Fredericton pays $500K for city's only strip club

Fredericton council is spending $500,000 to buy the North Star Sports Bar, the city's only club that features exotic dancing.

The council will also purchase some property surrounding the 16-year-old strip club located on the city's north side.

Some Fredericton councillors say it will be an opportunity to re-develop the space into something more fitting for the Devon area.

Service New Brunswick lists the current assessed value of the property as $364,900.

Stephen Chase, chairman of the council development committee, said the strip club is a good investment.

"It's incidental to this that we actually get to extinguish the North Star use, because I think it's no secret that the North Star was not an asset to the area," he said.

"We're confident that we will recover the value. In fact, I'd say we'll even do better than that over time."

Chase said the city's development plan calls for more residential units in that area and a few developers have expressed interest. He expects demolition of the building will start within a couple of months.  

Ken Flinn, the bar's previous owner, died last fall. It is now co-owned by five of his children. Krystal Dawson-Wedge, his daughter, said the family was content to sell.  

"Business has improved. We've cleaned up a lot. At the end of the day, we all have our full-time jobs and lives and we just want to carry on and move forward," she said.

The controversial pub's neighbours include a gas station, church, liquor store, shopping plaza and new high-end condominium developments. North Star currently features dancers from Saint John, Moncton and Montreal on its stage four nights a week.