Limelight officially closed Limelight officially closed (August 29, 2003)

Owners could not operate under city restrictions, says attorney

By Candice Shih

After much wrangling with the City of Mountain View, the owners of the Limelight nightclub finally decided to pack up shop. The club has been closed now for several weeks.

"It was a club essentially for the 18 to 20 crowd. The city said you can't allow the 18 to 20 crowd and you can only operate on certain evenings and that cut down their business substantially," said Marwa Elzankaly, an attorney for owners Kareem and Andrew Nahas.

The Nahas brothers would not comment for this story.

Light was shed on the activities at the Limelight almost a year ago, when neighbors began complaining that music and patrons were too loud, and that the club attracted vandals, litterers and underage drinkers.

The city then discovered the club was in violation of its liquor license, and required it to open as a restaurant and stop serving those under 21. In addition, the council asked the owners to make the club friendlier to the downtown commercial and residential area by addressing noise and security issues.

"They had eight months in which they could have really tried under the conditions that were given to them. I don't think the council was overly restrictive," said zoning administrator Whitney McNair.

"They tried to comply with the city's requirements," said Elzankaly. "The 21-and-over crowd just wasn't drawn to that facility."

The Limelight did open as a restaurant, as its liquor license required, but business was simply flagging.

"They had an opportunity to try to make good on their pleas for relaxed conditions the first time it came to the city council, and they didn't adhere to any of them, McNair said. "They didn't make a good-faith effort at all."

Downtown neighbors dealt with similar issues at Molly Magee's in 1999, but the bar's management successfully addressed them.

Although the Nahas brothers have tried several times to sell the club, they claimed not to have any success and turned it over to the landlord, Helen Wang. "No one really wants to purchase the Limelight with those restrictions," said Elzankaly.

In 1999, the Limelight replaced the Rio Grande, a country/western-themed restaurant and club. Prior to the Rio Grande, the Mountain View Theater, which ushered in the era of talking pictures, occupied the site.

E-mail Candice Shih at cshih@mv-voice.com