Worcester’s License Commission voted unanimously Thursday to pull the license of Icy Gaming Zone, a Lovell Street business where inspectors say they found 211 people crammed into a space permitted for just 16. The Oct. 23 compliance inspection also turned up a deadbolted emergency exit, concealed alcohol bottles, hookah supplies, and a pool table blocking another way out.
According to MassLive, officials said 109 people left through the front entrance and another 102 exited through a rear emergency door once the building was cleared that night. Inspectors reported that a front emergency exit marked with an illuminated sign had been secured with a deadbolt, and after the crowd was out, they said they found alcohol bottles hidden behind kitchen appliances, opened and empty hard seltzer cans, DJ equipment, hookah supplies and a pool table pushed against a second rear exit. Police said the business had neither a liquor license nor a tobacco license.
A Pattern Police Say Stretched Back Months
Thursday’s vote was not the city’s first brush with Icy Gaming Zone. Police said officers had responded to the business on five separate occasions after receiving complaints about loud music, disturbances and underage drinking, per the same MassLive report. One of those calls came around 12:40 a.m. on Sept. 5, when officers responded to a disturbance and found roughly 25 to 30 people outside the business and estimated more than 50 people inside, despite the business being permitted to operate only until midnight. Police ordered the crowd to leave because the business was operating past its closing time, and after it dispersed, officers said they found six warm hookah pipes along with shisha tobacco, an empty 750-milliliter bottle of Don Julio tequila and a partially full 1.75-liter bottle of tequila. A 19-year-old woman inside told officers she was working as a bartender.
The following night, the article notes, an officer identified as Thomas Needham returned to the business around 12:43 a.m. and found about 30 people inside along with another warm hookah pipe. Needham reported that the Lovell Street door beneath an illuminated exit sign was deadbolted on both visits, and that its window had been covered with a black trash bag the second night.
Neighbors Describe Chaotic Scenes, Push for Action
Neighbors turned out Thursday to urge commissioners to act, describing late-night noise, crowds and vehicles clustering around the property. One neighbor described a night that played out like a melee, with young people running through the area and cars speeding off as police arrived, and said the situation was unsafe. Etel Haxhiaj, a former Worcester city councilor who lives near the business, said residents had raised concerns about the property well before the October inspection. Commissioner Maritza Cruz called the reported crowd size in a 16-person space completely outrageous, and Commissioner Charran Fisher made the motion to revoke the license, which the commission approved unanimously.
The business owner was not at the hearing. According to the report, he had said he mistakenly believed the proceeding was being held at Worcester District Court. Commissioners told him he could still appeal the decision. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 140, Section 30, which governs revocation and suspension of this type of license, specifies that such action cannot be taken until after an investigation and hearing, or after the licensee has been given an opportunity to be heard, with hearing notice required to be left at the business at least three days beforehand, according to the Massachusetts Legislature.
What Comes Next for 117 Lovell Street
Icy Gaming Zone is currently closed, and city officials say they have already received an application from a new owner hoping to convert the property into a shawarma restaurant. That application is expected to go before the License Commission at its next meeting on Nov. 12. For now, the Lovell Street address that drew five police responses and hundreds of complaints from neighbors sits without an operating license, awaiting its next chapter.
