Former Kuma Charmers property in Enfield renovated and ready for occupancy

After decades as a strip club, the building in Enfield that was formerly Kuma Charmers is now ready for a new life. 

The building is located at 2303 Mecklenburg Rd. and had multiple other uses dating back to the ‘70s and earlier than that, if you consider the building that stood there before it burned down in 1972. 

The property is listed for $375,000. If someone wanted to rent it, the owners would consider a lease-to-own agreement. The amount that they would lease it for is contingent on the use of the property and the type of business that moves in.

“We’re just going to see what interest is brought to the table and figure that out,” Kathryn Burke, the Howard Hanna realtor listing the property (and daughter of part-owner Richard Burke), said.

Equal partners and co-owners Richard Burke and Philip White, Jr., purchased the property at auction last October for a little over $90,000, including auction fees, according to White. 

“We have no desire to own the thing and have to maintain it forever,” Burke said. “Hopefully it can be an ice cream place, or a brewery, or a vet clinic.”

White, 88, has owned and operated Applegate Christmas Tree Farm in Enfield with his family for the last 50 years and owns local residential rental properties.

“It would be nice,” said White, a resident of Enfield for 67 years, “if somebody came in there that employed some people. It’s big enough to lend itself to a small manufacturing company or something like that, if you want to take out the majority of walls and posts in the middle.”

Three acres of open field across the street comes with the property.

Burke decided to completely renovate the 6,300-square-foot building so it would be a blank slate for the new owners, and 65 gallons of paint later the formerly black, pink and white walls and ceilings are now a bright white.

“Local people want something to go in there so they’re not having to drive miles just to get a piece of pizza,” Kathryn Burke said. “There’s nothing [in the area] besides Dollar General and Dandy Mart — nowhere for anyone to stop in and grab food, unless you’re driving to Trumansburg.”

Burke, who is retired from a 32-year career at the United Parcel Service, has owned and operated several area rental properties. He has fond memories of the building when it was a restaurant where he and his family would stop in for a meal when he was a child of 6 or 7. Prior to its being a restaurant, the building was the Woodside Inn. It burned down in 1972 and was rebuilt several years later.

In more recent years, it was a restaurant called Kuma’s.

“Me and my wife went there when we first started dating,” Burke said.

 It was later repurposed as the adult entertainment club Kuma Charmers.

Last week, Burke trimmed out the building’s bathroom and hung new windows. The bathroom now has new toilets and vanities. The doorways are wide and “perfect for handicap accessible,” Burke said.

He said that with the current shortage of labor and high construction costs, it has been easier to do much of the work himself, with some help from his friends.

“I had an angel on my shoulder,” Burke said. That angel was none other than the late Charlie Hubbell, who rebuilt the building in 1976 after it was demolished by a fire. Hubbell would visit the property frequently as Burke and White were doing renovations, offering friendly advice and words of encouragement. He passed away last month at the age of 88.

“He would stop up there every week, and if I wasn’t there, he would ask everybody, ‘where’s Rich? He should be here,’” Burke said with a chuckle, adding that over the course of their friendship Hubbell helped him with “100 different jobs. He would never take a penny.”

Burke and White also installed energy efficient fluorescent lighting throughout the building, replaced some of the pipes, changed the heating system from fuel oil to propane, and tore down some out buildings that Burke said were an eyesore and constructed a fire pit and picnic area in their place.

The building already has a walk-in cooler. “I took a look at the condenser, and it looks to be in great shape,” Burke said.

Kathryn Burke said the building is unique in its potential and its Enfield location. 

“With the wineries, Watkins Glen and Cayuga Lake nearby, it would be a great pit stop to get something to eat,” she said. “It’s a versatile property.”