FIGHTING LI BRA HUMBUG
Risqué-shop owner sues Babylon
She’s too sexy for this Long Island burg.
A onetime sex-toy shop owner, who tangled with local officials for 12 years over her store until it finally shut down, says the Town of Babylon is trying to drive her out of business even as she marches her kinky boots toward a relaunch.
Nicole Vergara, 54, was forced to close Cupid’s Boutique in June after a long battle with town officials, who claimed she was operating without the proper paperwork.
With a new, hostile landlord coming in, the single mother of two said she decided to change locations and pivot her business model from sex toys to lingerie, sinking her kids’ college savings into a new location.
But Babylon officials vowed to put her “under a microscope” and dragged out the permit-approval process while holding her livelihood “hostage,” she charges in a lawsuit against the town.
The location for her original Grand Boulevard shop was “kind of a seedy place” before she took over, Vergara acknowledged.
“I turned it around. I was a single mom, doing it on my own,” she recalled, calling it an “elegant, woman-friendly” place where “everybody’s welcome.” “It was a lot of work and I put my whole heart and soul into the place, my whole life revolved from morning to night around the store.”
Vergara is keen on giving her new spot, at 786 Grand Blvd., the same vibe.
“It’s a safe haven for any type of person who feels uncomfortable within themselves,” she said, noting her large transgender following. “We have a little something for everybody.”
She invested $130,000 into the space, but claims in court papers a town employee secretly changed her building permit paperwork, causing Babylon officials to initially deny her application.
The town has allegedly forced her to accept “limitations that no other business” faces, even requiring her to list her inventory and confirm she won’t be selling sex toys now, Vergara charges in the Dec. 1 litigation.
Last week, the town finally issued Vergara’s Cupid’s Boutique a certificate of occupancy, clearing the last bureaucratic hurdle to her opening.
“She put tons of money at great personal cost into this store and was illegally not allowed to open it for months,” said her lawyer, J. Remy Green.
The new store “isn’t some seedy adult store,” attorney Richard Rosenthal noted. “It’s a lingerie store, like any lingerie store.”
Vergara says some of her new neighbors have already voiced discomfort with her clientele, but she’s not deterred. She’s pushing forward with her lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages and a declaration from a judge that the town’s treatment of her has been unconstitutional.
“This is a one-of-a-kind place, where [transgender and nonbinary people] can come and be themselves. The whole rainbow can come in here,” she said.
Babylon officials did not return a call for comment.