WESTBROOK – Dreamers Cabaret, a controversial strip club that opened for one day last fall and has been locked in a legal battle with the city ever since, is moving out of its Warren Avenue location.

Selden Von Herten, the owner of the property, confirmed this week that he has filed suit in Cumberland County Superior Court to prematurely terminate the club’s lease, which was supposed to remain active for another four years.

On Monday, workers were at the club packing belongings into a large moving truck. Adam Goodwin, who has been affiliated with the club in the past and was there with the workers, referred all questions to club owner Larry Ferrante, who did not return phone calls by American Journal deadline. Ferrante’s attorney, Thomas Hallett, was also unavailable.

The club first got the city’s attention when it opened in September 2010. It was open for a day before city officials shut it down, arguing that the club violated various building and safety codes. City officials also argued that Ferrante did not explicitly state on the club’s business license that it was opening as a strip club.

After shutting the club down, the city moved quickly to enact a new ordinance regulating adult entertainment. Ferrante has argued that the ordinance would adversely impact his business, and that Dreamers was exempt because it opened before the city created the ordinance.

Ferrante said he fixed problems cited by city inspectors, including installing a fire alarm system and repairing the sprinkler system. In March, Ferrante said the club passed a state inspection, and was awaiting a final stamp of approval from the city, but Ferrante said a conflict with the city over the new ordinance put the final approval process on hold.

Since then, Ferrante has been fighting the city in court, claiming that the charges of code violations and the new ordinance were a pretext for the city’s prejudice against adult entertainment, and that the city had no right to stop Dreamers from reopening or to restrict its operations. The case has been pending in U.S. District Court in Portland, and the last recorded filing was in August. No information was available on what would happen with the suit in light of Dreamers’ moving out of the building.

Meanwhile, the club has attracted police attention twice, despite it being closed. On Dec. 5, 2010, at 12:47 a.m., police patrols doing “routine commercial building checks” on Warren Avenue came upon activity that appeared to indicate Dreamers was open for business, according to a Westbrook police report.

When police arrived, there was loud music playing inside the club that was audible from the outside and a disco ball and nightclub lighting were in effect inside, former police Chief Bill Baker said at the time.

City inspectors were called to the scene, Baker said. Ferrante was not present, but Goodwin acted as the person in charge, Baker said.

Goodwin told officers that the other men present were plumbers making emergency plumbing repairs, and that women at the scene were simply bringing them coffee, the chief said, but police were unable to identify any licensed plumbers, or evidence of emergency work at the scene.

In a separate incident on April 28 of this year, police went to the club at 1:43 a.m. after a security guard called to report seeing the door open and “flashing lights” inside, according to a copy of the police report on the incident by Officer Michael Loranger.

When Loranger and other officers arrived, the report indicates a man entered the building, but officers failed to make contact with anyone inside. There is no indication in the report of the officers determining anything was going on inside the building, Loranger wrote. One man was later arrested in connection with the incident and indicted on several charges.

In August, shortly after the indictment, Ferrante said the incident had nothing to do with the club.

“That was nowhere near our place at all,” he said. “He wasn’t on our property at all.”

Von Herten said this week that the club has shut off power more than once since it closed, meaning alarms, fire suppression systems, and other critical safety devices weren’t working, which can be a problem even for a business that remains closed. The final straw, he said, came when the club’s insurance lapsed in August.

Von Herten said when Dreamers first came to the building in September 2010, the warehouse space on Warren Avenue was one of four empty buildings on Von Herten’s property, and Ferrante’s club was prepared to sign a five-year lease.

“I needed the money,” Von Herten said.

Now, though, Von Herten’s other buildings all have tenants, he said, and he’s hoping to rent out the newly vacated property soon. Ferrante is free to remove everything from the space, Von Herten said, as he is not interested in marketing the building as a club.

“They can take all the stuff that’s not attached to the building,” he said.