Watusi II, a bar at 45th and Locust streets that has been the target of community outrage, was shut down on Wednesday due to “serious tax violations.”
According to Philadelphia Department of Revenue records, the owner — a corporation headed by local businessman Noel Karasanyi — owes over $37,000 in taxes on the property.
The shutdown notice comes less than a week after the Department of Licenses and Inspections ordered the Watusi Lounge, another bar Karasanyi owns, to cease operations due to an expired food license. A triple shooting occurred outside the Watusi Lounge on Aug. 31.
Watusi II was the subject of a joint meeting of the Walnut Hill and Spruce Hill community associations last month, where neighbors presented abundant testimony of drug trade, violence and drunk driving — among other complaints — at the bar. At the meeting, a representative from the Revenue Department said the property has been continually tax delinquent since at least 1993.
Related: Three shot at 46th and Walnut bar
While the property came up for sheriff’s sale last year, Karasanyi came to an agreement with the city before it was sold.
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