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Four bars may be one too many for a local entrepreneur.

With a multi-phase project in the works on Main Street, a new bar and restaurant in the final stages on the waterfront and the recent acquisition of the landmark Cameo Bar, restaurateur John McGillion, owner of popular Main Street tavern Johnny Mac’s House of Spirits, has decided to give up his vision of turning the YMCA building into a gay-themed hotel with two big dance halls, he said.

He has recently listed the YMCA building [shown above] as “for sale” with a $2.8 million price tag.

“Problem is there is too much work to be done at that location,” he said.

The first floor of the building, located at 600 Main St., is already leased to an elderly care facility that operates six days a week, McGillion said. He doesn’t think he will be able to lease the upper floors to other tenants and has decided it is “just more simple to sell it.”

A new bar and restaurant he hopes to open soon, Kim Marie’s Eat and Drink Away, is only in its beginning stages and could eventually be a 5-story building with hotel rooms on the top three floors, he said, but it may require the city to amend its waterfront redevelopment ordinance.

Currently, city authorities will not allow McGillion to build beyond the original Adriatic Restaurant structure and he is facing “lots of restrictions,” he said.

Plans to expand Johnny Mac House of Spirits into a multi-story facility with a beer garden, mezzanine structure and a new bar atop the current Bistro Olé restaurant were approved by the city in July. McGillion owns the Bistro Olé building as well.

McGillion purchased the Cameo Bar in July and doesn’t think it makes sense to have competing business in the same vicinity, as the YMCA would have catered to the gay community and the Cameo “is turning out to be a decent gay bar location,” he said.

McGillion also owns several bars in New York City and Brooklyn.

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