MILFORD, Conn. - A two year battle between an adult-video store and a Milford church is ending with the shop shutting down operations in the building owned by the church.
Video Pleasures will leave the city by the end of the week, officials said.
"The preacher will have his building all to himself," Video Pleasures owner Michael Friend said.
Kingdom Life Christian Church Bishop Jay Ramirez said the store began moving its merchandise out of the building the church owns on Tuesday.
"I'm thrilled," Ramirez said. "Were very pleased. We kept our promise to the community."
In 2003, Kingdom Life purchased the building for $245,000 in an effort to drive the porn biz from the city.
Video Pleasures, however, remained for the past two years as Friend exercised a three-year lease agreement with a previous owner that expires in December 2006.
Back story: July 23, 2003:
MILFORD - In a move touted as a step toward exorcising pornography from the city, Kingdom Life Christian Church announced Tuesday it would buy a Bridgeport Avenue building leased to an adult video store and try to drive the business out.
The store, Video Pleasures, has a lease that ends in December and an option to renew for three years. But church officials say their $245,000 purchase is the beginning of the end for the store and only the beginning of their campaign to buy out adults-only stores here.
Kingdom Life Bishop Ray Ramirez said church leaders are already in talks to buy out other pornography-related shops the city.
Mayor James Richetelli Jr.; State House Majority Leader James Amann, D-Milford; and State Sen. Win Smith, R-Milford, joined Ramirez Tuesday in announcing the purchase of the building.
The officials said the announcement - two days before the opening of a major new adults-only store here - is the first step towards ridding the city of moral blight. For the past six months, city officials have led a crusade to restrict and drive out adult businesses.
Ramirez said his 2,000-member congregation already raised through donations half the money in less than week, and he plans to close on the property this week. Frichele Realtors of Norwalk owns the parcel, and Ramirez said the owner of Video Pleasures is a New York State resident whose name he did not know.
Ramirez said the idea for buying the store came one day as he walked past the store with his daughters.
"I decided that day it had to go," Ramirez said.
Richetelli said Ramirez and the congregation made great financial sacrifices to close the deal, including church members' forgoing vacations, selling second cars and donating a month's pay.
Ramirez said the store's operator could decide in December whether to exercise a three-year option to remain, but he hopes to persuade the owner to leave Milford.
"This is a great day for Devon and the city of Milford," Richetelli said. "The porn shop has a lease, which the church has vowed not to renew when it is up. In short, Video Pleasures' days in Devon are numbered."
The city has four other adult bookstores along Route 1 and a strip club on Woodmont Road called Keepers. A new adult bookstore called Penthouse Boutique is slated to open Thursday, and is expected to draw protest from residents.
Ramirez said he contacted several other adult establishments to gauge whether they'd be interested in selling. Ramirez also said a business is in discussions to purchase another adult establishment in the city, though he declined to elaborate.
"We're going to keep moving on; we're hoping to inspire others to do what we've done," Ramirez said. "I'm not under the delusion that we can do it ourselves."
However, Daniel Quinn, owner of Penthouse Boutique and numerous other adults-only retail stores in the state, said there is no amount of money that would make him sell.
"I'm going to have to buy the church and reopen the store," Quinn said.
Quinn said the city's current adult ordinance is fair, but he said a proposed new ordinance might be too restrictive. He also questioned why the city would waste so much energy and taxpayer money to oversee adult shops, when they all follow the law.
"Could I really exist here if people didn't want it?" Quinn asked. "Wake up, it's 2003."
Richetelli said the city is powerless to drive out adult businesses by ordinance because state statutes give them protection under grandfather clauses, meaning shops don't have to comply with local zoning laws.
Amann and Smith pledged to reintroduce legislation that would eliminate protection for adult businesses and would result in them either going out of business or relocating away from homes, schools or churches.
Democratic Mayoral Candidate Linda Stephenson said Ramirez and his congregation deserves tremendous praise. She said ridding the city of an adult establishment is akin to the city reclaiming its high moral ground.
