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City Ready To Take River North Nightclub's Liquor License

 Neighbors have complained that Board Room Nightclub has had especially disruptive patrons in the last year.
Neighbors have complained that Board Room Nightclub has had especially disruptive patrons in the last year.
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RIVER NORTH — The owner of a controversial River North nightclub that's been closed since last month says he has no plans to reopen — but the city wants to yank the club's liquor license just in case he changes his mind.

At the third and final community liquor license hearing Tuesday for Board Room nightclub and its owner, Karl Spektor, Near North District Police Cmdr. William Dunn said that weekend 911 calls in the area surrounding 343 W. Erie St. have plummeted since the bar closed in early August.

When Board Room was operating, the Near North District averaged around 30 calls for service for fights, public intoxiciation, noise violations and other issues during a two-month window, Dunn said.

"Since they've been closed a little over a month and a half, we've only had seven calls," Dunn said. "It's pretty obvious" what the variable is, he said.

Neighbors said that new promotions at the River North bar that include busing in new clientele have led to an increase in rowdiness in the last year.

Problems include "the smell of people smoking marijuana, drinking in the streets, fighting," nearby resident George Safis told DNAinfo Chicago.

Safis said the bar and nightclub's hours — from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. Tuesday and Friday and from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Saturdays — combined with a failure to police patron activity, have kept residents of Erie Centre Condominiums awake every weekend since May.

Board Room was shut down in early August by the city for failure to display an up-to-date occupancy placard. Spektor reopened the club on Aug. 8 and Aug. 9 after emailing his occupancy documents to the city on Aug. 8, and the city cited him for operating before the dispute had been resolved.

Board Room has been closed since Aug. 10.

At the last community meeting, representatives from the city's Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection helped draw up a list of "reasonable steps" to address resident concerns that Spektor was supposed to complete by Tuesday's meeting.

They included providing copies of his licensing to the city, attending all CAPS meetings and hospitality meetings in the neighborhood, telling police about about upcoming events and promotions and instituting an official policy to combat public drunkenness.

Spektor failed to fully accomplish any of the seven steps since the last meeting, Barbara Gressel, assistant commissioner of business affairs, said Tuesday.

Spektor said at the meeting that he has no plans to reopen, but said that "[he] could if [he] wanted to," because he has passed all his recent inspections and is properly licensed. Spektor also said that he has already laid off his full staff of 38 employees.

Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) sent a letter to community members urging them to voice their concerns about the business.

"I agree with neighbors that the behavior exhibited by this nightclub is absolutely unacceptable," Reilly wrote last week, adding that he had urged police and the Chicago Liquor Control Commission to "step up enforcement activities to discipline these bad actors as we work to revoke their liquor licenses."

Gressel said the next step for her department would be appointing an attorney to file a license dispute case. Whether that will happen has not been decided.

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