The Odd Fellows Hall is Sold to The Dance Complex for $1

In July of 1992 Somerset Savings Bank holds a foreclosure auction for 536 Massachusetts Ave, when bids fail to reach high enough, Somerset Savings Bank bids and wins ownership. The bank allows The Dance Complex a lease of the building until September of 1993.

In June of 1993 Somerset Savings Bank serves The Dance Complex with an eviction notice when another offer is made on the building, despite The Dance Complex holding right of first refusal (an opportunity to match and decline an initial offer on the building). The City of Cambridge ‘rescues’ The Dance Complex with $75,000 for a mortgage downpayment from unused Urban Development Action Grants funds, and the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center (CMAC) signs on the mortgage as a benefactor.

Starting in 2003, CMAC contends The Dance Complex owes them back-rent or will be faced with eviction again. The Dance Complex successfully argues they have no building expenses untaken care of, and therefore they were not in violation of their lease agreement. The feud over who is in the right becomes so publicly intense, the Cambridge City Council steps in as mediator. The civil and legal negotiations continue for 3 years, and eventually the Cambridge City Council pauses funding to the CMAC until the issue is resolved. 

In October of 2006 CMAC agrees to relinquish the lease of 536 Mass Ave to The Dance Complex for $1.