday night following a concert by rapper Drake at Colonial Life Arena.

The club is directly behind the Columbia Fire Department headquarters and about a block from Harden Street in one of the city’s historic districts.

Efforts to reach the club, its manager or its owner were unsuccessful Tuesday after council’s unanimous decision on the license revocation. Councilman Sam Davis was not present for the vote.

Police say that neither club manager Kevin D. Johnson nor the out-of-state owner of the business has answered summons to appear in court on the citations.

Because a license revocation does not automatically shutter the club, the city is seeking to close it as a public nuisance on two fronts: by both going to court for an injunction and by enlisting the help of the 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.

The case for an injunction against Metro Live will be based on a total of five smoking violations, said business license office director Brenda Kyzer. The city listed three of those as grounds for the revocation, because the city law requires only three violations to yank a business license.

The prosecutor’s office will use a wider range of violations, including police records that show almost 100 crime reports during the past two years at the Blanding Street address. The crimes include a kidnapping, six aggravated assaults, 20 vehicle thefts, 10 larcenies, 12 vandalisms and a handful of weapons, drug and prostitution cases.

Deputy Police Chief Ruben Santiago estimates that the number of crimes almost triples if offenses that occurred within a block of the club are counted. “We can definitely link them to that club,” Santiago said.

Kyzer and Sgt. Chad Branham, who heads the hospitality police team, said the city is targeting six other nightclubs for violating the 2 a.m. closing time for bars.

Neither Kyzer nor Branham would name the clubs. But Kyzer said five are in Five Points and the sixth is in the downtown area. She declined to be more specific until the city decides whether to deny them any more permits to stay open until 2 a.m.

City Council acted Tuesday after receiving a report on the results of the hospitality team’s first six months of operation.

Created last summer as a way to keep the city’s entertainment districts safer and attract more patrons and tourists, the team at first issued warnings for violations that range from overcrowding and blocking fire exits to other code enforcement issues.

The team has been to about one-third of the 600 businesses in the entertainment districts of Five Points, the Vista, the Main Street area known as City Center, Harbison Boulevard and Two Notch Road, Santiago said.

After 560 inspections at 253 businesses, the team wrote 104 citations, made 65 arrests, seized marijuana, and the now-banned K2 spice and bath salts and collected almost $1,600 in licensing fees from businesses that had not been licensed or were overdue on their payments.

“We’re the first city to actually make seizures,” Santiago told the public safety committee.

Despite that track record, several council members asked why it takes so long to revoke licenses or stop clubs from repeatedly violating the 2 a.m. closing law.

“How many chances do they get?” asked Councilwoman Belinda Gergel, an advocate for a mandatory citywide 2 a.m. closing law.

“Three chances,” Santiago said.

“I thought we gave them one,” Gergel said.

City staffers explained that cities can’t close down a business without a detailed process of writing citations, giving business operators a chance to fix violations, appeals and then going to municipal court. Even then, the businesses may continue to operate and allow fines to pile up without paying them while a judge considers whether to order a shutdown.

The personnel for the hospitality police team still is being finalized, all its equipment has yet to arrive and more cross training of police needs to be done, Santiago said.

Still, he said, “For a city of our size, we’re fortunate the numbers (of violations) are this low.”