Myrtle Beach upholds license denial for Club Heat; owner has other ideas for property

Clayton Smith said Tuesday that he is coming up with a new business plan for the spot where he wanted to open Club Heat after realizing the city had legitimate reasons for denying the club’s business license.

He said he never realized all of the problems the last club to occupy his new space had until he appealed the city’s decision. Instead of a nightclub, he’s now working on a plan that will include a game room.

“I’ll always move forward,” Smith said.

The Navy veteran had planned to open a new Club Heat at 415 Yaupon Drive after buying the business from Vladimir Handl, who is now facing federal racketeering charges.

The code section cited in Smith’s denial mentioned an “applicant, licensee or prior licensee in control of the business has engaged in an unlawful activity or nuisance related to the business.”

But Smith said it wasn’t until his appeal hearing Nov. 20 that he learned of a laundry list of reasons for the rejection. Witnesses testified to criminal charges and other grievances about the former Heat Ultra Lounge club that came close to being deemed a public nuisance and shuttered through a state abatement law.

The one report that Smith said stood out to him was when an officer told the club it was selling liquor past the state’s 2 a.m. deadline. “Someone went up on stage and said, ‘Yeah guys, we have to stop selling you liquor and it’s due to that officer back there’ and all of them started throwing stuff at the officer,” Smith said, shaking his head.

Smith said he doesn’t want to do anything to hurt the city he calls home.

Myrtle Beach City Council unanimously upheld the license denial after Smith told the group they were right and he wouldn’t fight the city at the council’s afternoon meeting. City leaders noted that Smith could reapply, but similar business models may meet the same fate of denial.

“All of the information that they had wasn’t wrong about the place because documentation beats conversation and they had the documentation,” he said after the meeting. “They’re not denying Clayton a license. They’re not saying, ‘no, you’re a bad person.’ They’re saying that ‘hey, we’re afraid that you’re going to do something that a previous owner was doing and it was getting bad and we wanted to stop that. Whatever new ideas that you have, we’ll take a look at those and implement those. You can open up a new business, just not that particular type of business in that area.’”

Smith’s new plans included a gaming room for up to 20 kids with 10 Xbox 360s connected to 10 TVs.

“Also I was going to change the music to more like EDM (Electronic Dance Music), because everybody loves EDM,” he said.

The goal, Smith added, is to create a space where anyone can feel comfortable.

This story was originally published December 8, 2015 at 8:00 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach upholds license denial for Club Heat; owner has other ideas for property."