BY DARRELL HALEN

A Florida businessman wants to bring topless dancing to Windham. But it probably won’t happen without a fight.

Dean Cohen wants to convert the Carr Landscaping building at 20 Rockingham Road into a high-end gentlemen’s club and said he is willing to fight in court to get it opened.

Floor plans submitted to the town, which were later withdrawn, called for a main stage with 15 seats, private dance stage, 36-seat lounge, 13-seat bar, deejay booth, private stages and private dance areas, and a full service restaurant.

Cohen said he asked Ryan Carr, who operates a landscaping business in the building, to withdraw the plans but that he still plans to open a gentlemen’s club.

Goldfinger LLC and RG Carr Contracting obtained a permit to do exterior siding, roofing, and install new doors and windows to the building.    

The permit was later revoked by Building Inspector Michael McGuire after learning that Goldfinger LLC and RG Carr Contracting were not authorized to obtain building permits for the site, according to a letter from McGuire to the businesses.

McGuire received a request to rescind the permit from Katherine A. Hamilton of Sandown, the executor of the William A. Hamilton estate, a co-owner of the building.

But Cohen said that Carr and another man, Ray Giuffre, control the building which he plans to buy. They are serving as contractors, he said.

The club, if approved, would be located in a business district. Another businessman, Maurice Brancato, faced public opposition when he wanted to open a business in Windham that included nude dancing about 10 years ago.

He scrapped plans after residents voted for a ban on nude dancing in a special town vote. Brancato operates the Next 2 Nothing adult video store on Route 28, not far from the Carr building.

State Rep. Mary Griffin said she opposes Cohen’s plan.

“It will bring prostitution and drugs and the criminal element that flock to that sort of thing,” she said. “It isn’t anything that belongs in a small town. I don’t like anything about it.”

Cohen, who has opened several gentlemen’s clubs across the country, disagrees.

“I assure you there are several gentlemen’s clubs around New England. And there are gentlemen who are not being approached by prostitutes and drug dealers,” he said.