AS NEW FAMILY-ORIENTED BUSINESSES OPEN, IT'S CLOSING TIME AT BIG AL'S

Big Al's, a nightclub which offered one of the area's largest dance floors, a 12-foot video screen and occasionally a chance to wear an inflatable sumo wrestler costume, will close its doors when the last customer leaves tonight.

The club's owner, Al Bisher, has been asked to vacate the building.

Landlord Bill Kuss, who owns K&K Development with his brother Jim, said clients of the Kuss Fun Park Subdivision being built behind Big Al's didn't want a nightclub near their entertainments.

The clients are a skating rink owned by Cape Family Entertainment, Inc., and a go-cart track called Big River Grand Prix. Both are to open in May.

Kuss would not say whether one or both of his clients stipulated that the nightclub must move.

"Their concerns were about a nightclub and drinking," Kuss said. "They're going to have small children."

The skating rink bought land from K&K, while the racetrack is renting.

Attempts to contact the track management for comment were unsuccessful.

Greg Crow, president of Cape Family Entertainment, said Big Al's lack of parking is the primary reason his company initially did not want to put their skating rink next door.

The skating rink is situated on land that provided about three-fourths of Big Al's parking.

"We weren't going to supply the parking for Big Al's," Crow said.

Even without parking or traffic problems, the skating rink probably wouldn't have located next to a nightclub, Crow said.

"We just never would have bought that land with the situation like it was.... You wouldn't look for land behind a bar."

The Big Al's building, which has been on the market for some time, cannot be sold to a nightclub under terms of the agreement K&K made, Kuss said.

"It's kind of a tragedy," Bisher said, referring to his own plight and that of other late-night establishments that will be affected by Big Al's closure.

"There are other businesses that will suffer from this," he said. "When we shut down, if you've got 400 to 500 people, they go to the Crackle or Mr. B's."

The 9,800-square-foot building at 610 S. Kingshighway originally housed a skating rink. From 1984-87, a high-energy dance club called Graffiti's occupied the building, followed from 1988-91 by the Bill and Chas Club, a country/rock establishment.

Big Al's was born in 1991, and provided live music for a while. Then it became the first local club to make a 12-foot video screen part of the entertainment. At various times Big Al's also gave patrons a chance to participate in bungee jumping, sumo wrestling and an activity called "human bowling."

In recent months, the club has been open Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and was reserved other nights for special events.

Bisher, a former Cape Girardeau policeman, during the day provides court security for the U.S. Marshal's Office at the Federal Building.

Bisher said an investor has contacted him about opening Big Al's elsewhere. "If we don't find anything, I might take part of the summer to reflect and relax," he said.

Meanwhile, the high point of the nightclub's run was "welcoming all those people," he said. "Making them my family.

"Everybody knew everybody."