A Strip District exotic dance club that closed last year after the owner was indicted on tax and drug charges might reopen as a strip club under new ownership. The Pittsburgh Zoning Board of Adjustment will conduct a hearing today to determine whether the building at 3100 Liberty Ave. — the former home of Bare Elegance — still is permitted to be used as a cabaret. If the board determines the building was abandoned, the existing use-of-property permit allowing “live entertainment, to include a cabaret” would expire and the new business owners “would have to re-file a conditional-use application,” zoning administrator Susan Tymoczko said. Plans filed with the zoning board identify the new owner as Mag PITT L.P., with an address at 3100 Liberty Ave. Company officials could not be reached. Dusty Elias Kirk, a Downtown lawyer representing the new venture, said the new owners intend to reopen the business as a strip club. It is not clear when the club would open, if it is approved. The hearing was called after Mag PITT sought approval from Tymoczko’s office to perform $110,000 in “internal renovations,” according to a zoning application. Work on the 12,000-square-foot space was expected to last a month. No one responded to knocks at the building yesterday. A bar stool sat outside the padlocked front doors, and signs advertising strippers were visible through the tinted glass windows. The liquor license for the building is in “safe-keeping” — meaning it is valid but not being used — and is owned by previous business owner Strips Edge Inc., according to the state Liquor Control Board. The license can be sold or transferred to the new owners; Mag PITT has applied for the transfer. Tymoczko said the matter will go before the board, in part, because city officials expect controversy about the possible reopening of a strip club. “We understand there has been some concern,” she said. “We have received questions from neighbors.” Property owners H. Ward and Shirley Olander and Kai Olander did not return a phone call yesterday. The Olanders terminated their lease with Bare Elegance owner Curt D. Kosow in May 2007, records show. In December, a federal jury Downtown found Kosow guilty of eight tax violations, but acquitted him of conspiring to deal cocaine and Ecstasy at Bare Elegance. Kosow, of Naples, Fla., fled the courtroom before the verdict was announced. He was found that day in a North Side apartment and was hospitalized after an apparent suicide attempt. Kosow was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation and will be sentenced May 23.

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