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Mast General Store Buys Site Of Former Winston-Salem Strip Club

The Mast General Store has purchased the site of a former strip club in downtown Winston-Salem. The site has long been considered a nuisance in the community.

The sale was finalized on Tuesday, according to the realty group that handled the transaction.

Lisa Cooper is Mast's president and daughter of one of its founders. She tells the Winston-Salem Journal that the company purchased the building “with the intention of enhancing the neighborhood.”

The site near the Benton Convention Center has been home to a number of strip clubs over the years.

The Cherry Street building most recently operated as Nova Lounge. There was a shooting incident outside the club last April that left seven people injured. That led to Nova's alcohol-beverage permit being suspended.

Lisa Cooper says that Mast will be making decisions in the near future about how the building will be upgraded.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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