UPDATED June 28 11:39 p.m.: The fight for the future of Miami Beach’s Ocean Drive just became a heap more controversial.
King of Diamonds, Miami’s notorious strip club and celebrity hangout, is reportedly looking to open a second location in the Netherland condo-hotel on the beach.
Miami Beach officials recently received a letter from an individual who acquired naming rights for King of Diamonds and plans on opening a business at 1330 Ocean Drive, according to the Miami New Times.
City rules forbid new strip clubs opening anywhere in Miami Beach, the New Times reported, and the only club in operation today — Club Madonna — escaped regulation only by being grandfathered in before those rules were instituted.
Despite those rules, AllHipHop.com reported that King of Diamonds owner Akinyele Adams is planning to open a new gentleman’s club on Ocean Drive as soon as July 4. The club would be in conjunction with rapper T.I.’s new “V Live!,” a brand he used to open another strip club in Atlanta, Georgia.
An attorney for King of Diamonds has since come out and said the club is not affiliated with whatever is being planned on Ocean Drive.
Miami Beach residents have already begun an opposition campaign.
“[King of Diamonds] is a huge concern for Miami Beach, its residents and its businesses,” resident David Richards said in an email blast. “I have been coming to Miami Beach for the last 25 years, own a condo and hoped to spend my retirement years here but not if KOD opens. KOD will change Miami Beach forever.”
Ocean Drive has become a neighborhood battleground between street-level business owners and residents who complain the street has become too rowdy in recent years. City officials banned alcohol sales on Ocean Drive after 2 a.m. in May 2015, and in March of this year approved the creation of an Ocean Drive Task Force aimed at cleaning up the street.
The strip club’s massive location in Miami Gardens has also been controversial, including lawsuits from strippers claiming they were owed wages and recent litigation from Miami-Dade County alleging the club was remodeling without a construction permit. That’s not to mention the scores of too-weird-to-be-real stories coming from the club, like that time Justin Bieber reportedly spent $75,000 on strippers in one night. [Miami New Times] — Sean Stewart-Muniz