Owner of shuttered violence-prone Allston club now says he wants to rent the space to an 'LGBTQ+ safe space' music spot

The owner of the closed Garage club on Linden Street - shut since 2022 because of yet more gunfire out front - wants the Boston Licensing Board to revoke its "indefinite suspension" of his liquor license so he can explore leasing the space to new operators who would, one of his lawyers says, convert it into a music-focused "LGBTQ+ safe space in the community."

But based on a hearing today, Garage owner Alex Matov - who himself turned what was once a quiet place for Russian immigrants to gather for weekly dinners into a hip-hop club - has a tough road ahead of him.

The board essentially shut the club last year after shots were fired outside just a couple days after the board had lifted an earlier suspension for a double shooting a few months before that.

Board members had agreed to hold today's hearing to consider lifting their license suspension after a hearing last month at which Matov said he wanted to sell the license to another operator so he could at least earn rental income on the property until financing becomes more favorable for his plans to replace the building with an apartment complex.

But Matov surprised both board members and one of his own attorneys today by saying that while he would not be involved in daily management of a new venue, he would retain ownership of the liquor license, rather than seeking to sell it outright to the new operators.

Although such "management agreements," under which a landlord owns a liquor license and then essentially rents it to a restaurant or bar owner, are not uncommon in Boston, they don't usually involve landlords whose operations have been repeatedly shut down by police and the licensing board.

"We're not selling the license at this point, no," Matov said. In response to a question from board member Liam Curran on what would change if he still owned the license, Matov said "If God forbid, anything goes wrong, we would have ability pull the license back."

In addition to that issue, board members said they were disinclined to grant Matov his request after two detectives from the BPD licensing unit said Matov and the person responsible for the building's security-camera system, have not cooperated with the detective still investigating last year's gunfire. Lt. Det. Adrian Troy said Matov no longer even returns phone calls from the D-14 detective, who did not attend today's hearing.

Matov denied that, said he has given that detective everything he's asked for and that, in fact, he has cooperated with BPD detectives for more than 20 years.

"I'm still stuck on the lack of cooperation with D-14's investigation," board Chairwoman Kathleen Joyce said. "I don't think we can move forward until we know D-14 has the information they need from your team. I don't feel like we can just broom it and move forward."

Lesley Delaney Hawkins, one of Matov's two attorneys at the hearing, did not identify the prospective new operators of the space. However, she said one has an extensive background in the Boston hospitality business and has served as a "manager of record" on liquor licenses in the city. The other two, she said, are sound engineers.

Matov's other attorney, Curt Bletzer, said the three don't want to move forward without having the cloud over the space's liquor license removed.