Strip club war heats up as Detroit cools

Growing strip club chain stirs passions
Christine MacDonald and Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News
Detroit

It's tough to miss Starvin Marvin's strip clubs. They're huge, flashy and as over the top as their manager, whose lawyer dubs him the "P.T. Barnum" of topless entertainment.

In about a year, the chain has mushroomed to six clubs in Detroit, and talks are under way to buy three more in the city -- putting the chain in control of nearly a third of Detroit's 31 topless bars, which generate $200 million a year.

But Starvin Marvin's is making enemies as fast as it's expanding in a city that's trying to crack down on adult clubs.

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Neighbors say the bars are an embarrassment. Detroit sued one this summer and temporarily shut another over illegal renovations. Prosecutors are petitioning the courts to padlock one, citing a June fatal shooting. And a competitor accuses the managers of dirty dealings.

"People in the industry are already tarnished in society," said Nicholas Faranso, who owns Tycoons on Eight Mile in Detroit and BT's Lounge in Dearborn.

"He breaks all the rules. It makes us look bad."

State records show Starvin Marvin's owner is Bilal Haidar, 24, of Dearborn. But some competitors say the real owner is his brother, Marwan "Marvin" Haidar, 30, of Dearborn Heights. He denies the claim and said he makes $600 a week as the chain's chief of operations.

Either way, all agree he's the center of the controversy.

He served prison time for fraud, recently traveled to a City Hall hearing with bodyguards and warned a reporter after getting into a Mercedes that it was equipped with "recording devices."

The son of Lebanese immigrants, Marwan Haidar claimed in court papers he dropped out of school at 14 to feed his family. He's since helped build a strip club empire that has his lawyer likening him to the legendary showman Barnum and his own assistant joking that he's an animal that needs to be "caged up."

"He runs around the city and does whatever he wants," said Joe Mooradian, the chain's assistant manager. "He's young, hungry and driven.

"It's almost like a lynch party to keep the guy from being successful. ... (Competitors) see the writing on the wall."

While Bilal Haidar declined comment, Marwan Haidar said the chain is spending at least $50,000 a month on legal fees and will prevail against the city and county with "super lawyers."

"I can't believe they are making us spend this much money. What would they rather see there ... beat-up bars?" asked Haidar.

"We have lawyers watching lawyers so we don't go broke. We aren't going to step down."

'These are our Starbucks'
Starvin Marvin's has grown by buying dilapidated clubs and inking agreements with owners to renovate and manage them, while awaiting sale approval from the city and the Michigan Liquor Control Commission. That can take years.

Club attorney Lawrence Walker said while some renovations may have been "overzealous," the chain is a victim of a "politically motivated crackdown." Pastors and community leaders pushed the City Council this year to adopt tougher ordinances on strip clubs and ban lap dances.

"They are making these places first-class," Walker said. "They are just as nice as the new casinos and hotels.

"They employ people. They develop the area. They pay taxes. They eradicate urban blight."

Club officials wouldn't say how much they've invested, but say they employ hundreds at three Michigan Avenue clubs, two others on the west side and one near Hamtramck.

The three Michigan Avenue clubs, within blocks of each other between Livernois and Central, look out of place in a neighborhood with small stores, vacant buildings and older duplex homes. Set off with large pillars, mammoth marble facades and lush landscaping, the bars feature rows of flat screen televisions, chandeliers and thunderous sound systems.

On a recent afternoon, a security guard patrolled one club in a Kevlar vest with built-in holsters.

"He is spending money ... I think (critics) are overreacting," said Chester Calka, who lives near the Michigan Avenue clubs. "They keep it inside and keep it clean."

Others say they have turned the stretch of southwest Detroit into a strip club theme park.

"These are our Starbucks," said Valentin Castillo, 20, who lives nearby. "They made the buildings look nice, but do we need three of them?"

Cindy Taraskiewicz, an educational leader at the nearby Cesar Chavez Academy Upper Elementary School, said the chain is "taking over the city." She said it's a sad commentary on Detroit that the clubs "are the best buildings you see" along Michigan.

City officials critical
City officials are blunt with their criticisms.

"Everything he wants to do is on the cheap and not following the code," said Kim James, director of the city's Buildings and Safety Engineering Department.

Her office claims the chain has renovated without permits and expanded illegally, even demolishing three houses without permission. The city closed a club at 7059 Michigan for 56 days in June.

This spring, police had to accompany an inspector to a club because Marwan Haidar was "so belligerent" and wouldn't let the inspector inside, James said.

Haidar accused her staffers of demanding a $5,000 bribe and calling him a derogatory name for Arab-Americans, but he never filed a formal complaint, James added.

Walker blamed some of the renovation problems on previous owners and others on the city's paperwork mistakes.

Police are watching the chain closely after shootings at 6609 Michigan, said Detroit Police Lt. Vicki Yost. Three people were shot, one fatally, outside the club. Prosecutors want a judge to declare the bar a nuisance and padlock it, citing the shootings, sale of alcohol to a minor, illegal drug use, fights and weapons.

Yost said the police last year issued more than 50 tickets at five of the clubs. She said citations given at the other location, near Hamtramck, weren't available.

Club lawyers said most of the violations happened before the Haidars got involved and the others were dismissed. Some crime is inevitable, Marwan Haidar said.

"These people kill each other for a living in Detroit," he said.

Heated rivalry
Starvin Marvin's also has earned scorn from competitors.

Faranso said he began mentoring Haidar in the business in 2007 until the two had a falling out. Faranso accused Haidar of stealing his employees after he refused Haidar's offers to buy his Dearborn bar, BT's.

Faranso maintains Marwan Haidar really owns the chain and that Bilal is a front because of Marwan Haidar's criminal history.

"He said he wants to own 20 clubs," Faranso said.

"He said that he loved the name (Starvin Marvin's) because it described his hunger for control and power."

The state can deny licenses for people with felonies.

Haidar was sentenced to 13 months in federal prison in 2007 on charges he improperly took $1.7 million in advances from Conoco Phillips for oil change shops and gas stations. In court papers, Haidar claimed he "got carried away with his effort to pull himself up from the bootstraps."

He agreed to repay the money, but hasn't, according to a county lien.

Haidar denied he was friends with Faranso. He said the employees left because they worry prison is looming for Faranso, who faces charges of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and two counts of filing false tax returns in connection with his two clubs. Faranso denies wrongdoing.

"He's going to jail," Haidar said. "They've got his room ready and his towel and bar of soap."

But even prosecutors believe Marwan Haidar has some "equitable ownership interest" in the club at 6609 Michigan, according to court papers.

Another club owner, David Grossman, who is selling his Club Le'Elegant to Bilal Haidar, dismissed rumors that Marwan Haidar owns the chain as "gossip" and said the Haidars are creating jobs for a struggling city.

"Anybody who is willing to put money in Detroit right now should be welcomed with open arms," Grossman said.

Starvin Marvin's also is in talks to buy All Stars, a west side club on Eight Mile that was padlocked this summer for a year after a 14-year-old girl danced there. Three months later, she was found by police at another topless bar, Club Onyx. A police report shows Haidar tipped off police about the dancer when she was at Onyx. Onyx's lawyer maintains the club was set up