Business Is Slow at Charles Square

Six months after the opening of the posh Charles Square shopping area, many of the store managers are complaining that Cambridge is not providing the kind of trendy customers they need to survive.

"The students can't afford it, the ladies on Brattle Street are always in the Bahamas, and you never see community people here," said the manager of Crabtree and Evelyn, an English chain that sells soaps and jams. We "need a regular clientele" or we'll never survive."

"The central problem with the new development is that people haven't discovered it yet," said a member of the Harvard Square Business Association. "Until the condos are filled, the stores will not succeed to their best potential".

It is not unusual to see the fashionable boutiques empty, with only a few hotel guests browsing. "The developers have geared everything towards an upper income price bracket and alienated the Cambridge community," said Crabtree and Evelyn's manager.

But Richard L. Friedman, who oversaw the development of the project, says it is "fabulously successful." It "makes the Square more like it used to be," he said. "In the last 10 years, Harvard Square has gotten seedy and one-dimensional. This will turn the area back into a cross-section of age and wealth spectrums where people can live, eat, work and shop."

The rest of the Brattle and Mt. Auburn development is doing well. The Charles Hotel is booked to capacity most of the time, and most of the 86 condominiums have been sold (for between $250,000 and $1 million apiece).

Controversial Beginning

The complex was born in controversy. In 1976, when the community objected to the construction of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library in Harvard Square, the state divided the property between the John F. Kennedy School, a memorial park, and a commercial development.

In 1978, the Charles Square Associates were granted the right to develop the area. After consulting the Harvard Square Development Task Force "to decide on a plan consistent with the needs of the neighborhood," the developer agreed to fund the construction of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Park and other urban parks in the area, said Friedman of Charles Square Associates.

But the project has not succeeded in its original community-oriented goals, shopkeepers say. By selecting upscale stores like Talbots and Laura Ashley, the developers "created the impression that normal people can't shop here," said the manager of Crabtree and Evelyn.

"The shops have tried to diversify their products so that some are accessible to a student budget, but not many students know that Charles Square exists," said Amy R. Pilling, manager of Simon Pearce, an Irish products store.

At Simon Pearce among the $200 capes and hand-blown crystal, are a few less expensive items like mugs and scarves.

"Even those stores that would appeal to college audiences do not do vast amounts of business," said Martha Field, a buyer for Goods, a novelty store that, according to Field, has primarily sold model Godzillas in the past six months.

Boring Snobs

The manager of Crabtree and Evelyn said the lack of overall organization of the development hurts business. "Some people come here specifically for the well-known names, but it's discouraging when you're shopping to see half the stores closed," she said.

"Harvard Square likes noise, food, balloons," said Crabtree and Evelyn's manager. "They claim that they're doing things for the community, but nothing is publicized. There were great jazz concerts here that no one came to. The developers don't want street freaks. It's all because of the snobbery of the people running the show."