A nightclub closed in downtown Raleigh. Now the owner is suing the city for harassment

Two years after an entertainment complex in Raleigh’s Glenwood South neighborhood closed, its owner is suing the city for what he says are violations of his First Amendment rights.

Dan Lovenheim, the owner of several bars and clubs in the entertainment district, said he closed The Village and Alchemy nightclub in Glenwood in part because of a “repeated pattern of harassment, threats and ultimately bogus enforcement actions” by city officials.

In his lawsuit, Lovenheim accuses the city of trying to “enforce compliance with a now-repealed unconstitutional, convoluted, contradictory and vague” noise ordinance and improperly issuing other charges against his two companies.

The Village dance club opened in March 2020, shortly before the pandemic began, operating out of 616 Glenwood Avenue, and 513 and 517 West Peace St. The Village reopened at the end of the summer and already has 10 noise complaints and criminal citations received from Raleigh police, the complaint said.

Lovenheim co-owns several bars in the Glenwood South neighborhood, including The Avenue, Whiskey Rose, Cornerstone Tavern, The Milk Bar and Pine State Public House. He is also the CEO of Oak City Group, according to Triangle Business Journal, which first reported the lawsuit filed Oct. 3.

The lawsuit’s plaintiffs, Lovenheim and his companies Alchemy and The Village, are seeking monetary damages.

The complaint names the defendants as the city of Raleigh, city manager Marchell Adams-Davis, Raleigh Police Captain Robert Bowen, former city attorney Robin Tatum and Whitney Shoenfeld, a city special events employee.

The city has not commented on the lawsuit. Mike Tadych of Stevens, Martin, Vaughn and Tadych, which represents Lovenheim and his companies, did not respond to a request for comment.

What does the lawsuit allege?

Thousands of people enjoy bars, restaurants and clubs in the Glenwood South neighborhood, which stretches five blocks between Hillsborough and Peace streets. Although the area has a reputation for high crime, gun violence has not been as common until the past two years. What is common are noise complaints from neighboring communities.

The city prohibits bars and nightclubs from playing music or other sounds through outdoor speakers or windows at any time of the day or night and they must stay within the city’s decibel limit. The city adopted new noise regulations this year, with tougher penalties.

The former noise rule received complaints from some Raleigh residents who said it was too relaxed. That rule used decibel measurements that could not pinpoint exactly where the sound was coming from and which Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said was difficult for police to enforce.

Lovenheim’s 87-page complaint states that the city was selective and arbitrary in enforcing its noise ordinance and that its “enhanced entertainment regulations (were) constitutionally indefensible.”

The document details the creation of The Village, its openings and closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and when the noise complaints, citations, violations and the thousands of emails Lovenheim and his companies sent to city officials began.

After the bar reopened in September 2020 and again in 2021, Lovenheim said the club began receiving noise complaints from neighbors. The lawsuit says Lovenheim’s Village and its managers have been cited more than a dozen times for noise pollution and accused of criminal and civil violations of those warnings.

The complaint alleges that the Raleigh Police Department “refused to identify the complainants, the time of the complaints, the correct measurements, or any other justification for issuing the violation notices.”

The lawsuit also says Bowen “initiated and escalated a personal campaign” to get Lovenheim’s businesses to comply with city ordinances through “multiple angry, threatening confrontations,” trespasses and other threats, including the allegation that the dance leotards worn by two servers at the Alchemy bar required “adult entertainment permits.”

In the fall of 2022, the city began issuing building and zoning violations to the Alchemy bar at 606 Glenwood Avenue. Lovenheim says he was forced to close The Village and the Alchemy’s back patio “as a direct and direct result of the conduct of the defendants.”

He says the closure of bars has caused emotional and financial damage.

Raleigh police called bars more than 20 times

Between March 2020 and September 2024, Raleigh police were called to The Village and the Alchemy more than 20 times.

Calls for service include theft, welfare checks, disturbances and noise complaints, assault and sex crimes, drug overdoses, fights, lost property and other issues.

Police were called to The Village dozens of times between March 2020 and the end of September 2024.

Years before the problems between Lovenheim, his companies and the city were documented in the complaint, the city told Lovenheim he could no longer park his white Lamborghini in the parking zone in front of Alchemy. In 2018, the city received several complaints about the parked sports car that ended up at the municipal council.