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That made my morning laugh because, in truth, there was no better way to describe that locale than "no man's land."
When I went in the first time my only thought as I got closer was "You gotta be effin KIDDING me!"

While never a fan of this place,it was shady from the get go,i do think the city should issue more entertainment licenses.A few
Music venues or clubs isnt going to turn us into Hoboken.

When I went to St. Peter's (96-99) there were frats loosely affiliated with the school and others in the area (NJIT/Stevens) that held the occassional Saturday night parties there. I vaguely remember going to a few and they admitted anyone and the draft beer was cheap! It was in no man's land under the turnpike near the border of Hoboken. I think this is the same Coliseum.

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Correcting someone else's spelling is for pedants and elementary school teachers...I'm neither.

The ?F? is because no one corrected Robocub.

X ? do you remember if the couple or just the red head owned a club in Hoboken? Bahama Mama?s? Clam Broth House?

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What is my "F" for in spelling?

I fixed your topic thread title:

Re: Looking for info on The Colosseum, a failed gay night club in JC

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"C'mon down! We've got the meat you're looking for!"

Xerxes does have a good memory but he and all of you get an ?F? in spelling. I remember all of the controversy I do remember they tried many different things there. The Gay Bar and the Teen Club are the ones that I remember..err.. reading about ..not attending. I think they tried to have big name rap concerts there. I also remember the owners supposedly had ties to organized crime. I think they somehow owned other clubs in Hoboken???

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?close relationship with a convicted felon, Gus Santorella.
After failing as a juice bar/ night club, the Coliseum was a venue for a nude dance club, a steakhouse catering to lesbians, a Christian rock chapel, and another teen dance club, called the Music Factory. ?

(does anyone else think this is a great line? ?a steakhouse catering to lesbians??what would it look like? How would it be different from an Out Back Steak House?)

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Wow we! Wow weeeeeee!

?The troubled Coliseum nightclub in Jersey City was shut down Saturday night after two female dancers were caught on stage performing o**l sex on each other in front of an audience, according to Police Chief William J. Thynne?

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I have been preaching to you hipsters and yuppies to read/buy the Jersey Journal for months now. It is a pretty good JC paper. (hmmm?although the only JC paper) Their online version actually has a great archive. I pulled the below stories using ?Coliseum? in the search. (?Coliseum? not ?Colosseum?) They will give you the title, date, and a few sentences(see below). You have to pay a small fee to get the rest of the piece. I will not spend one thin dime on a piece for you ?rich? downtown yuppies to view. Pull it yourself!!

http://www.nj.com/jjournal look on the right hand side of the web page.

JJ archives are from 1989 to present

JJ historical archives start from 1867 (yes just think you can now trace JC?s corruption way back to 1867)

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25.) CAPTION
Publication: Jersey Journal, The (Jersey City, NJ)
Publish Date: November 7, 2000
Word Count: 24
Document ID: 122F6721E9795EE0

THE COLISEUM in Jersey City was denied a dance hall license, a ruling upheld by a U.S. District Court judge.
Journal photo by Elizabeth Lara


88.) Coliseum gets reprieve, can party tonight
Author: Jeff Theodore, Journal staff writer
Publication: Jersey Journal, The (Jersey City, NJ)
Publish Date: December 31, 1999
Word Count: 297
Document ID: 122FB7EA40099138

The Coliseum, the controver sial Jersey City nightclub police shut down last month after an X-rated dancing show, was granted a reprieve Wednesday to stay open at least two more weeks.
That allows the club to throw a New Year's Eve bash tonight, a party the city plans to monitor closely.
Tuesday, the city suspended the club's dance license during a hearing on the nude dancing in cident, in which six people were arrested. However, state Superior Court Judge


90.) Coliseum is shut down oBy Daniel Klein
Publication: Jersey Journal, The (Jersey City, NJ)
Publish Date: November 29, 1999
Word Count: 163
Document ID: 122FB7D6C1ACFC50
Journal staff writer

The troubled Coliseum nightclub in Jersey City was shut down Saturday night after two female dancers were caught on stage performing o**l sex on each other in front of an audience, according to Police Chief William J. Thynne.
Police made six arrests at the nightclub, located in an industrial area west of the Holland Tunnel, including male and female dancers and promoters of the event.
The crackdown came as a result of an anonymous letter sent directly to


117.) CAPTION
Publication: Jersey Journal, The (Jersey City, NJ)
Publish Date: May 25, 1999
Word Count: 20
Document ID: 122FB72D320E4CF0

Journal photo by Bill Bayer
THE COLISEUM in Jersey City is getting ready for another shot at life.


118.) Neighbors are riled by Coliseum ruling
Publication: Jersey Journal, The (Jersey City, NJ)
Publish Date: May 25, 1999
Word Count: 334
Document ID: 122FB72CEDD29B28

close relationship with a convicted felon, Gus Santorella.
After failing as a juice bar/ night club, the Coliseum was a venue for a nude dance club, a steakhouse catering to lesbians, a Christian rock chapel, and another teen dance club, called the Music Factory.
The Coliseum's newest tenant, DCE Entertainment, Inc., was refused a renewal of its entertainment license by the city's Division of Licensing, even though the city cashed the company's


119.) Coliseum won't die quietly
Author: Jim Kennelly, Journal staff writer
Publication: Jersey Journal, The (Jersey City, NJ)
Publish Date: May 25, 1999
Word Count: 511
Document ID: 122FB72CC2007768

Judge allows it
to keep hopping
Coliseum wins ruling;
neighbors are furious
The dance club that won't die got another reprieve when the embattled Coliseum nightclub's latest tenant won a court order renewing its entertainment license.
Neighbors are not pleased.
"The tenants change, but the issues remain the same: safety, parking and vandalism,"said Becky Fay, who lives in the Hamilton Park


120.) Neighbors are riled by Coliseum ruling
Author: Jim Kennelly, Journal staff writer
Publication: Jersey Journal, The (Jersey City, NJ)
Publish Date: May 25, 1999
Word Count: 418
Document ID: 122FB72CC4DCE368

The dance club that won't die got another reprieve when the embattled Coliseum nightclub's latest tenant won a court order renewing its entertainment license.
Neighbors are not pleased.
"The tenants change, but the issues remain the same: safety, parking and vandalism,"said Becky Fay, who lives in the Hamilton Park neighborhood, which has been fighting the huge, converted-warehouse dance club since it first opened on Monmouth

You have to be mindful that the neighborhood was very different in those days. Also the folks who started the HPNA in the late 70s and early 80s worked hard to reduce crime and change the composition of the neighborhood. For instance the space that is now the Cole St. Cafe was a destination for drug sales with an actual plexiglass window with a slot where drugs and money would be exchanged. So after much hard and long hard work to change things I would imagine the folks who were than running the HNPA were sensitive to the risks associated with a nightclub and the type of activity it would foreseeably attract. All of the gentrification, improvements and development you see now are relatively new and at least in part a result of the efforts of the folks in the various downtown neighborhood associations.


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Not merely traffic. This place seemed to attract a different audience every other night. There were cars flying around the neighborhood at all hours, wheels screeching etc. Probably dozens of drunks being unleashed on our neighborhood to wreak havoc. And then there was the foot traffic. Large groups of drunk idiots screaming and yelling at all hours wandering through the area. A club wouldn't stand a chance there now. Too many families here now who would stand against it. The bars around here are bad enough. Gay or straight, a douche is a douche.

Thanks everyone for all the info. Great memory Xerxes. Thank you.

It is a pity. Me being from Manhattan (a native), I think it would've been great. The area is exactly the kind of place I prefer my nightclubs. As for HPNA, I think they over reacted. Increased traffic? Pahleeze. Did they not notice the Holland Tunnel right next door with traffic constantly running up Monmouth, Jersey, and Erie Streets???

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and I think the girlfriends name was Courtney Krause.

Gus Santorella
"The Coliseum" 310 Twelfth Street - first proposed in the Spring of 1998

Any relationship to the Colosseum gay nightclub in Sayreville/South Amboy area in the 2004-2007ish timeframe?

I also think I remember their last gasp after their liquor license was revoked was as a non-alcoholic teen club.

I think it was open as a gay nightclub but for a very, very short while. Yes, HPNA fought it. They made a big issue about parking and increased traffic going in/out of the neighborhood.

I seem to remember something about it being a steakhouse, too? A gay nightclub steakhouse?

Anyway, HPNA uncovered a criminal past of one of the owners which made it illegal for him to hold a liquor license and I think that was pretty much it and it closed ...

The place was GORGEOUS and huge with a couple huge bars, carpeting, mirrors, chandeliers, the works, but it never caught on with patrons. The owner, a VERY beautiful woman was quite gracious on my one visit, we talked at length, but it felt spooky because of the combination of size and emptiness.
Also the location was beyond weird amidst deserted factories and trash filled streets under the "bridge."

They tried it as a couple other bar types, cannot quite remember but nothing got off the ground. THe whole enterprise was very short lived and like an earlier poster said, somebody lost a FORTUNE on it.

As I recall there was a big to-do about the "owner's" boyfriend being the REAL owner but under court order as part of some other plea bargain he was forbidden to own a bar and the DA claimed he was the actual ownner. The battle raged in the papers for months but I forgot all the names involved. I think they even tried it as a BYOB DANCE CLUB, but I don't think that convinced anyone.

It illustrated to me that old cliche about the importance of "Location, Location, Location." Anything except driving and parking in their fenced lot seemed a bit dangerous.

But on the other hand, perhpas it would have gotten going but for the legal hasssle...forgot the final outcome of that as well.

The place always had that certain undefinable quality of Tony Soprano about it...but I was sad when it failed because someone tried REALLY hard to make something exciting Downtown (or whatever one might call that warehouse area.) Had it been in Manhattan, you'd have had to be Paris Hilton to avoid waiting in a long line to get in.

(I wonder if I can peek into a wiindow and see what's left of it?)

Probably because us new and old JC residents do not want a nightclub PERiOD! Pubs and restaurant bars are great but any kind of nightclub is a blight

That is a real blast from the past.

Call the JC Reporter.... they had a lot of coverage about it at the time.

BAD IDEA!! Those people lost tons of money!!

Hi all,
I'm looking for some dated information on a failed night club opening sometimes around year 2000. Perhaps some of you long time Jersey City residents would know. I was told that a gay night-club called The Colosseum was built or opened around 10 years ago (2000). I think it was somewhere along Coles Street and 12th Street, under the route 78 offramp. I'm just guessing, because there's only one operational building at that location now. I've walked along here at it seems like the perfect place for a night club although there isn't much parking available. From the story I've heard so far, apparently the then Hamilton Park Neighborhood Association fought against the club opening and it never opened, or didn't last long. So whats the real deal? I'm very interested to know. I love these urban legends. If anyone knows the details or the story on this, please share, even if just general info. Thanks