Business Owners May Face Eviction

For over 20 years, Thomas R. Ittelson ’68 has gone to work at his office in the Harvard-owned building at 124 Mt. Auburn Street. A partner at the Mercury Group—a consulting company for high technology businesses—he moved into the space two years after the building was constructed.

With Harvard now expanding the size of its development office, which already occupies part of the building, Ittelson fears that the University will not renew its lease next April, and will effectively evict about 50 businesses that currently occupy space on the building’s second floor.

“I believe that rather than renewing the lease on the second floor, they’ve decided not to renew it,” Ittelson said. “Since Harvard has just taken over most of the building, it seems that the likelihood of them taking over this floor is very high.”

Other businesses that have offices on the second floor of the building include educational consultants and public relations firms.

Though Harvard owns the building, HQ Global Workplaces, Inc. has a lease within the building, according to Patricia Whelchel, the general manager of Harvard Square’s branch of HQ.

The master lease that Harvard has with HQ is up for renewal in April 2009, she said.

If the lease is not renewed, Ittelson said that the business will have nowhere to go while Harvard would continue to increase its presence in the Square.

“What that will mean is that all 50 businesses—small Cambridge businesses—will be put out in the street,” he said.

Mike Quinn, the director of University & Commercial Real Estate at Harvard Real Estate Services, did not return repeated requests for comment. Other employees of the office declined to comment.

Although the lease is supposed to be reviewed next year, Ittelson said that Harvard has not approached him for his input.

“I think Harvard throws its weight around like an elephant and squashes things it doesn’t mean to,” Ittelson said. “They have to decide whether they want to take over the Square with all Harvard space or throw out small businesses.”

But Timothy Locke, the director of business development at The Regus Group, the umbrella group of which HQ is a part, said that discussions with Harvard are ongoing.

“Harvard technically owns the building, so they can do whatever they want with the space,” Locke said. “There are over 12 months to go until this lease expires, and anything can happen.”

Some small business owners in the Square sympathized with the situation.

While Jon Olinto, who owns b.good at 24 Dunster St., had high praise for the University as a landlord, he said that he has not yet had to work with Harvard to renew a lease.

“We have 13 more years until we have that discussion,” he said. “We’re just getting rolling.”

—Staff writer Kevin Zhou can be reached at kzhou@fas.harvard.edu