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Council invites Gerald Chan and other long‑term property owners to discuss Harvard Square Theatre and vacant storefronts
Summary
The Cambridge City Council voted to invite Gerald Chan to discuss plans for the long‑vacant Harvard Square Theatre and to broaden outreach to other long‑term vacant property owners, aiming to revive downtown commercial activity.
The Cambridge City Council on April 7 voted to invite Gerald Chan, owner of 10 Church Street (the former Harvard Square Theatre), to appear before the council’s Economic Development and University Relations Committee to discuss his plans for the theater and other long‑vacant properties in Cambridge.
The council amended the motion to broaden the outreach: staff were asked to invite other property owners who have kept storefronts vacant for more than five years, and to send a suitably engrossed copy of the council’s action to the Harvard Corporation, the governor and the city’s state and federal delegations.
Sponsors said the theater’s prolonged vacancy harms Harvard Square’s economic and cultural life. “We want to partner with property owners to find paths to reuse and activation,” Councilor Quinton Sadiki (co‑sponsor) said. Supporters noted the theater’s cultural history and said the city should explore options — including redevelopment, reuse as a performance venue, or adaptive reuse that would restore activity to the block.
Speakers from the Harvard Square Business Association, arts organizations and event organizers urged the council to press for timely action. Ivy Moylan, executive director of the Brattle Theatre, said she and other arts leaders have tried for years to open a dialogue with Chan’s representatives without success. “It is honestly a blight on that beautiful and quite historic street and a loss to the cultural landscape,” Moylan said.
Other commenters asked the council to protect a mural on the building that commemorates women activists and cancer survivors; the mayor said she would bring a separate order on the mural’s preservation. The council’s motion does not compel any owner to develop a property; it requests a formal conversation and directed staff to report back to the Economic Development committee.
What’s next: The Economic Development and University Relations Committee will schedule the invitation and plan public hearings. Staff were asked to present options for city engagement, potential incentives, and legal tools the city can use to encourage activation of vacant storefronts and to protect public art.
