The longtime sci-fi, fantasy and comic book retailer is leaving its W. Lake Street home but not south Minneapolis. The shop is in the process of relocating to smaller quarters at 38th Street and 23rd Avenue S. The plan is to have the new store open by the end of August, said DreamHaven owner Greg Ketter. The Highpoint Center for Printmaking bought the old location and plans to renovate it before reopening in 2009.
Ketter received Highpoint's offer before he had even thought about moving. He had more of a neighborhood location in mind as he looked at 200-plus buildings before buying a former video store.
The move won't be the only change for DreamHaven. Ketter plans to stock more used books and more general reading titles, including mysteries and Westerns, and curtail the comics. Readings will continue.
VINCE TUSS
Moving on up Minneapolis Musical Theatre is headed upstairs. The small but sturdy troupe that specializes in quirky musicals announced a move to the Illusion Theater for the 2008-09 season.
Illusion's stage is on the eighth floor of the Hennepin Center for the Arts, 528 Hennepin Av. S. MMT has spent the past five years at Hennepin Stages, just a few blocks down the street.
MMT had a nomadic first five years, then blossomed at the tiny Bryant- Lake Bowl. The Hennepin Stages move was aggressive, but fortuitous, coming right after Hey City Stage moved out.
Illusion offers twice the number of seats as well as better sight lines, technical capacities, backstage flexibility, you name it. Managing director Jim Pounds said MMT's one-year deal is strictly rental.
