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Florida- from www.sun-sentinel.com – Hallandale Beach’s only strip club is slated to reopen this summer, more than two years after the city shut it down following a lengthy police investigation into allegations of prostitution and drug dealing.

The city commission approved a deal allowing for the Cheetah Hallandale Beach’s return, halting a potentially losing legal battle that could have left taxpayers on the hook for more than $2 million in attorneys’ fees alone. Even with the agreement, the city is out $211,836 in legal costs and fees for expert testimony, according to figures provided by the city.

“This is going to be a gentleman’s club—the old-fashioned type,” said Joe Rodriguez, the Cheetah’s owner. “Good music. Good drinks. Pretty women.”

He said he hopes to open by the end of July after he finishes remodeling the 12,000-square-foot building just east of Interstate 95 on Hallandale Beach Boulevard.

Mayor Joy Cooper isn’t happy. She was the lone dissenter when the commission voted 4-1 last month to settle two court cases involving Rodriguez.

“Fool me once, you’re not going to fool me twice,” Cooper said. “I believe the owners and operators of this establishment haven’t had their feet held to the fire.”

Cooper unsuccessfully urged other commissioners to vote against the settlement, saying that the Cheetah should have to pay more for the right to operate as the city’s sole adult entertainment establishment.

The Cheetah will be paying the city $4,000 a month when it reopens, with that fee rising to $5,500 a month within the next four years.

State liquor authorities and local police raided the club in March 2009 following a 19-month undercover investigation into prostitution and drug-dealing there. They seized five months’ worth of videotapes taken inside the club, including in the private back rooms where dancers were recorded engaging in sex acts with customers.

Authorities arrested 16 dancers and two managers, almost all of them on misdemeanor charges. Rodriguez was never criminally charged.

Rodriguez closed the club after the state obtained an emergency order suspending the liquor license. Two months later, he cut a deal with the Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco to sell the license. The city subsequently yanked his occupational licenses, a move Rodriguez claimed effectively blocked him from selling the club for a fair value.