A strip club offering risque burlesque dancing through to full-nude strip is set to open its doors in central Tauranga in the new year.
But one family advocate groups says while adult entertainment can't be stopped, the CBD is not the place for a strip club.
Showgirls International.co.nz will open above the bar Rehab and Takara Japanese Restaurant on Hamilton St, between The Strand and Willow St.
The club is owned by Tauranga men Matt Gordon and well known owner of Irish bar Mount Mellick and the Bahama Hut franchise company, Clayton Mitchell.
The strip club will be open from 9pm until 3am Wednesday to Saturday.
"It's going to be a very exclusive, up-market, exotic dance bar. We just want to step away from what's been done in the past," Mr Mitchell said.
He said the bar was a "small and intimate place" where people could go to relax.
"We want to make you feel like you're in your own lounge. Without being intimidated by some of the stereotypical people that you'd find in these places."
The club will be similar to Showgirls in Auckland and Christchurch, but is not affiliated with them, he said.
Mr Mitchell, who is married with a young family, said 10 years ago he wouldn't have got into the adult entertainment industry but felt strip clubs had become much more socially acceptable.
He said the burlesque dancing, which did not involve full nudity, was tasteful and "very, very popular these days".
A "tongue in cheek" advertisement in the Bay of Plenty Times last Saturday attracted between 25 and 30 applicants seeking roles including dancers, waitresses, receptionists and managers.
The advertisement promised "great pay" and called for "really, really ridiculously good looking" people with a "fun outgoing look on life" to apply.
Mr Mitchell said the club had selected "a really good group of ladies" - some with experience and others trying stripping for the first time.
Family First national director Bob McCoskrie said strip bars belonged in red light districts, not among restaurants where families dined.
"You can't stop the industry but it should be a special place away from the general shopping area. The term red light district is there for a good reason. To warn families (and) make sure they're not exposed to it," he said.
Mr McCoskrie said strip clubs objectified women.
"The research shows that viewing that type of pornography is not in their best interests or the best interests of the men because it objectifies the woman and it leads to stereotyping woman as simply sexual beings."
Retired vicar of Mount Maunganui's St Mary's Anglican Parish Marie Gilpin said the arrival of strip clubs in cities was a reflection of New Zealand's increasingly secular society.
"The sad news for me is that a lot of the values that come along with Christianity or other religious values are being lost. A few years ago it would have been illegal because society wouldn't have accepted it," she said.
However, Mrs Gilpin said it was the people's right to choose.
"Anybody that works there, they've made a choice to be there. It's a concern for me but it's a reality of city life and people choose to work there and go there," she said.
Other businesses in the street spoken to by the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend said they weren't too concerned about the opening of the strip club as it would operate outside of their own opening hours.
Takara Japanese Restaurant declined to comment on the arrival of the strip club.