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1st Club Paris coming to Orlando
Paris Hilton lends her name, fame to chic nightclub.

By Mark Schlueb | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted October 15, 2004

Party girl Paris Hilton is bringing her not-so-simple life to Orlando, where she has chosen beleaguered Church Street Station to launch the first of six ultra-chic nightclubs bearing her name.

Club Paris will open on New Year's Eve in the former Orchid Garden space, next door to the one-time honky-tonk Cheyenne Saloon, said Fereidoun "Fred" Khalilian, the flamboyant downtown businessman and self-proclaimed club-hopper who will own the nightspot.

Khalilian hopes to open other Club Paris nightclubs in Las Vegas, New York City, South Beach, London and Paris.

"I wanted Orlando to be the first. I came to Orlando with nothing and made all my money here," said Khalilian, 32, who can choose between a Lamborghini, Ferrari and Mercedes when he drives to work in the morning.

So what is the hotel heiress putting into the deal?

Mostly her name, which promises to bring national attention to a club that wouldn't otherwise be noticed outside Orlando.

"Anything she touches is big," Khalilian said. "The marketing is unbelievable."

Hilton, in fact, will earn a "seven-figure" signing bonus for her trouble, Khalilian said. In return, she'll be contractually obligated to appear at the club at least twice a month. She also is scheduled to attend the opening, and the Orlando club will host the release party for her upcoming record release, he said.

It's quite a makeover for Church Street Station, known more for the Dixieland band and nickel beer of its glory days than the private jets and celebrity parties to which Hilton is accustomed.

But make no mistake, Khalilian said: Hilton is excited about her involvement. The star of Fox television's The Simple Life helped design the club's interior, which will include lots of pink. (Pink is her favorite color: "Just pink. Any pink. All pink. I love pink," she told The Washington Post in August.)

The 16,000-square-foot location, currently decorated in the gilded, faux-New Orleans style that marked the original Church Street Station, will be renovated to include state-of-the-art DJ booths, a separate martini-and-cigar lounge and a VIP section, Khalilian said.

Hilton will have her own section in an upstairs balcony area, complete with her own DJ and lots of pink couches.

If Hilton knows anything, it's nightclubs. The 23-year-old grew into a paparazzi darling solely by hopping from nightspot to nightspot in New York, Los Angeles and Miami. She has parlayed that fame into myriad entertainment ventures, including The Simple Life, entering its third season.

Her book, Confessions of an Heiress, is No. 8 on The New York Times' nonfiction bestseller list. Amazon.com is selling her jewelry line. Her perfume will be out in time for the holidays. She's the new Guess? model. And her film, National Lampoon's Pledge This! recently was shooting in Miami.

Hilton signed a contract with Khalilian on Sept. 30, a few days after she visited the Orlando site with him. She also dropped by the Dragon Room while she was in town, drawing a heavy crowd to the downtown club.

"I think the notion of Orlando being a tourist destination makes it a good location," said Peter Lopez, Hilton's entertainment attorney, who added that his client won't be a stranger to Orlando. "Obviously, if there's a club there with her name on it, she's going to have an interest in seeing that it does well."

Khalilian signed a lease with Church Street Station owner Robert Kling on Wednesday. He said he had been waiting for Kling to settle a dispute with the city about development incentives. Mayor Buddy Dyer said Monday that the city will pay the developer a $1.5 million construction loan that he had withheld for months.

"That's great," Dyer said of the nightclub plans. "That's the type of redevelopment we had hoped they might bring to Church Street."

Khalilian already operates Euro Fitness, a gym across the street from the nightclub space in the Church Street Exchange building. The gym is now in a temporary space on the first floor; once renovations are completed it will occupy the entire second floor, just below boy-band guru Lou Pearlman's offices.

Turning the old Orchid Garden dance hall into Club Paris will cost about $2.6 million, he said, adding he has never run a nightclub before, but he has spent a lot of time inside them.

"You should see my credit-card statements -- I've spent $275,000 in clubs in the last year, entertaining myself and my celebrity friends," Khalilian said. "I'm into fashion, luxury and the party world."

Khalilian said he made most of his money during the dot-com boom, without being specific. He opened a gym in Lake Mary in 2001, then sold it in May for a profit of about $1.7 million, he said.

Records show he was also involved in a telemarketing firm that was slapped by the Federal Trade Commission three years ago. According to the FTC, Khalilian and three other men operated vacation telemarketing businesses that sent unsolicited faxes to consumers. The faxes offered deeply discounted travel deals that typically wound up costing much more.

Khalilian agreed to pay a $185,000 settlement, was barred from all travel-related telemarketing and was told to post a $500,000 bond if he ever wished to engage in other types of telemarketing, records show.

His newest venture represents a big change for Church Street Station, in its heyday Florida's fourth-largest tourist destination.

It was the creation of entrepreneur Bob Snow, who spent $22 million in the early 1970s to buy seven vacant buildings near an abandoned train depot. The complex was anchored by Rosie O'Grady's Good Time Emporium, and drew visitors who had heard about its singing bartenders, cancan girls and eight-piece Dixieland band.

But the attraction began to lose its luster in the '90s. Attendance dropped as Disney's Pleasure Island -- and later Universal CityWalk and Downtown Disney -- began keeping out-of-towners close to the theme parks.

Kling bought the place in 2001, and most of the businesses -- Rosie O'Grady's included -- closed not long after. Pearlman, best known for launching boy bands Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, also bought in as a partner.

"Having a first-class nightclub with a national celebrity like her will help immensely in putting a real kick in downtown Orlando," Kling said Thursday. "It will obviously get national attention."

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