Some might call it a match made in heaven.
A popular San Diego church is now the proud owner of a property that once housed a strip club.
“Today I got in my car and drove to a strip club for work,” Rock Church MOS Campus Pastor Ricky Page said.
The Rock Church spent $1.2 million on the old Body Shop building off Camino Del Rio West in the Midway District.
Rock Church, which serves a congregation between 13,000 and 14,000, according to Page, already has a location down the road off Rosecrans Street and two more in City Heights and El Cajon. What exactly its newly obtained property will be used for isn’t set in stone.
“We actually don’t have the plan for what we’re going to do with it yet, but we know what we’re not going to do with it,” Page said, confirming that it won’t have anything to do with the types of things that went on inside before.
“That’s our goal. We want to get people out of this industry,” he said.
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While they can keep industry workers and patrons from coming back to the old Body Shop, they can’t shut down the risqué businesses right next door, like Les Girls theater or an adult store called “Nude.”
Les Girls’ owner, Kathleen Morgan, says the Rock Church has harassed her and is trying to get her to sell. She says someone even tagged the billboard above her business.
“On it was written from top to bottom, “sins,” and then it was signed, ‘Rock,” Morgan said. “That was a veiled threat.”
Monet Love, a spokeswoman for Rock Church, disputes the harassment allegations.
“We love our neighbors, we love San Diego,” Love said. “We would not use any sort of tactics.”
Love did confirm, however, that the church is interested in buying Les Girls if it ever becomes available.
For now, Pastor Page said the church just wants to reach out to Les Girls’ employees.
“Everything that we’re about is helping people, encouraging people, finding solutions for problems,” Page said.
Morgan, Page, and Love have all said they’re committed to being good neighbors.
“If we did nothing else with that building except for be really good neighbors, I think we could influence our neighbors in a really positive and awesome way,” Page said.
