A Roanoke strip club can reopen without a nod from the city zoning board – and a building permit for renovation work at the site is approved.
The permit, issued Nov. 24 to applicant Brent Jackson, covers a remodel at the 3121 Franklin Road location, according to municipal records. The project description is listed as “Gold and Silver Club.”
City officials, after reviewing the matter, decided the strip club does not need a special exception from the BZA, city Zoning Administrator Phillip Moore wrote in an email.
“It was determined that the adult entertainment establishment was established at a time when the zoning ordinance permitted the use at that location and that the use was not abandoned, as defined in the zoning ordinance,” Moore wrote. That makes it a conforming use on the same lot, according to the city ordinance.
A business license at the Franklin Road address is active, too, according to city Commissioner of Revenue Ryan LaFountain. It was issued in the name of Southwest Virginia Investments, trading as Gold & Silver Private Club.
The commissioner’s office continued to receive tax filings from the company, LaFountain wrote in an email. Entering $0 amounts on those reports during periods of business inactivity is allowed, according to LaFountain.
Jackson, a 30-year veteran of the strip club scene, plans to reopen the defunct Roanoke strip club that operated as Gold & Silver Gentleman’s Club, he said earlier this fall. Last month he said he doesn’t have an opening date and declined to talk further.
If it opens, it would be the first strip club to put an adult entertainer on stage in the Roanoke area in some time.
When it was open, the Franklin Road club went by various names including Girls, Girls, Girls, Juicie’s Exotic Cabaret and the Gold and Silver Private Club. Authorities fined the club for unlawful exposure in 1997. Some of its female exotic dancers sued management in a pay dispute in 2014. The enterprise updated its Facebook page in 2020 but hasn’t posted anything since. Restaurant inspectors from the Virginia Department of Health said the establishment was closed in May 2024, though only on a temporary basis.
Since Jackson approached the city in September, officials approved a new sign renaming the venue Lust Gentlemen’s Club. But last month, authorities discovered building renovations had begun without a permit and issued a code violation notice.
The Nov. 24 permit was later issued at cost of $441. The permit expires on May 23, 2026, unless an extension is requested.
The remodel of the club site inside and out is valued at a cost of $50,000, according to the permit application, with new paint, carpet, tile, roofing, fixtures and a 144-square-foot stage with a drink rail.
A city approval of completed renovation work is also a requirement.
Jackson described himself as a veteran of the adult entertainment industry in a 2023 interview published by On The Green Magazine, a Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, publication. He has a club in that city in addition to one in West Virginia.
The building permit identifies the property owner as Robert C. Harbour, a Pensacola, Florida, eye surgeon who grew up in Roanoke and whose brother Billy Harbour ran the club in the past. A call to a number identified as Billy Harbour’s went unanswered Tuesday.
Jackson identified himself on a building permit document as the property owner’s agent. But Deirdre Glynn, a retired attorney working with Robert Harbour and who was reached through his medical practice, said during a recent interview that Harbour denies any association with Jackson.
Robert Harbour could not be reached, but Glynn relayed information from him during the interview. She said he knew nothing at the time about the permit application, building renovation or the plan for a strip club.
“I’ve never heard of the person before in my life,” Glynn quoted Harbour as saying about Jackson.
Reached Tuesday, Glynn said Harbour does not have any comment about the recent developments.
Glynn did say there is an apparent lease on the Franklin Road property. No further information about the lease was immediately available. Glynn said Harbour plans to look into that matter.
Southwest Virginia Investments Inc. which managed the Roanoke club when adult entertainment was offered there previously, also holds a license to serve beer, wine and mixed drinks at the Franklin Road address. That license is good through September 2026, according to the online records of the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority.
Lynn Perkins, Jackson’s wife, is president of Southwest Virginia Investments, according to company reports to the Virginia State Corporation Commission.
Support local, independent journalism!
Become a member
