Gov. Richardson announced Wednesday that the state will join the fight against Club 7, the embattled downtown Albuquerque dance club closed by the city after a raid on Friday night. Mayor Martin Chavez has characterized the club, formerly known as the Colosseum, as a drug-fueled den of underage sin. The state Regulation and Licensing Department plans to file five charges related to violations of the New Mexico Liquor Control Act: sale to an intoxicated person, sale to a minor, having a minor in a restricted area and two technical violations.

 

“I am extremely concerned about the reports of illegal activities taking place at this Albuquerque nightclub,” Governor Richardson said in a statement released Wednesday. “I expect state liquor officials to aggressively pursue these charges and seek the revocation of the owner’s liquor license."

 

In 2005, the Collosseum was targeted by the city for selling or giving alcohol to minors. During a two year period, the club was cited 105 times for underage drinking. During the same period, the much larger Isotopes Park was cited 156 times and Tingley Coliseum 108 times.

 

As the Journal reported on Wednesday:

 

The club changed its name from Collosseum to Club 7 in March 2007. Afterward, [owner Aleksandr] Mkhitarian said he was going to renovate his business to appeal to an older crowd and that he was going to funnel his under-21 business to a different club he was planning to open on McLeod NE. But city officials said the Downtown club was still offering mixed-ages events where alcohol was served.

 

Hence the charges the state says it will file.

 

In a 2003 profile of the then 23-year-old Colosseum owner and UNM undergrad, Mkhitarian, the Daily Lobo touched on the underage drinking issue:

 

[Mkhitarian] said sometimes his underage friends think because he owns a club they will be allowed in. Mkhitarian is well aware of the steep fines for letting in underage patrons, and is not afraid to tell people no. "You can’t mix friendship with business."

 

In a 2007 interview with the Lobo, Mkhitarian talked about Club 7, which replaced the Colosseum in the same building on Central Ave.

 

"We don’t want Club 7 to ever be what Coliseum was. We don’t want Club 7 to be an upgrade of the Coliseum nightclub," Mkhitarian told the Lobo.