Hanover's neighbors get cue to exit.

Byline: Clive McFARLANE

COLUMN: CLIVE MCFARLANE

Maybe they should have seen it coming.

After all, what do a barbershop, a hair-braiding business, a nail salon and a billiard hall have to offer the clientele of their new neighbor, the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts?

The theater, the former Showcase Cinemas - Loew's Poli Palace Theatre, underwent a two-year, $31 million restoration. It opened in March with a black-tie reception and performance by Tony Award-winning Broadway star Bernadette Peters.

Ticket sales are booming, as one successful show follows another. The architects of the theater's renaissance, Edward P. Madaus, director of the Guild of St. Agnes, and his business partner, lawyer Paul J. Demoga, are looking to cash in on the revitalization of the area.

They have signed a purchase and sale agreement with the owners of the building next door to the Hanover, the Goral Building at 551 Main St., which is home to the barbershop, the hair-braiding store, the nail salon and the billiard hall.

The two men, both members of the theater's board, intend to lease space in the Goral Building to restaurants and other businesses that would cater to the theater crowd.

As part of the purchase agreement, the current tenants have been evicted, with the exception of Goral Community Optician, owned by the building's owner, Anthony Goral. He has been given a long-term lease.

Maybe the evicted business owners should have seen the writing on the wall. During the two years of the restoration, the street in front of their businesses was closed. Their business signs were hidden behind a wall of concrete barriers and other safety equipment. Their clientele dwindled.

But two years of empty storefronts wouldn't have benefited the city or the tenants' landlord, so the tenants were pacified with visions of how good it was going to be for them when the project was finished.

"They told us, `It is good for the city, so suck it up. When it is done you are all going to make big money,'" Bob Higginbotham, owner of Elite Billiards at 561 Main St., said last year in an interview. "I only hope that when it's done, I am still around."

Well, it is done and so is Mr. Higginbotham. After 20 years of running his pool business, and 35 years total in being a small-business man on the block, he is out in the cold.

He had used up his little cash reserve to ride out the down time over the past two years, and now he has nothing left, not even the money to move his pool tables.

Alex "Fatt" Corchado, owner of Fatt Cuts Reloaded at 557B Main St., has been doing business in the Goral Building for seven years. He has another shop at 119 West Bolyston St., not far from Worcester Sound and Lights. But there is no room at that shop to accommodate his eight-chair barber setup and music studio.

Both Mr. Corchado, and Eric Vu, who runs Kelly's Nails at 577A Main St., have poured thousands of dollars over the past two years into renovating their businesses. At the end of March, Mr. Vu installed new neon signs, less than a month before being hit with his eviction notice.

The tenants have nothing but praise for their landlord, Mr. Goral, a man who was known to conduct his business deals on a handshake. But Mr. Goral, after suffering a stroke, has turned the building over to his son, Bruce Goral, and it is at the younger man that the tenants are directing most of their ire.

Their basic charge is that the younger Goral has led them on, constantly telling them that he didn't know what was going to happen.

The new owners have offered to assist both Mr. Higginbotham and Mr. Vu in finding new locations, but the two tenants say they are still waiting for that help.

"All we need is a little more time and assistance, but there is nobody for us to turn to," Mr Vu said.

"They are tenants at will," Mr. Madaus said.

"They should have known it was coming," Bruce Goral said.

Yeah, that is the way of the world. Some people enjoy the blues, and some people are the subject of the blues. Just ask B.B. King, who played at the Hanover Theatre Friday night.

Contact Clive McFarlane via e-mail at [e-mail]