$5.5M offer for strip club.

• Position: LOCAL NEWS

Byline: Lee Hammel

WORCESTER - The owner of a Worcester jewelry shop has applied for the licenses to operate a strip club on Southbridge Street.

Levon Terzian of Watertown, owner of Guaranty Jewelry, 420 Main St., has made a $5.5 million offer for the now-closed Platinum Premier Gentleman's Club, at 241 Southbridge St., and its licenses. An application to transfer the licenses for the club is on the License Commission's agenda tomorrow but has been put off until Dec. 22, Mr. Terzian said.

He said some issues, which he declined to specify, remain to be negotiated with owner Christopher Stephans. That puts off the intended opening date from this month until February, Mr. Terzian said.

Mr. Terzian owns jewelry stores in 13 locations and said he intends to hire managers who are more familiar with nightclubs than he is to operate the club, which will be called Emperor's Club. He is the president and 100 percent owner of the entity, AA Brothers Inc., which would own the club.

The club is shuttered and the License Commission voted in March to revoke its common victualer, all-alcohol and entertainment licenses. Worcester Superior Court issued a preliminary injunction putting the revocations on hold until the club exhausts its appeals. The club closed after a video of the manager beating and humiliating a patron in the men's room went viral on YouTube.

The manager, Easton Byfield, has since been sentenced to 364 days in jail. The club, Mr. Stephans and Mr. Byfield, had been sued by the patron.

Mr. Terzian said, "That incident disgusted me. I can't believe anybody could be treated that way."

He said it gave the business a bad name and vowed that when he owns the...