Tag Archives: Real Estate

Washington D.C.'s Last Remaining Bathhouse The Crew Club To Close

Washington D.C.’s Last Remaining Bathhouse The Crew Club To Close

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The Crew Club Washington D.C.’s last remaining gay bathhouse in Logan Circle will host a closing down party this Saturday night (February 29, 2020), before shutting its doors forever.

In a message posted to Facebook, Owners DC Allen and Ken Flick said: “Thank you for 25 years of love, support, patronage and community. On February 29, 2020, The Crew Club will close its doors. This was a heart-wrenching decision for us.

“It’s been an honor serving the DC community. Our true measure of success and joy was not from any financial reward, but came from a love for this community, the opportunity to offer a safe and liberating space to our membership, and the ability to provide employment to our loyal and hardworking staff.”

The owners had sold the property to a real estate development firm. Although the sale was arranged back in 2016, the sale was due to complete only this year.

According to Allen ” We sold the building four years ago at the height of the market and we were trying to work out a lease-back program but it just didn’t seem to be working the way I thought would be a profitable thing to do,” Allen said.

Last May, the Glorious Health (and Amusement) Club was closed by the The D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, Glorious Health was originally opened in 1979 on O Street, S.E.,  home to many of the gay sex clubs including a Club Baths and a porn theatre all of which displaced by eminent domain in 2006 for the Washington Nationals baseball stadium. It later reopened on West Virginia Avenue, N.E. bills itself as a spa, art gallery and community center catering to gay men. It plans to reopen after it fixes what the city agency said were multiple violations of the city’s building code.

Glorious Health Club, gay news, Washington Blade
California GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher Says It's Okay To Refuse To Sell Houses To Gay People

California GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher Says It’s Okay To Refuse To Sell Houses To Gay People

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Republican (of course) Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California is facing criticism and has lost an endorsement from a Realtors group for saying that people should be able to refuse to sell their homes to gay people.

Thursday that Rohrabacher, who is up for re-election this year, expressed that view during a meeting with a group of Realtors last week in Washington.   Rohrabacher said during the meeting, “Every homeowner should be able to make a decision not to sell their home to someone (if) they don’t agree with their lifestyle.”

Ken Grubbs, a spokesman for Rohrabacher’s congressional office, confirmed that Rohrabacher had made the comments reported in the paper.

Wayne Woodyard, who is a member of the National Association of Realtors said the congressman said during the meeting that he would not support legislation protecting LGBT individuals from housing discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation under the Fair Housing Act.

“I told the congressman that we need to add federal protections for the LGBTQ community as the final piece of the Fair Housing Act,” Woodyard said, describing the meeting, “and the minute I stopped speaking, he said, ‘I just will not support that.’ 

The National Association of Realtors has since rescinded its support of Rohrabacher and has released the following statements.

“After reviewing all new, relevant information, it was determined that Representative Rohrabacher will no longer receive support from NAR’s President’s Circle,” said the association’s president, Elizabeth Mendenhall, “Making this decision was the right thing for NAR to do; the association’s member Code of Ethics is far ahead of Congress on gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination. We certainly hope that Congress will follow the lead set at our recent legislative meetings and support the elimination of housing discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Historic Fire Island Gay Landmarks Auctioned Off To Manhattan Hotelier Ian Reisner For $10.1 Million

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Fire Island 2

Some of the most historical gay property in America next to The Stonewall Inn, namely the  business strip of the Fire Island Pines home to The Pavillion Nightclub, The Blue Whale, and the harbor-front which became a destination for millions of  gay men since it was founded in 1952 have been sold at auction for $10.1 Million dollars to Manhattan Hotelier Ian Reisner

Via the New York Times:

A strip of commercial real estate along the harbor in Fire Island Pines sold for $10.1 million at auction on Thursday to developers with plans to continue the revival of a former mecca for closeted gay men. The sale price was well below the $25 million the previous owners sought when they placed it on the market last fall, and below the $17 million they paid for it in 2010. In a deal hammered out over more than six hours, the property was bought by Ian Reisner, who also owns the Out NYC, a hotel on West 42nd Street in Manhattan that focuses on a gay clientele. The deal is expected to close in February.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Reisner said he, his business partner and a small team of investors planned to spend $4 million over the next 18 months to “renovate and rejuvenate” the property, which includes a hotel, a nightclub, a restaurant, a bar and retail space. The Pavilion nightclub in Fire Island Pines was rebuilt after a 2011 fire and reopened, but in the interim the crowd moved on. “My idea for the Out was to have a place for L.G.B.T., because we didn’t have that at the time,” said Mr. Reisner, who said he has been visiting Fire Island Pines since he came out as gay in 1989. “The Pines is the Out.”

Hopefully Mr. Reisner will see the historical value to the community and spotlight some of it in the rebuilding.

As for the writer of the New York Times article that this is quoted from, Ashley Southhall (@assouthall) who starts her article with:

“A strip of commercial real estate along the harbor in Fire Island Pines sold for $10.1 million at auction on Thursday to developers with plans to continue the revival of a former mecca for closeted gay men.”

“Meccaa for CLOSETED GAY MEN”?

Ms Southall you need to learn how to do research before you write a story.

Fire Island was a mecca for ALL GAY MEN,  LESBIANS,  BISEXUALS,  DRAG QUEENS, and TRANSGENDERED people  and their straight allies and friends for more decades than you have been alive.  What you wrote Ms. Southall is not only insulting to the entire gay community and  insulting New York Times readers who know more history than you.  To which it seems there are many.

 

 

 

Homo Say What? – Canadian Landlord Will Goertzen Tears Up Lease And Kicks Out Gay Couple Because "Homosexuality isn’t natural and it’s a crime against nature. I can definitely not have a part in it,"

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Who needs a little thing like Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms to keep landlord Will Goertzen in line.  It gets trumped by the fact that Goertzen fears that that God will “strike him down” wrath upon him if he rents to a gay couple!  And that’s why he tore up the lease he signed with Scott Robertson and Richard Anthony, denying them the flat after learning they were a couple, because homosexuality “isn’t natural and it’s a crime against nature. I can definitely not have a part in it,” he told the Human Rights Commission. And what did Goertzen’s Christian act allegedly do? Made Robertson and Anthony homeless for 10 days as they searched for a new home, as they had just sold their house. The men want $23,500, each, in punitive damages.

Goertzen told the commission he recognizes the supremacy of God over the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. “There’s a reason I’m fearful: God is bigger than me and any person on Earth,” he said.

“It was a terrible feeling of helplessness to see everything unfold and not do anything about it. It was like being in a dream and not being able to scream,” Scott Robertson said and added the experience has made him more cautious when meeting new people and he holds back from telling them about his personal life.

“There’s a whole part of my life I’ve been hiding from people.”

Goertzen said the case has been tough on him too. “Do you think this has been easy for me? I love you, Mr. Robertson, but I hate the sin you’re in.”

The Human Rights Commission adjudicator said he will release his decision later this summer and hopefully Robertson and Anthony are going to OWN that building by the time this all shakes out