At a February 21 meeting, Tampa City Council decided that downtown Tampa nightclub Franklin Manor violated conditions of its alcoholic beverage sales license. On Thursday the council — with councilman Guido Maniscalco being the only “nay” vote — agreed to hand out a suspension of the license that will start at 7 a.m. on April 1 and end on April 8 at 3 a.m.
The suspension will be detrimental to the businesses’ employees, but is only a fraction of the up to 30-day suspension that council could’ve issued. As TBBJ pointed out, Thursday’s decision is separate, but related to ongoing litigation over noise complaints.
In October 28, Franklin Manor (owned by Nocturnal Hospitality Group) was named in a lawsuit brought on by Carter — the Atlanta-based developers of Nine15, a 23-story residential tower across the street from the nightclub and restaurant — which alleged that Franklin Manor plays “booming” and sometimes “vulgar” music that keeps residents awake at night.
Nine15 also later chose a Nocturnal Hospitality Group concept, Osteria Bar + Kitchen, to anchor the Nine15 building. Nocturnal has invested millions in developing downtown's North Franklin Street neighborhood, and opened Mole Y Abuela in the old Fly Bar space. An Asian concept, Shibui, is supposed to open in the summer. We also still wonder why the fuck anyone would move downtown and expect the neighborhood to be a quiet and peaceful place — but that’s beside the point.
As CL pointed out in a previous story, The City of Tampa’s noise ordinance bans anything louder than 85 decibels in downtown between 6 p.m. and 3 a.m. That's tantamount to the noise level of city traffic, but on Thursday city inspectors pointed out that Franklin Manor has spent the last few months installing sound absorbing foam around the perimeter of its outdoor courtyard. The outdoor space has also been stripped of all of its outdoor speakers except for one near the bar (that speaker has its own individual volume control).
A Tampa Police officer at the meeting confirmed that there have been no calls for service at Franklin Manor since the initial complaints, and the council, in fact, could’ve recommended no suspension at all. However, some, including lawyer Ethan Loeb, said that not issuing a suspension would send the wrong message to business owners. Every member of the council agreed that a 30-day suspension would be too grave, but repercussions from any future violations could be subject to an up to 60-day suspension.
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