GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — Green Bay city officials denied a license renewal for Sunrise Spa on Military Avenue during Tuesday's city council meeting, citing concerns about illegal activities.
Watch Green Bay neighborhood reporter Pari Apostolakos' broadcast story here:
The spa was denied a new license for allegedly advertising massage therapy involving sexual acts, according to city documents.
Documents also state the listed owner was charged with promoting human trafficking in Kentucky last year, which Kentucky court records show was later amended to a property citation.
"Was your client offering sexual services out of Sunrise Spa in Green Bay?" I asked Brian Randall, the attorney representing the spa business owner.
"No, my client never did that and she was ready to deny those allegations. We never had a hearing on that part of the complaint," Randall said.
Randall represents Hua Keller, who says she took over as the owner of Sunrise Spa last year, but didn't get a new license in her name, violating the law recently put in place to crack down on massage businesses.
City documents also indicate Keller was suspected of touching a man's genitals at a different massage business in Green Bay.
"We really actually support the city's efforts because we believe there are good businesses and there are bad businesses, and my client at Sunrise Spa is operating one of the good businesses," Randall said.
Randall says the spa has since submitted a new license application and that there is no proof of Sunrise Spa offering sexual services.
Green Bay Alderwoman Melinda Eck says evidence of such activities is difficult to obtain.
"It's just really difficult to get people to be willing to testify... There are complaints, but people don't want to file an official complaint, like a police report," Eck said.
Eck says someone from the Military Avenue Business District asked for her help addressing businesses offering these services shortly after she was elected.
"I [really] didn't know that they even existed to be honest," Eck said.
Now, she plans to propose changes to the law she helped push forward, making it more difficult for businesses with past violations to obtain licenses.
"We're one more step... towards our goal of ridding the city of the illicit massage establishments," Eck said.
Sunrise Spa's new license application will be reviewed at an upcoming council meeting. Eck says changes to the law governing massage business licenses could be ready for review as soon as next month.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
