The Tennesean
by Tony Gonzales
A Nashville swingers club has plans to relocate from near downtown to Madison, prompting some alarm and a petition in opposition.
At the moment, it’s the club’s own maneuvers that have slowed its relocation.
City officials await more information before approving a permit for a 22,000-square-foot building the club purchased at 520 Lentz Drive in Madison, which is zoned to allow such a club.
The Social Club, a private club that caters to sexual swinging, has operated at 700 Division St., south of downtown. In October, Southeast Venture paid $1.3 million for the club’s building as part of the firm’s moves to develop the area between SoBro and the Gulch.
A month later, the club applied for a permit to use the Lentz Drive building for a private club.
Such a use would be allowed on the property, which is zoned as “office general,” said Bill Herbert with Metro Zoning.
“A club is a facility that is open only to members and their guests,” he said. “The key point here is that a club cannot be open to the general public. That’s the dividing line.”
The club provided one email response to repeated Tennessean inquiries. In that message, the club said only that 14 acres were purchased north of Nashville but that a lease would keep the club on Division Street until June 2016.
But public records and the club’s own newsletters to members say something different.
On its public website, the club announced a Feb. 11 moving date.
And in newsletters obtained by The Tennessean, club founder George “Al” Woods touted a new space that’s twice as large at 22,000 square feet, and expected to be ready in time for Valentine’s Day and for a 35th anniversary party on March 28.
“It is not a rumor anymore,” the club announced, describing a bar, couples rooms, a love swing and other themed rooms for members. The club would be nonsmoking and open from 7 p.m. until 2:45 a.m.
The club’s application, though, hasn’t advanced. Zoning officials and the fire marshal await a more detailed plan, which will need to be reviewed. Depending on the occupancy, for example, the building might require renovations such as sprinklers, if the former medical office doesn’t already have a sufficient system.
Zoning review could take a month or more.
“They are not in a position to get a permit to open,” Herbert said. …