Neighborhood leaders are concerned about the likely reopening of a strip club at the site of the shuttered Bare Elegance, but seem resigned to the fact that they can't stop it, in spite of the troubled pasts of both the previous owner and the new management.

The former owner of the club at 3100 Liberty Ave. -- where the Strip District, Polish Hill and Lawrenceville meet -- was found not guilty of conspiracy to sell cocaine and Ecstasy, but convicted of tax evasion last year.

New owners John A. Meehan and Frank Antico Jr. were unindicted co-conspirators in a Philadelphia corruption case, which took down Mr. Antico's father, a former official in that city.

"Given the recent concerns that have been expressed in various forums in this city about permitting processes, I certainly am interested in this case, and concerned" with the histories of the new owners, said Councilman Patrick Dowd, after reading a 2001 federal appeals court ruling in the corruption case.

"As one who has four sisters, four daughters and a spectacular wife, I'm adamantly opposed to strip clubs."

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said he only became aware of the club plan when the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette approached him Wednesday. He said he will review the situation.

Mr. Meehan and Mr. Antico, owners of two Cheerleaders Gentlemen's Club locations in Philadelphia and New Jersey, have rented 3100 Liberty and filed for a permit to renew its use as a "cabaret." The Zoning Board of Adjustment must decide by June 27 if that's allowed.

"Is that the best and highest use for our community? Hell no," said Tony Ceoffe, executive director of Lawrenceville United, the only foe who spoke at the May 1 zoning board hearing. State law, though, bars the city from prohibiting a legal business. "It is what it is, and unfortunately there was nothing we could do to stop them."

A slew of community and arts groups, politicians and the city itself tried to stop the opening of Bare Elegance in 1997. They failed when the zoning board decided that the right to operate a strip club at the site was grandfathered in.

Last week, community leaders and Mr. Dowd met with Mr. Meehan and Mr. Antico and got promises to improve lighting, install security cameras, hire guards and respond promptly to complaints.

"Because it is allowed by the zoning, we have to take them at their word that they're going to operate it on the up-and-up," said Becky Rodgers, executive director of Neighbors in the Strip. "All eyes are going to be watching."

Mr. Meehan declined to be interviewed, saying in a phone message that he didn't "want to answer any questions that would be damaging to us opening the club."

In the 1990s, Mr. Meehan and Mr. Antico benefited from a corruption scheme run by Mr. Antico's father and namesake, according to court rulings in a racketeering, extortion and wire fraud case that lasted from 1998 to 2001.

Frank Antico Sr. was high up in Philadelphia's Department of Licenses and Inspections, granting permits and favorable enforcement to strip clubs and thinly veiled houses of prostitution in exchange for money, sex, food and drinks, according to the final appeals court decision.

In one transaction, according to the court, owners of a strip club called Wizzards gave Mr. Meehan a 10 percent stake in the business. And the younger Mr. Antico got a 1 percent share in return for his father's help. The father then shut down two competing clubs for code violations, the court said.

When the original owners began to disagree with Mr. Meehan and Mr. Antico about the management of the club, Mr. Antico's father shut down Wizzards temporarily, according to the court. When another club, called Pin Ups, refused to sell out to Mr. Meehan and the younger Mr. Antico, the city shut that down, too, according to the court.

The father was sentenced to 63 months in prison for those and many other actions.

Mr. Meehan and Mr. Antico have coveted a Pittsburgh location since 2003, when they briefly managed Bare Elegance for its owner, Curt Kosow. They couldn't agree on a purchase price until March 2007. Two days after they reached a deal, the U.S. attorney's office informed the buyers that it had been trying, since 2002, to seize the location in the drug case.

Seizure came off the table in November, however, when a jury found Mr. Kosow guilty of the tax charges, but not the drug charges. Mr. Meehan and Mr. Antico soon finalized their lease with building owner Ward Olander, bought additional parking spaces, applied for the transfer of a restaurant liquor license and filed for a city permit.

The two have operated their Philadelphia and New Jersey clubs quietly -- for the most part. The Philadelphia club made news 18 months ago when a patron shot a dancer, and then himself, in a semi-private room.

Terry Doloughty, president of the Polish Hill Civic Association, said misbehavior spurred by Bare Elegance boosted his neighborhood's crime statistics. The new owners, he said, are "looking for a champagne kind of clientele, not a beer clientele."

What if trouble starts again?

"I have an abundance of old Polish ladies who have time on their hands" and a willingness to picket, he warned.