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GREENSBORO — Down West Lewis, a downtown street that feels more alley than avenue, Paul Talley has turned an empty warehouse into Greensboro’s largest nightclub.

It’s big — 10,000 square feet, with  room for 950 people. Two big rooms. Two bars. Eleven booths. Twenty-two glass chandeliers. At least 42 TVs. And one huge, lighted wall — 14 feet high, 30 feet long — that becomes an undulating rainbow after dark.

Talley calls it Lotus Lounge. He opened it up four Fridays ago. It’s a place where, for $10 on any Friday or Saturday night, you can dance, drink or people-watch as a DJ plays everything from Run DMC to Kanye West.

Talley knows his stuff. He’s Greensboro’s entertainment wizard, the man behind the curtain for three established local clubs. He’s worked the nightlife scene for 15 years, and right now, he’s boss to 100 employees.

Yet, Lotus Lounge sits in the middle of Greensboro’s historic South Elm neighborhood, a spot where space already is tight.

So, folks worry — about the lack of parking, the bad rap of hip-hop and the impact a club can have on Greensboro’s historic South Elm Street neighborhood, a fragile spot across the railroad tracks.

So, Talley is leasing the vacant land at the dead end of West Lewis to hold at least 250 cars. He’s also doing what he can to ease concerns about hip-hop — both real and perceived.

A decade ago, when veteran club owner Bill Kennedy catered to a hip-hop crowd at Joker’s 3 near UNCG, city officials shut him down after reports of drug use, gunfire and violence — including a man shot inside the club.

With his venture into hip-hop, Talley has brought in 20 bouncers — security, he calls them — and a dress code: no bandannas, no baggy jeans, no athletics jerseys, no Timberland boots.

It’s a difficult line to walk, Talley admits. But to him, it has nothing to do with race — black, white or brown. It has everything to do with ROI.

“That’s return on investment,’’ he says. “It’s all about economics.’’

Talley comes by that naturally. He graduated from State University of New York at Geneseo, with a degree in economics. But he scored a front-row seat in Nightclub 101 in Myrtle Beach. 

There, Talley worked for his older brother John, who ran a place called Atlantis. Talley did most everything and learned enough to open his own place he called Club Zero.

But he tired of the seasonal nature of Myrtle Beach’s club business and drove into North Carolina one weekend after hearing his patrons say all too often, “Man, you should bring this to Greensboro, High Point or Winston-Salem.’’

He chose Greensboro. He didn’t know a soul.

Today, Talley is 42, a married father of two who feels more comfortable in flip-flops than suits. He drives a 1995 white Ford Escort he calls “El Boogie,’’  and his kids, ages 6 and 9, call his clubs by their own names: “Old Work,’’ “New Work’’ and “New New Work.’’

 Talley loves competition. You can tell in his collection of clubs, which run the A&E gamut, from comedy and country to 1970s disco.

He runs The Comedy Zone and Arizona Pete’s on Holden Road and Inferno downtown. Now, a few blocks south, between the 500 and 600 block of South Elm, he’s added another to his roster: Lotus Lounge.

Talley saw an untapped audience — the lovers of hip-hop — and the success of the Mellow Mushroom, a popular pizza restaurant around the corner on South Elm that has drawn big crowds since opening in December.

The Mellow Mushroom, according to Talley, has helped break down what he saw as South Elm’s “invisible wall.’’ That’s the railroad tracks.

That perception three years ago killed The Flying Anvil, a rock club on West Lewis that opened — and closed — in eight months. Not enough people came.

The Flying Anvil, now Club Rain, is within a few dozen steps from the Lotus Lounge. It’s a hip-hop club that can hold 864 people. But crowds have been sporadic, competition thin.

Until now.

Talley calls it “game time’’ — sometimes until 4 a.m. every weekend night. He drives his Ford Escort from club to club and follows a philosophy he learned long ago in Nightclub 101: “If you don’t take risks, you’ll never gain anything.’’

And he’s doing just that. In and out of “El Boogie.’’ Beyond the “invisible wall.’’ 

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com