Authors Note: I wrote this story for my feature writing class. This story was about the opening of a new nightclub on campus corner. This story was aimed to inform college students of new things happening near campus. It was also written to excite college students about a new night club. This story was published on September 22, 2022. I used my Sony camera for this story and practiced the skill of feature writing by using some of my own voice in the story to make it more interesting. I learned how to incorporate my voice into stories without sounding opinionated or biased.
New Nightlife in Norman
NORMAN, Okla.- As Campus Corner adjusts to life without one long-running business, a local businessman hopes it’ll open its arms to another.
After almost three decades of business, Sugers, Norman’s only strip club, closed in July 2021. After changing management the prior September, new owner-Travis Case decided to turn the space into a 21+ nightclub he’s dubbed Heist.
The bright neon pink and purple lights over the mirrored stage surrounded by red leather lounge chairs and circular wooden tables have been completely gutted and transformed into a wide open dance floor with black walls, floors, and ceilings that take nights out in Norman to the next level. Instead of being an erotic atmosphere, the venue now promotes high energy and party vibes.
A new state-of-the-art sound and light system worth over $20,000 has been installed to keep the music loud and the energy high. Heist also features a smoke cannon that goes off with the beat of the music.
“This was a massive renovation,” Case said of the months of planning that went into the transformation, “We re-did all the plumbing, the electrical, the air, we re-did the bathrooms, everything. Not only the planning, just of the vision but the planning with the city, with the landlord, with the Corner. We had to go through a huge process to get the patio marked off for us.”
The nightclub opened Aug. 26. The 3,600-square-foot space is Norman’s first club to feature bottle service and private sections that start at $500. When a party orders a section and buys a bottle of liquor, Heist’s bottle girls parade around the club showcasing the bottle with bright neon signs.
OU senior Quincy Collins shares his opinion about Heist.
“It definitely is a really unique place; there’s nowhere on Campus Corner that’s like it,” he said. “The huge dance floor with the flashing lights the whole time and the DJ that’s looking down over everybody…If you’re going to heist you’re going to dance and move around and be high energy.”
There is a variety of liquor options, including $5,000 bottles of champagne and some of the finest tequila selections. There is something for everybody.
While there are luxury liquor options, the prices for a drink are not excessive. The average price of a drink at Heist is $6.
OU Junior Thatcher Hall, comments about his surprise about the prices of the drinks.
“To be honest, I was expecting the pricing to be higher,” he said.
“I always had this vision that there’s no nightclub,” said Case. “There’s no Las Vegas feel, it’s just a bunch of sports bars, which makes sense, but we felt that there was a different aspect of the nightlife industry that Norman didn’t have.”
Case also owns the popular sports bar Sideline, a block away on Buchanan Ave. and he said he took inspiration from the bar when conceiving Heist.
“Sideline gave us a huge sample pool of the clients that we would have and (it gave us) an understanding of how the market works and how the flow here works business-wise,” he said. “We felt with that understanding and the success of Sideline that we would have a shared marketplace that wasn’t taken yet.”
Heist is an indoor and outdoor venue. The interior is painted black, featuring color-changing lights along with an elevated DJ booth with two private sections on either side. The bathrooms feature warm lighting to get that perfect bathroom selfie. Heist also offers two bars, one connected to the outside grassy section where clubgoers can go to escape from the loud atmosphere inside.
Collins paints a picture of his favorite experience at Heist.
“I think it was Friday night before the last game, I went into Heist with some friends,” he said. “We got there when the line was 20 people and then by the time we got to the door there were 50-60 people in line. We got in and it was so crowded and everyone was up dancing in the middle of the room. It made me feel like I was in a completely different country. I have been in clubs before, but I didn’t expect to feel that on Campus Corner.”
Case said he wanted to create an atmosphere that transports people to a different place.
“It’s a place to get away,” he said. “You can almost go to a different world…Maybe you’ll have photos or Snapchat memories you can look back on in 5-10 years about being here at Heist.”
“That’s the goal.”