No Sex Club in This Small Town

Plans have been nixed for what residents of Emmaus feared was a “swingers club” opening in their community.

Narinder Garg says talks with a man who wanted to lease his Emmaus property for a club are dead. Garg says he's showing the building to other possible tenants.

East Stroudsburg businessman David Mayi Jr. pitched a plan to open the Vault Social Club. The club had already been listed on a nationwide swingers network website.

The local zoning board has also denied a permit for the club.

The swingers club proposal was a “wake-up call” for the community, Teri Madison, executive director of the Emmaus Main Street Program, told The Morning Call. She is now determined to fill the property with a business that would fit into the borough originally founded as a closed, religious Moravian community.

"Had [the Vault] slipped under the wire, we would have had this business in town," said Madison, whose group opposed the club's approval. "We want to get together and really do some searching to find the right business."

Garg said that he had no idea that his property might be used for a swingers club, and didn’t know the club had already been advertised to the online “swinging community.” He wanted nothing to do with any sort of sex business, he told the Morning Call.

Garg said that he’d like to fill his property with a new restaurant but is open to other ideas.