Upwardly Mobile Rents Are Changing Square's Shops

One day it was penny candy and colored popcorn.

A few days later it was high-fashion women's clothing.

Festivo's succeeded Scoops to Nuts in early March so fast that there was barely time to notice. The candy store was among several recent victims of high rents and newly monied clienteles in a changing Harvard Square.

Scoops to Nuts, the candy shop on 85 Mount Auburn, had only been in business for fourteen months, and its lease has not run out when it closed. Previously, the Italian ice cream store Gelateria Giuseppe had occupied the space.

John DiGiovanni, the property manager of the space, called 85 Mount Auburn St. "an ideal location," despite the string of business failures there. He attributed the changes to specific owners' strategies rather than the location itself, pointing to the store's central location and the thriving business of neighboring Bruegger's Bagel Bakery.

"I wouldn't say that it's the location," he said, "It's the operator--what and how they market."

"Smaller operations tend to have higher turnover in general," DiGiovanni added. "Your larger locations won't turn over as easily, since larger investments are involved." He said he found Festivo's more attractive as a tenant because the owner's line of high-fashion clothing aimed at the college market would sell better than candy in Harvard Square.

John DiGiovanni's father, Louis, who owns the building, could not be reached for comment.

When Scoops to Nuts closed its doors, it was not alone. Corcoran's fabric and clothing store also recently gave up its space to the expanding Urban Outfitters store.

"The Square has become a fairly expensive place as far as rent," said owner Paul Corcoran. "our lease had expired, and we didn't feel that that our volume of business would support the rent."

"The Square has changed a lot in 10 years," said Peter Kermand, manager of the successful Urban Outfitters store. "It's become a major tourist center, especially with the completion of the Red Line. Also, the rent is so much higher now that retailers have had to become much more upscale."

Unlike 10 years ago, said Kermand. "There aren't a lot of neat artsy boutiques anymore... people are sinking a lot more money into the Square."

Indeed, Harvard Square is thriving economically, said Sally R. Alcorn, Executive Director of the Harvard Square Business Association. "Harvard Square is in a boom period." said Alcorn. She said a healthy business district can be expected to change character over time, and added, "There are not many store that are floundering."

Alcorn attibuted much of the Square's success to the market provided by Harvard University. "Harvard Square has a captive audience," said Alcorn. "This includes not only the student population but also the large staff and faculty." She also cited the expansion of the MBTA Red Line and the resulting tourist market as a major cause of the Square's economic boom.

Yet the "upscaling" of Harvard Square has its downside as well. Gladys Gifford, an attorney and historic preservation activist in Cambridge, said only the best-financed are staying in business.

"Since rents have been escalating, some places going for $60 per square foot... only high-profit-margin, national chain stores or those that appeal to faddish markets survive, since they are able to pay top dollar," Gifford said." The Ma and Pa stores are being forced out, and that's a shame."

Olive Holmes, president of the Harvard Square Defense Fund, said residents hoped to preserve aspects of Harvard Square that made it unique. Harkening back to the times of allnight diners where people talked politics, Holmes said "Harvard Square used to have all sorts of creative alternatives in the '60s. Now those are being replaced by more regional stores.

Other casualties over the past two years include two inexpensive restaurants: Brigham's ice cream parlor, now about to be replaced by an expanding buyback, and, two summers ago, the inexpensive Mug 'N Muffin coffee shop, now home to the Cambridge Savings Bank.

The Square is also after a much narrower market now, said Gifford. She said the recent closing of shoes & Things, next doors to Store 24, showed the inability of smaller stores to sustain themselves. "Cobblers are a victim of the times, " she said.

The result, Gifford said, is that "The Square has become less of a place for daily shopping needs. Now it has clothes for one generation only." Meanwhile, said Gifford, "Harvard Square has 30 book stores. What other community could support that many?"

The Square may be a victim of its own success, said Holmes, commenting that its homogenization could take away its attraction. "Now that parking is so expensive in the Square, why would anyone come here if they could get the same things at a mall?" Holmes asked. "You just don't want to kill the goose that laid the golden egg."