EX-NIGHTSPOT SET FOR DEMOLITION

VANG To Help As Part Of Anti-Drug Program

PETERSBURG -Once it marked where the wait ended, where clubgoers smiled
wide as they glided into Petersburg's pulsing nightspot.

Now the inset entrance to 24 S. Union St. is crowded with the likes of
empty liquor bottles, worthless lottery tickets and a foot-long, tattered
piece of yellow police tape.

Within days, however, the place-to-be-seen-turned-chronic-crime-scene will
soon be razed, a site awaiting renewal. Soldiers from the 276th Engineer
Battalion of the Virginia Army National Guard, in a joint project with
Petersburg, are demolishing the 29,000-square-foot structure.

The endeavor, far ahead of its original completion date of Feb. 7, is being
funded out of the Virginia Guard's $1.5 million annual budget for
counter-drug operations, which includes helicopter surveillances. "This is
the first one we've done with this type of operation, where it's been
drug-related," Maj. Gen. Claude A. Williams, adjutant general of Virginia,
said of the demolition. "We're very pleased that we can provide the support
to local police departments to help them in drug-interdiction operations,
but what we're really focused on is drug-demand reduction."

The former club, which underwent several name changes over the decades,
attracted entertainers such as James Brown and Tina Turner in its early
years, along with prominent rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg as recently as 1997.

"That club was an institution," Petersburg Mayor Rosalyn R. Dance said.

The club's reputation for drawing high-profile performers, however,
gradually grew to include recurring incidents involving drugs and violence.
Even after the building closed for good, police still had to patrol the
vacant premises to combat illegal activity, Petersburg Police Chief Morris
Jones said.

"By eliminating this particular site, we feel that we have some control
over what will happen here, and that's beneficial for the city," Jones said.

City officials said they hope the site will be reborn as a transit plaza, a
place where people can shop as they wait to board buses. According to
Jones, a field office for the Petersburg police might be in the blueprint
as well.

Earlier this month, Petersburg Area Transit buses began routes to downtown
Richmond, thanks to a partnership with the GRTC Transit System, and to John
Tyler Community College in Chesterfield County. Previously, PAT buses went
to Ettrick, Hopewell and Prince George County, but no farther.

"It will be a positive site, sort of like a centerpiece for the city,
instead of what it has been - a negative and a deterrent for people wanting
to come to this strip of the city," Dance said. "Look behind you, and
you've got bed-and-breakfasts and a doctor's office. So this right here was
a negative that poorly detracted from them as well."

Dance said she is hopeful that the city's current partnership with the
Virginia Army National Guard won't be the last.

"This is just a stroke of good fortune for us, to have them come and do
this," she said. "We've talked about more projects that they could do with
us, as it relates to kids, and they said they can bring in a helicopter and
give the kids an opportunity to see firsthand how it works. It starts with
childhood, as far as preventative measures to prevent them from going the
wrong way."