Article Courtesy of The Herald Tribune

By Ian Cummings

Published May 18, 2014

SARASOTA - A simmering feud between a downtown club owner and a nearby condo association is headed for court.
  
As promised earlier this year, Ivory Lounge owner Ambrish Piare has filed a lawsuit against the Plaza at Five Points Condominium Association, claiming the group has gone too far in trying to get his business shut down.

“There is a perception that if something isn't done, then this is never going to end,” Mogensen said. “Because it has been aggressive.”

Piare has said he was reluctant to sue, viewing it as an expense of time and energy that should not be necessary. But he said his attempts to work things out with his neighbors have failed.

The dispute goes back more than a year, with condo residents complaining that club noise keeps them up at night and Piare countering that he has done everything possible to keep the sound from bothering others.

In January, the condo association pressured the city to revoke Ivory Lounge's business permit, claiming the club was operating as an “adult business” by staging “drag queen” pillow fighting and gelatin wrestling events.

The complaint targeted the club's customers, saying that they were not “mature or educated” in line with the description of the business in its conditional use permit.

The city found no basis for those claims.

  
Hold accountable

Piare said he felt some of the older residents in the building resented his customers — most of them younger people — regardless of how loud the music was.

Condo residents have also pressured the building owner to break the club's lease, according to Mogensen, and have filed unsubstantiated noise complaints with police.

Building residents who have been involved in the dispute declined to discuss the case, and an attorney who represents the condo association did not respond to a request for comment.

Mogensen said the aim of the suit was, in part, to hold the condo association accountable for whatever methods it employs in trying to quiet the Ivory Lounge.

That could mean monetary damages, or a judge's order to halt certain activities.

The condo residents, like anyone, have a right to complain about whatever they want, Mogensen said. But she said she will argue in court that the group has been carrying out a plan to hurt the business, has made complaints that it knew were false, “and were motivated by the condo's dissatisfaction with the content of the music and the nature of the clientele.”

“We're all entitled to our first amendment rights,” Mogensen said. “But we have to do so responsibly.”

Not so extreme

As bitter as the situation at 50 Central appears to be at times, it could be worse.

In Texas, an attorney involved in a similar noise dispute between a bar and a condominium association said he was almost driven insane when the conflict escalated to personal attacks and assaults.

Ken Ward represented the Houston bar Hans' Bier Haus in a much-publicized battle with condo residents in 2010.

In that case, some residents living above the open-air beer garden graduated from making noise complaints to spraying water and throwing ice blocks and raw meat down onto the bar and patrons.

Eventually, Ward and the bar owner won in court. The beer garden is still open, but the owner sold his share of it to a partner and left.

“It was the worst experience of my life,” Ward said.

In Sarasota, the problems of Ivory Lounge and the Five Points condos appear far from such extremes.

Ward's advice to anyone getting involved in something like this was simple: “If it's just a good-faith disagreement, I would say 'Let's set a meeting and talk like neighbors.' ”