Dame Dash Charged With 6 Counts of Selling and Storing Liquor With No License

Damon Dash—fallen hip-hop mogul, co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records—had a club not so long ago in Tribeca called DD172. SOTC alum Zach Baron referred to it as “gallery-cum-illegal-performance-space-cum-goofy-artless-takeoff-on-Warhol’s-Factory,” and the Observer called Dash a “Wannabe Warhol”: “Sometimes the four-story warehouse is a sprawling art gallery; at other times, it’s a photo studio, or an indie band’s rehearsal space.” To Tribecans, it was “a front” for a suspected unlicensed club, a nuisance, a disturbance.
DD172 hasn’t been operational since June, when the Tribeca Citizen observed stuff being moved out of the space at 172 Duane Street. Yesterday, the quiet block where the club was located—located in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in New York—rippled with interest as the city brought legal action against the building’s owners.
At around 4:30 p.m. yesterday, cops served the property with a court summons and order to show cause. The defendants, 172 Duane Street Realty and “Jane and John Doe” (the tenants, i.e. Dash and associates) are accused of six counts of storing and selling alcoholic beverages without a license, as detailed in court documents obtained by the Voice. DD172 was caught violating the liquor code for the first time in November 2010 and as recently as May, according to the affidavits of police who investigated the club.
One document states that the violations “were conducted in an open and notorious manner and the operators of this establishment appear to have evinced a ‘business as usual’ attitude in the subject premises.” DD172′s repeated violations are used as evidence that the club’s actions constitute a public nuisance. The plaintiffs are asking for a preliminary injunction from the judge, plus a restraining order.
The word “nuisance” came up more than once in conversations with Tribeca residents yesterday standing outside of 172 Duane. Over the course of an hour, multiple people passed by and peered curiously at the orange signs cops had taped onto the building.
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