Luxe Nail Bar reopens after four-day shutdown following Cease Operations Order

Luxe Nail Bar, a salon located at 40th and Walnut streets in the Shops at Penn complex, reopened last Friday after receiving a license revocation and Cease Operations Order four days earlier.

The order, issued by an inspector for the City of Philadelphia Department of Revenue, forbade the salon from being open to customers. The penalty for occupancy of a business after revocation is a fine of up to $300 per day or imprisonment of 90 days per person per violation, as outlined in the Philadelphia Police Department’s Directives Manual.

While many Cease Operations Orders in Philadelphia are issued through the Department of Licenses and Inspections, the issuance of this order through the Department of Revenue signaled an issue surrounding taxation, rather than a structural, safety, or licensing issue.

The Cease Operations Order for The Mason on Chestnut, an off-campus residence that houses many Penn students, was issued by the Department of Licenses and Inspections because of structural issues that violated city code.

A spokesperson for the department declined to comment on the circumstances behind Luxe Nail Bar’s specific revocation, but told The Daily Pennsylvanian that the City generally pursues license revocation “when a business … is either unregistered or has a delinquent tax balance and/or unfiled returns” and that the posting of a Cease Operations Order “indicates that the business is not tax compliant.”

“Its [a revocation’s] removal generally indicates that the business has come into compliance,” the spokesperson added. “The license revocation process provides ample notice to businesses and the opportunity to come into compliance at every step along the way. The Department’s many communication efforts provide businesses with a minimum of three months to get into a payment agreement or pay their balance in full before revoking their license.”

The spokesperson went on to explain that the Department of Revenue provides businesses with direct contact information to staff members to help them understand their options to come into compliance, concluding that most businesses that receive notices comply prior to revocation or shortly thereafter.

Luxe Nail Bar opened in 2016 and has been described in previous DP coverage as a “campus favorite” with a “friendly” staff that “gets the job done.”