ST. LOUIS 鈥 City Hall on Friday ordered a Washington Avenue nightspot shut down and boarded up for a year, calling it a 鈥渢hreat to public safety and welfare of the residents in this community.鈥
Reign Restaurant will have 30 days to vacate its premises once the order is posted. It could also appeal in court.
The decision marks the city鈥檚 strongest response yet to months of complaints about Reign from nearby residents, peaking with a series of shootings in August and early September. A spokesman for Mayor Tishaura O. Jones called it 鈥渙ne step in a broader effort to ensure Downtown is a safe place for residents and visitors alike.鈥
鈥淭he City will continue to hold businesses and individuals accountable,鈥 said the spokesman, Nick Dunne.
Reign owner Dana Kelly did not respond to a request for comment. She and her attorney have previously said the city is trying to scapegoat Reign for longstanding problems downtown.
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Dan Pistor, who chairs the Downtown Neighborhood Association鈥檚 safety committee, said everybody he talks to in the neighborhood will be relieved by the shutdown.
鈥淗opefully it鈥檚 for good,鈥 Pistor said.
Reign first got into trouble with the city in August 2020. Just weeks after it opened, the city ordered it shut for flouting pandemic rules on masking and social distancing. The city ordered the bar to shut down again in October that year.
On Dec. 12, four people were shot outside Reign.
Three days later, the city ordered Reign to close for a year for more mask and social distancing violations. But Reign negotiated a reopening in March, and by July, residents were formally protesting its liquor license, complaining of fights in the street, broken bottles on the sidewalks and gunshots waking them up at night. When it came time for the hearing, the petition was two signatures short.
Then came more shootings. In later hearings, city officials would cite a series of violent nights as evidence against Reign: Two men shot outside the venue鈥檚 front door on Aug. 18. A 30-year-old man shot three nights later. A man shot in the back by a Reign patron, the city said, outside a cigar bar on Aug. 31.
And a fight that escalated into gunfire on St. Charles Street on Sept. 8.
In a nuisance hearing Sept. 20 鈥 which led to the city鈥檚 action on Friday 鈥 police officers said the number of shootings at Reign in recent months was abnormal. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know that I鈥檝e been to any restaurant or bar that鈥檚 had that many calls for shootings in the last couple of years,鈥 said detective Abby Krull.
Reign鈥檚 landlord, Kansas City-based Copia Acquisition LLC, made no attempt to defend its tenant.
It sued to evict Reign within about a week of a meeting with city officials about nuisance complaints last fall, Copia attorney Justin Ladendorf said. That case is ongoing. The suit alleges the restaurant is more than $100,000 behind on rent.
Reign attorney William Dailey, who was not invited to that hearing, would later decry 鈥渦nchallenged and unchecked soliloquies鈥 casting Reign as a major cause of violent crime.
鈥淭he crime that鈥檚 coming to downtown St. Louis, it鈥檚 not Reign that鈥檚 attracting it,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 attracting it, but I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 any one business.鈥
On Friday, administrative hearing judge Tom Yarbrough ruled that 鈥渢he nuisance activity has continued, and become increasingly violent.鈥
He ordered the restaurant boarded up and any licenses and permits revoked.