Plans for strip club lead to canceled agreement

The present owners of the
hotel acquired it in June at a sheriff’s sale.

THE VINDICATOR

YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO

AUSTINTOWN — America’s Best Value Inn has terminated its membership agreement with owners of a hotel on Clarkins Drive that rented space to a strip club planning to open in the next couple of months.

Christine Thome, director of public relations for America’s Best Value Inn, said the company contacted the Chatur Corp. of Youngstown when it learned that it was planning to rent space to a Youngstown man to open the Go Go Girls Cabaret.

America’s Best Value Inn, formerly known as Best Value Inn, told Chatur Corp. that it was in default of its contract with Best Value Inn and had until Aug. 31 to rescind the agreement with the club.

When that did not happen, Best Value Inn terminated the management agreement between the parties, Thome said.

“That hotel is no longer in our system,” she said.

Chatur Corp. acquired the hotel in June at a sheriff’s sale for $800,000, according to the Mahoning County auditor’s office. Chatur has until Oct. 4 to remove all of signage around the hotel indicating its affiliation with Best Value Inn, Thome said.

“An owner can do what he wants to do, but that’s not the way we want our corporate image to be perceived,” Thome said, adding that Best Value Inns are owned by individuals, but many of them are family-owned.

A phone call Friday to Kaml Patel, manager of the hotel, was not returned. A woman who answered the phone at the hotel she didn’t know what the new name of the hotel would be.

Robert Neill rented space in the building in June. The space has been vacant for about five years. It was last used as a restaurant called Pasquale’s. The facility is just north of state Route 80 in the truck stop area along state Route 46.

Neill sued Austintown and county officials in federal court last week over stop-work orders officials issued to the business. An agreement was reached earlier this week specifying what types of renovations Neill will be allowed to carry out.

Officials said work was being done there in violation of building and fire codes.