Grower's Market Latest To Close

The fate of the only commercial Harvard property on Memorial Drive is up in the air now that Grower's Market, the current tenant, has filed for bankruptcy.

Grower's Market, a garden supplies store, has held the site since 1976. Harvard must now decide what to do with this coveted site on the Charles River.

"We're at this point developing a leasing strategy for the property," Harvard Real Estate Inc. (HRE) President Kristin S. Demong said. HRE is a University-owned subsidiary.

"The reason that Harvard Real Estate has property is for current or future academic use," Demong added. But HRE probably has no immediate need for the land and would likely continue to lease it to businesses, Demong said.

"We will soon be meeting with a number of Faculty in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Kennedy School and the Business School to discuss what the long-range academic and institutional needs will be for the property," she said.

One business has already expressed interest in using the site. Pemberton Market, a Cambridge supermarket, approached HRE about the property, Demong said.

Just last year, the Stop and Shop supermarket chain, which had run a Memorial Drive store for nearly 50 years, left Cambridge when the city council denied it a zoning permit to expand the facility. This left the residents of the Cambridgeport and Riverside neighborhoods with no nearby supermarket.

However, Demong said "it's too premature to talk to any tenants." HRE will continue to discuss its plans for the property, she said.

Demong added that Harvard might welcome a Pemberton plant nursery but not a supermarket at the Memorial Drive site. She said a supermarket would bring in too many people and would be difficult to displace should Harvard need the land in the future.

Geneva T. Malenfant, vice president of the Cambridge Civic Association, agreed that a future supermarket is unlikely.

Harvard "has a policy of not signing leases for greater than five years. [A supermarket] would be such an investment that it would have to have a lease larger than that," Malenfant said. "In between Harvard's demands and the needs of a supermarket, I don't think it's a viable site."

Malenfant also speculated that Harvard's rent requirements would be too high for Pemberton. "It's very hard for a supermarket to move in because of the high cost of the land," she said.

"The city and the Department of Community Development are trying to do outreach to supermarkets to relocate to a variety of areas we feel are under-served," said Susan B. Schlesinger, assistant city manager for community development.

The Grower's Market site was listed in a recent report by the department calling for supermarket development in Cambridgeport and Riverside.

But Schlesinger said the site's future is up to Harvard. "It's a Harvard-owned site," she said. "It's not city-owned."

Harvard would be more willing to have a smaller store lease the site. Fred Ewen, owner of Grower's Market, even said he would be interested in obtaining a new lease if a different, one could be negotiated.

But Demong said Ewen must first resolve his bankruptcy settlement before discussion of a new deal can take place. "He needs to continue through his bankruptcy [action] to get his finances in order."

Ewen said that escalating city taxes and the recession compelled the garden store to shut down.

"We were forced out by Harvard," he said. "They sent us a quit notice. Their claim was that we owed them a substantial amount of back [payments]," he said.

Ewen said his market was crippled by Cambridge municipal taxes, which rose throughout the 1980s. Ewen said that Cambridge wrong-fully taxed his store at the same rate as a condominium, and won a suit against the city which returned to him a portion of the lost revenue.

The compensation he received after winning the lawsuit did not make up for his losses, Ewen said.

Demong, however, said Grower's Market failed to meet its rent payments. "We worked with him to reduce his rent obligation which, I might add, he has never been able to cover in its entirety," she said.

Ewen admitted he did not succeed in bargaining down his rent rates.

"We loved Cambridge," he said. "We just couldn't afford it."

Sewell Chan contributed to the reporting of this story.

Geneva T. Malenfant, vice president of the Cambridge Civic Association, agreed that a future supermarket is unlikely.

Harvard "has a policy of not signing leases for greater than five years. [A supermarket] would be such an investment that it would have to have a lease larger than that," Malenfant said. "In between Harvard's demands and the needs of a supermarket, I don't think it's a viable site."

Malenfant also speculated that Harvard's rent requirements would be too high for Pemberton. "It's very hard for a supermarket to move in because of the high cost of the land," she said.

"The city and the Department of Community Development are trying to do outreach to supermarkets to relocate to a variety of areas we feel are under-served," said Susan B. Schlesinger, assistant city manager for community development.

The Grower's Market site was listed in a recent report by the department calling for supermarket development in Cambridgeport and Riverside.

But Schlesinger said the site's future is up to Harvard. "It's a Harvard-owned site," she said. "It's not city-owned."

Harvard would be more willing to have a smaller store lease the site. Fred Ewen, owner of Grower's Market, even said he would be interested in obtaining a new lease if a different, one could be negotiated.

But Demong said Ewen must first resolve his bankruptcy settlement before discussion of a new deal can take place. "He needs to continue through his bankruptcy [action] to get his finances in order."

Ewen said that escalating city taxes and the recession compelled the garden store to shut down.

"We were forced out by Harvard," he said. "They sent us a quit notice. Their claim was that we owed them a substantial amount of back [payments]," he said.

Ewen said his market was crippled by Cambridge municipal taxes, which rose throughout the 1980s. Ewen said that Cambridge wrong-fully taxed his store at the same rate as a condominium, and won a suit against the city which returned to him a portion of the lost revenue.

The compensation he received after winning the lawsuit did not make up for his losses, Ewen said.

Demong, however, said Grower's Market failed to meet its rent payments. "We worked with him to reduce his rent obligation which, I might add, he has never been able to cover in its entirety," she said.

Ewen admitted he did not succeed in bargaining down his rent rates.

"We loved Cambridge," he said. "We just couldn't afford it."

Sewell Chan contributed to the reporting of this story.