Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

A new image: Strip club manager has vision for town

Palomino Club manager Luis Hidalgo would have gone with a different headline when Stanford University medical professor Simon Stertzer bought the North Las Vegas strip club back in September.

The fact that Stertzer was planning to use some of the profits from Clark County's only bare-all, liquor-serving strip venue for medical research didn't strike him as newsworthy.

The real story for Hidalgo was the decision by a renowned cardiovascular surgeon and respected businessman to invest in North Las Vegas' struggling downtown. The club sits on Las Vegas Boulevard, right across the street from Jerry's Nugget casino.

"Nobody wants to come to North Las Vegas," Hidalgo said on Friday, settling into a cream-colored leather armchair in his plush, second-floor office as the evening's first two dozen patrons began eyeing dancers down below.

"But by allowing people of Stertzer's caliber to come in," Hidalgo said, other investors may follow and help improve the city's image.

Besides, Stertzer never planned to keep the Palomino Club running until December 2020, when the club's unique permit will expire, he added.

Instead, the professor wanted to make some money for research and build a hotel and casino on the land later on, Hidalgo said.

What will happen to those plans is still uncertain. Stertzer, worried that media coverage of his venture into the adult entertainment business will tarnish the university, has signaled his interest to pull out of the club.

City officials said Stertzer's behavior seemed somewhat surprising.

"Surely he had to be prepared for (media coverage), that's part of the gig," said Councilwoman Stephanie Smith, who approved Stertzer's business license to run the club along with her four council colleagues on Sept. 5.

"Somebody of his renown and esteem would have to realize that he's asking for scrutiny," Smith said. "It's not every day a citizen buys a place like that. If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen."

While eager offers to take over the club have already begun to arrive, Hidalgo is the most likely buyer right now, said Mark Nicoletti, Stertzer's attorney.

And Hidalgo, who used to work as a police officer in San Bruno, Calif., and owns a Las Vegas car-repair business, said he's not giving up on plans to help revitalize North Las Vegas.

"I've always liked the underdog, and to me, North Las Vegas is the underdog," he said, adding that his attempts to sponsor community groups have so far been met with resistance.

He plans to keep revamping the club. After buying the establishment from Gail Perry, whose late husband, Paul, opened the place in 1969, Stertzer already cleaned up by putting in new carpets, $10,000 worth of lighting and extra dancing stages.

But red, fake-leather armchairs and cast-iron ornamental room partitions still create a dated atmosphere in the building that originally started out as the town's first doctor's office in the 1920s or 1930s, according to Nicoletti.

Bringing burlesque shows back to the club, where comedians entertained patrons between dancers in its heyday is another idea Hidalgo has. He also wants to bring more employees on board -- the club currently employs about 25 people. Dancers, who pay the club money to perform, number in the hundreds and are not employed.

He'll need money to do all that -- money that has been missing as tourists, who make up a majority of the club's patrons, stayed away after the Sept. 11 attacks.

"The money has not been as we thought it would be," he said, adding that Stertzer officially bought the club on Sept. 10.

He'll continue to work on bringing a "nice, beautiful hotel" to North Las Vegas' end of the strip. But he's also looking for another piece of land in the city to fulfill a childhood dream.

"I've been hoping to make enough money to open a trout farm," Hidalgo said.

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