That's not quite accurate Umbran. It had less to do with research and more on the codes being changed under him.
Part of the problem Tyler (the owner) had was that he wanted game space to be available. That made part of his story 'congregational space' - which has a completely different set of code requirements that a store. Things like 3 bathrooms, for each gender, for starters. He, successfully, argued the city council into Not considering the place 'congregational space', but the city council then decided, if memory serves, that they would have to create a new defination for the store, and that required additional meetings of the council. Which took time. In addition, the inspectors were literally telling him new things after each inspection, partly because a new set of codes were being looked at each time, as the city council tried to define the store. For example, he was not informed until late May, having being closed and trying to re-open for two months, that some part of the electrical system needed to be re-wired, because of something wierd that the former owner of the space had done. And then there was a three week delay while that was taken care of.
But I'm writing all of this based on memory and second hand info. The painful history is spelled out in more detail in the Livejournal link MaverickWierdo provided, if anyone is interested.
There is a reason that the new store T-shirt 'Pandemonium Erupts in Central Square' had a Tripod destroying Cambridge City Hall. :\