One of Baltimore’s premier firms has told the city it may relocate if ongoing harassment and disruptions caused by a neighboring bar are not dealt with.
Employees of Reznick Group, located at 500 E. Pratt St., have “experienced incidents of harassment by disorderly and inebriated patrons of Iguana Cantina,” the accounting firm’s Managing Principal Gary Perlow told Mayor Sheila Dixon and other top city officials in an Aug. 27 letter obtained by The Examiner.
Perlow said in the letter that incidents had occurred on the street as well as in a connected garage and its stairwells.
“It is inconceivable that any city would allow an establishment to exist in the heart of its business and tourism district that is so clearly failing in its obligation to run an orderly and safe operation,” Perlow wrote. “The entire situation defies logic, as we know that numerous issues emanating from Iguana Cantina have been brought to your attention.”
In the letter, Perlow said other businesses have had similar incidents with Iguana patrons, but said Reznick and others had chosen not to go public to protect the city’s image. However, he wrote that the businesses have “reached our breaking point.”
“If matters do not change,” he wrote, “I do not see Reznick Group as a long-term fixture at 500 E. Pratt Street.”
Perlow could not be reached for comment Friday. Attorney Peter Prevas, who represented the bar’s owners in several issues before the City Liquor Board, did not return calls for comment.
Dixon spokesman Sterling Clifford could not immediately confirm receipt of Reznick Group’s letter, but said the city was aware of ongoing concerns about the bar and other downtown nightclubs.
Clifford said the mayor’s office met with owners of those establishments, including Iguana Cantina, last week “to address issues of safety and club owners’ responsibility inside and outside their establishment, and to work on solutions that are palatable to those businesses and reasonable for citizens of the city.”
He said several ideas came out of that meeting, but declined to provide specifics.
Iguana Cantina hosts popular college nights, offering admission to 18-and-older crowds. In August, The Examiner reported that the bar had apparently reneged on a 2006 “gentlemen’s agreement” to stop those events in exchange for the City Liquor Board’s waiving of a fine for providing alcohol to underage patrons.
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