Stockham Building Update

From the BCCT.

Gym coming to building at center of dispute
Lawyers say a federal lawsuit over a strip club denied at the same building is moving forward.
By DANNY ADLER

A fitness center is coming to a Morrisville location that’s been the focus of a federal lawsuit over a New Jersey company’s constitutional right to put a strip club and a commercial sign there.

Signs posted at the Stockham Building in Morrisville’s downtown district announce the future opening of Champion Fitness Center, even though the building’s owner and a possible lessee are suing the borough and its zoning hearing board.

While the lawsuit goes through U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, owners of the mostly vacant building are moving on.

The gym was part of the proposed plan for the Stockham Building, a four-story masonry structure at the southeast corner of Bridge Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Bucks County records say the building was built in 1927.

It’s unclear when the 24-hour gym will open and which floor — or floors — it will occupy. Some exercise and office equipment can be seen through the new ground floor windows, which until recently were boarded up.

The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching Champion Fitness Center owner Tarek Hassieb for more information.

Even with the apparent signs of progress for the 18,800-squarefoot building, lawyers said they’re continuing the federal suit.

Stockham Interests LLC, the landlord, and 10 Enterprises LLC, a lessee, said Morrisville’s ordinances prohibit “First Amendment protected expression” to bring the strip club to the Stockham Building. The suit was filed a few months after zoning officials in May denied variances to allow the club.

The borough has challenged that its ordinances are not unconstitutional and that “adult entertainment” is not permitted in the Stockham Building’s central commercial zoning district. According to borough officials, Morrisville allows adult entertainment establishments in the borough’s industrial-zoned areas between Route 1 and West Philadelphia Avenue.

There is a strip club and bar, Sugar and Spice, about one-third of a mile south of the Stockham Building on Pennsylvania Avenue. Sugar and Spice is zoned residential, but the club is grandfathered in, zoning officials said.

Luke Lirot, an attorney from Clearwater, Fla., representing Stockham Interests and 10 Enterprises, said in a telephone interview last week that Morrisville is attempting to “zone out” adult businesses. Borough solicitor James Downey III has said Morrisville has its zoning for “good municipal planning.”

The Pennsylvania Department of State’s Web site lists the president of 10 Enterprises as Ralph Friedman of Jenkintown. Todd Colarusso is a principal of Stockham Interests.

In an order issued Nov. 12, U.S. District Court Judge Berle M. Schiller said Stockham Interests’ and 10 Enterprises’ free speech claims can proceed. The judge dismissed other claims issued by the two parties and denied Stockham Interests’ request for in excess of $75,000 in damages.

Lirot on Monday filed documents that focus heavily on the constitutional issues of the litigation. He said the documents focus on the absence of any “reasonable” locations to put such an establishment and the lack of evidence that the proposal would cause any increases in crime or declining property values.

“The bottom line is, we felt that the application was erroneously denied,” Lirot said.