Assistant Jefferson County Attorney Terri Geraghty declined a Kentucky Open Records Act request from Business First of Louisville to disclose how much tax revenue Louisville’s adult nightclubs paid last fiscal year, saying it would reveal private details of a taxpayer’s business.

But at one of the city’s most popular adult nightclubs, PT’s Show Club, the total annual tax burden is close to half a million dollars, said Brian Fransen, area director for Kentucky Restaurant Concepts Inc., the legal name of PT’s. That doesn’t include the taxes paid by the club’s 75 entertainers, who are independent contractors, Fransen said.

Dancers and Staff Are Well Paid

The club’s total payroll of 40 employees, not including the dancers, amounts to about $475,000 a year, he said.

Lindsay estimates that The Godfather and the entertainers who perform there will pay between $165,000 and $200,000 in local occupational taxes, state sales taxes, and state income taxes.

And he noted that The Godfather also is boosting the local construction economy, since he’s hired contractors to renovate the club.

He and his wife have installed new tables, overstuffed armchairs with a “G” emblazoned on the back, lighting, and even new menus with backlights that cost about $150 apiece. They also have added a VIP section for champagne sales.

Lindsay has installed four television sets for football season and has plans to install 16 more. And he plans to enclose an outdoor dining area to create another 3,000 feet of indoor space, with a third stage for dancers.

He expects to have between $1.5 million and $2 million in revenue this year, with a profit margin of between 20 to 30 percent.

“It has a bad reputation as a business, but it is a business. And it has to be run as such,” said Lindsay, 36, who also manages Racers Pit Stop Grille, a restaurant and gentlemen’s club in Sparta, near Kentucky Speedway.

The dancers like at least two changes that Lindsay has made, said Whitney Gresham, a bartender and manager at The Godfather and a former nude dancer.

Lindsay installed a tip rail around the stages so that patrons can get close to the stage and slip cash to the dancers while they’re doing their routines, she said.

He also lets them do as many dances as they want. The previous management did not allow them to dance until they had sold their quota of cocktails.