The owner of the long-closed AMC Loews theater in Cambridge’s Harvard Square will have company as he is called by the City Council to explain his vacant space.
Though billionaire Gerald Chan was the sole property owner mentioned in a policy order as it arrived Monday in front of the City Council, an amendment added the owners of the 22 other properties citywide that have been empty five years or longer.
And while the intent of vice mayor Marc McGovern was to start with Chan at a single gathering of the Economic Development and University Relations Committee, by unanimous vote the committee is now looking at a series of meetings.
“You can’t go through 23 potential vacant buildings in a two-hour session,” McGovern said.
Now Chan can expect to be joined by the owners of the former Evergood Market, empty for 8.7 years between Harvard and Porter squares; the Roach’s Sporting Goods space, more empty than filled for the past 12.8 years near Porter Square in North Cambridge; and several unused office spaces along Massachusetts Avenue from Harvard Square to Central Square, among those mentioned by councillors who didn’t want to see Chan singled out.
“It would be good to understand what the goals and intentions are of property owners that are leaving their spaces vacant,” said councillor Cathie Zusy, expressing regret for missing the March 11 committee meeting that went through some of those reasons and inspired McGovern’s order.
But councillor Paul Toner, who chaired that meeting, also wanted to “hear from all of them,” he said of the owners of long-term vacancies. It was his amendment that broadened the focus from Chan after he saw “a lot of angry comments in the emails received about Mr. Chan personally.”
Looking to partner
The goal was not to attack Chan, but to understand what the issues are and maybe even how the city might help get a development on track for the building’s 100th anniversary. Before the AMC Loews Harvard Square 5 at 10 Church St. closed July 8, 2012 – Chan bought it in 2015 for $17.5 million – the space had hosted not just first-run films and weekend showings of the cult classic “Rocky Horror Picture Show” but magic shows, vaudeville and concerts from Bob Dylan and Joan Baez to David Bowie and Iggy Pop to the Clash and Bruce Springsteen.
“This is not a great time for for construction. Are there things that we can do to be a partner and to help renovate a building that is extremely, extremely, extremely important not just to the vitality of Harvard Square, but so many people who care about it?” McGovern said. “It’s an extremely large building that has been vacant for over 10 years, that sits in the heart of one of the busiest commercial districts and most important commercial districts in our city. So the impact of that building being vacant is a lot more significant than some of the other vacant buildings in the city.”
Whispers of plans for redevelopment have come and gone over the years, but there’s been no public action since a June 2019 test of an office-building concept – a six-story video-screen facade that had fans and foes.
Outreach over the years
McGovern is also not the first person hoping they could help the billionaire reopen something at 10 Church St. and give the Harvard Square neighborhood a boost.
Denise Jillson, executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, said she has reached out to work with Chan to improve “this once-thriving, now desolate and ignored section of Church Street.”
Ivy Moylan, executive director of The Brattle Theatre, an iconic repertory cinema just a few blocks away, said she and her partners reached out too. “Over the years, we at The Brattle have tried multiple times to speak with Gerald Chan about opportunities to bring back the cinema, seeing the opportunity this space could provide for the Cambridge cultural landscape,” Moylan said. “We have never been able to have substantive communication with any of Mr. Chan’s representatives.”
Councillor Sumbul Siddiqui said that she reached out in 2022, when she was mayor. “We wrote a letter to Mr. Chan asking him to meet so that the city could talk about 10 Church St. and talk about this ecosystem and the impact,” Siddiqui said. “We basically said we’d love to meet with you and talk about how the city can be helpful, right? We want to partner. This is something that is affecting everyone.”
Looking for a path forward
There are 109 ground-level storefront vacancies in Cambridge as of November, a doubling of that figure over the past five years, according to the city’s Economic Opportunity and Development department.
“The vibrancy of our squares are really dependent upon businesses being there that people want to patronize. When we have so many closed spaces, it does bring down that that level of vibrancy,” said councillor Ayesha Wilson, who will be chairing the Economic Development and University Relations Committee meetings with Chan and other property owners. “We have a responsibility to engage in that conversation. We hope that Mr. Chan sees a responsibility to engage with us in the conversation so that we have a plan and some kind of path forward – so we can see some movement and see some businesses come to life in Harvard Square specifically, but across all of the vacancies across our city.”
Dan White, a manager for Chan’s Mayhaw real estate investment firm, said Sunday: “We remain fully committed to bringing forward a new plan to develop the site in an innovative way that will energize both Church Street and Harvard Square.”
“Our previous plan, which was well received and on its way to final approval, was derailed by the pandemic, requiring us to reappraise what might work best for the site. We continue to work diligently on these efforts. Ultimately, our goal is to create a vibrant space on Church Street by developing a venue that will create jobs, help drive visitors to Harvard Square and, most importantly, bring the site back to life and carry it into a new era,” White said.
A stronger
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Legally there must be some way to address this situation if the representatives of the Billionaire continue to fail to communicate adequately. The Building vacant is a safety and health problem for the city.
Eminent Domaine could be applied if it is too great a fire, collapse or other safety risk to the community under state regulations.