Cambridge Day is reporting that a plan to resurrect Central Square goth nightclub ManRay is on hold, once again. And now looking to fill the old Blockbuster video space at 541 Massachusetts Ave., the same lot that ManRay owner Don Holland was eying for a new club and restaurant?
A pet store.
Guess they’ll still have dog collars.
Here’s word according to Cambridge Day, who have been good at breaking this kind of news lately:
The legendary goth fetish nightclub, closed in July 2005 to make way for an apartment building, was to move into Central Square’s former Blockbuster video space at 541 Massachusetts Ave. – less than a tenth of a mile from the old location at 21 Brookline St.
But that site is due for a Board of Zoning Appeal hearing Dec. 19 for a very different purpose: a pet store.
Signs advertising the meeting were seen posted in the darkened glass windows at 541 Massachusetts Ave. Thursday night.
ManRay owner Don Holland won the right to keep his restaurant and alcohol license in January by telling the city’s License Commission that he had plans to take over the Central Square space. The announcement was greeted with some skepticism by the commissioners, arriving as it did just in time to save the license they were looking to take away.
Reached by phone Thursday night and asked about ManRay moving into the former Blockbuster site, Holland said, “That’s on hold right now.”
Cambridge Day goes on to detail Holland’s attempts in recent years to bring back his fetish club.
Interest in relaunching ManRay has remained long past the original club’s closing eight years ago. Recent “reunions” have taken place at the Paradise Rock Club, and former DJ Chris Ewen now spins at T.T. The Bear’s Place — across the street from the former Brookline Street location.