Alan Markovitz (Deadline Detroit photo)
RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc., a Houston-based company that operates restaurants, bars and strip clubs, announced last week that it purchased the strip club, "Flight Club," in Inkster for $11 million.
The colorful and controversial Alan Markovitz, who has been in the strip club business for decades, was majority owner of the Flight Club near Detroit Metro Airport. He currently resides in Florida.
Details of the sale were disclosed in a Cision PR Newswire posted on the WSAV-TV website.
The announcement said that the $11 million sale broke down like this: $3 million in cash and $5 million seller financing at 8 percent for the club, and $3 million cash for associated real estate.
"This is an exciting acquisition, fits in well with our other high-end clubs with restaurants in major cities, and is the first club purchase since the recent launch of our 5-Year 'Back to Basics' Capital Allocation Plan," said Eric Langan, President and CEO of RCI Hospitality Holdings in a statement. "Flight Club is a well-established business that should benefit from our marketing, purchasing and systems know-how."
In December, federal agents raided the Flight Club. The Detroit News reported at the time that it was unclear the reason for the raid.
Specifically, the report said about two dozen IRS investigators from the agency's criminal investigation division raided the club.
Markovitz previously owned a number of strip clubs on 8 Mile Road.
In 2014, he was the star of a HBO/Cinemax reality show called "Topless Prophet," which profiled his strip club business.
The show was described:
This 10-part, unscripted late-night series goes behind the scenes at several Detroit-area "gentlemen's clubs" owned by Alan Markovitz, a 30-year veteran of the rough-and-tumble world of adult entertainment and the self-proclaimed "most successful strip-club entrepreneur in America."
