Gold, watches and giant sculptures replace former Vegas strip club at new store

The Khalaf family has built a business in Las Vegas selling fossils, crystals and meteorites, along with metal sculptures made in Thailand from junked car parts.

Now the family has opened a different kind of shop near Las Vegas’ famed casino corridor — and in true Vegas fashion, it’s on the site of a former strip club.

Mo Money, which buys and sells jewelry, watches, gold coins and the like, opened last month on Flamingo Road between Koval Lane and Paradise Road, about a mile east of the Strip. It replaced the former long-time business there, Club Platinum, albeit in a fully gutted building.

The Khalaf family bought the half-acre site late last year for nearly $2.4 million, property records show. Plus, it cost just over $1 million to transform the strip club into the shop it is today, according to Ashraf “Alex” Khalaf, owner of luxury retailer Kalifano.

He said the old building had a foul smell and was dark inside, but after the sweeping renovations, it now has new mechanical systems, roofing, walls, glass and more.

Last fall, the Clark County Building Department issued a permit valued at around $770,640 for improvements to the 1960s-era building at 311 E. Flamingo Road, with plans calling for a “complete interior renovation and exterior upgrades,” county records show.

Mo Money is not a pawn shop, as Clark County records show it has a secondhand-dealer license for a specialty shop.

Khalaf’s 25-year-old son, Mohammad “Mo” Khalaf, is managing partner of the sleek-looking store that bears his nickname and, on a billboard above the building, his likeness.

As the younger Khalaf described it, the business offers a more comfortable environment for people who are looking to sell their valuables, and he can examine their items under a microscope, show them on a monitor and explain what he sees.

There is no shortage of gold-buying stores in Las Vegas. But Alex Khalaf figures the new spot can be a good hedge amid the jittery economy, and he noted the shop is near the tourist-packed Strip and is centrally located for Las Vegas Valley residents.

All told, “we felt like there was a higher and better use here” than an old strip club, he said.

‘Pole Without a Purpose’

Club Platinum was featured on the reality TV show “Bar Rescue” in a 2018 episode titled “Pole Without a Purpose.”

In the episode, owner Rita Capovilla was filmed saying, “How am I going to keep this club open? We have no customers.”

Renae Lemmens, who, according to the show, managed dancers at other clubs, scoped out Club Platinum in the episode. At one point, she remarked about the walls of a booth, saying it looked like “somebody threw up on it.”

Clark County records show that Club Platinum went out of business last December, just a few weeks before Capovilla’s sale of the building to the Khalaf family was completed.

She could not be reached for comment.

As seen last month, Mo Money had gold coins, silver dollars, watches and other jewelry on display.

It also had statues made from spark plugs and other salvaged materials for sale; two purple amethysts that both weighed about 1,000 pounds and cost $62,500 each; and a pair of hulking “Transformers”-type metal statues outside.

These are the kinds of eye-catching items that the family sells through their Kalifano retail chain.

Jade sphere from Afghanistan

They have Kalifano stores at The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace, Grand Canal Shoppes at The Venetian, Las Vegas Premium Outlets North and Harry Reid International Airport.

They also have a location in New Jersey that’s slated to close early next year, Alex Khalaf said.

Their catalog, as seen on Kalifano’s website, includes a 2,646-pound Brazilian quartz obelisk priced at $150,000; a foot-long iron meteorite fragment found in Arizona ($123,200); a 471-pound jade sphere from Afghanistan ($43,000); a 6.5-inch meteorite fragment found in northwest Africa ($14,560); and a megalodon tooth from Indonesia ($6,250).

They also have numerous items that aren’t nearly as expensive, including crystals at $20 to $40 or bracelets and necklaces priced at $15.

But the pieces that physically stand out the most are Kalifano’s metal artworks.

These include a 26.5-foot Optimus Prime-inspired statue priced at $200,000; a 13-foot Predator-inspired piece ($86,400); a nearly 9-foot polar bear sculpture covered in spark plugs ($50,000); and a roughly 900-pound dragon sculpture ($20,500).

Shipping is free on orders over $99.

Global imports

Kalifano is a family business. Alex, who grew up in New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado and moved to Las Vegas some 25 years ago, is president and CEO. His wife, Fahima, who grew up in California and owns the business with him, is vice president.

Their three adult sons also work at the company: RJ is director of operations, Rami is director of retail operations, and Mo runs the new store.

So, how do they even get all this stuff, and who buys it?

Alex Khalaf said the metal sculptures are made at a welding-art studio in Thailand, where a team of 30 welders take discarded car parts, motorcycles, mopeds, forklifts and even airplanes and transform them into artwork.

The family is a partner in the studio, has made a “sizable” investment in it and handles its worldwide distribution, he said.

He also said he sources items from quarries in Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil and other countries and has been exhibiting for decades at the Tucson Gem Show in Arizona.

Plus, he was no stranger to the industry from the get-go. He said that his father, Rafat “Ralph” Khalaf, owned a jewelry store in Aspen, Colorado, and carried some crystals and fossils.

Kalifano’s customers include shopping-center owners and water-park operators who buy pieces to decorate their properties, as well as wealthy individuals who put the items in home theaters or in garages with their car collections.

But not everyone who pays a jaw-dropping price for an item even wants it right away.

As seen recently at the Kalifano store in the Forum Shops, a $100,000 megalodon jaw hanging from the ceiling was sold last fall — but the retailer was still waiting for the buyer to give the green light to ship it.