Wave of New Businesses to End Spell of Vacancies in Central Square

A wave of at least 10 new businesses is set to arrive in Central Square over the coming year, ending a prolonged period of vacancies that have dotted many prominent storefronts in Cambridge’s main downtown area since the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the process, the new businesses’ arrivals may help dispel anxieties that the empty storefronts provoked in some residents, who worried that landlords may have been sitting on the properties to profit from recent zoning reforms.

The vacancy problem first arose during the pandemic. From November 2019 to May 2021, the number of vacant storefronts in Central Square doubled from seven to 14, according to city data, which relies on voluntary reports from landlords.

Even as pandemic lockdown measures — and the ensuing economic contraction — have subsided over the last few years, the vacancy rate in Central remains even higher than before, at 19 properties.

The issue of Central Square vacancies even reached the Cambridge City Council in recent months. In June, the city issued a new rule that requires the owners of storefront properties that have been vacant for at least 180 days to either post contact information or to post a “coming soon” sign if the space is now under construction.

In an interview last week, Pardis Saffari, Cambridge’s director of economic opportunity and development, predicted a reduction in the number of vacancies in the square this year, mostly of restaurant and entertainment spaces.

Saffari said she was “optimistic” that the number of vacancies would be reduced in the next city-issued report.

“We’ll see some new businesses open, which I think is going to be great for the square, and then, of course, for the city,” Safari said.

Monestime said that several new restaurants, cafes, gyms, and entertainment spaces had signed a lease or were very close to opening, whether or not they had been announced yet. New cafes and restaurants include Fallow Kin, Jersey Mike’s, Shateau De Blanc, and More Fun Cafe. Other new spaces include a hot yoga studio, a comedy club, and a pottery studio.

Until recently, however, persistently high vacancy numbers had led some to believe landlords were deliberately leaving properties empty in order to redevelop them once the ongoing rezoning of the square had finished.

The rezoning process, which has been mired in disagreements within the Council, may raise the allowed height from the current limit of 80 feet — meaning smaller properties may see their value vastly increase if the zoning reform is passed.

“I’m not going to sign a five- or 10- or 20-year lease with anybody if need, there’s a chance that I might basically just be knocking the whole thing down and putting up something of 15 stories or more,” Council candidate Robert Winters said, echoing the worry of others about the square’s vacancies.

But a range of experts who spoke to The Crimson for this story, including leasing agents and the president of the Central Square Business Improvement District, told a different story.

“That’s definitely not happening here,” said Michael Monestime, president of the Central Square BID. “We have a lot of legacy landowners, not big REIT organizations,” he added, referring to Real Estate Investment Trusts, or large real estate companies with various investors.

“We have mom and pop property owners who, you know, they have to collect rent to pay their mortgages,” he added.

Sources instead pointed to the difficulty of finding long-term tenants, the area’s uniquely large units, and changes in consumer behavior post-Covid-19 as primary reasons for the prolonged spell of vacancies.

During and after the Covid-19 pandemic, decreases in foot traffic led many businesses to close their storefronts and either close entirely or shift online.

Following the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, the number of vacancies continued to shift as businesses digitized or failed to adjust to the new market landscape.

“A lot of people struggled to catch up on that,” Monestime said.

Of the 19 vacancies reported in November 2024, nine had been vacant for more than two years prior.

Thomas M. Cifrino, who manages the building at 600 Massachusetts Avenue in Central Square, also said the possibility of redeveloping the building after rezoning did not factor into the first-floor storefront’s seven-year vacancy.

Instead, he attributed the vacancy’s length to difficulties finding the right tenant, who he could trust to stay for at least five years and endure economic shocks.

“We wanted somebody that would be able to sustain a situation like Covid,” he said, referencing his desire to avoid paying excessive brokers’ commissions, which are fees that landlords pay to brokers in exchange for connecting them with tenants.

“You don’t want to have to do that every five years,” he added.

David Downing, managing director of leasing at the real estate firm GraffitoSP, said the cost of preparing their property for new businesses to move in can be prohibitive for smaller landlords, forcing them to keep their property empty for longer.

Businesses often look for places that are ready to move in, meaning landlords must invest significant capital in the space — and without which, their storefronts may be empty for longer.

Monestime pointed out that Central Square’s storefronts are unusually large, which can make it harder for local businesses to fill them.

“Walgreens closed this year, earlier in March,” Monestime said. “You need a Walgreens-size store to fill that, you know.”

“It’s not as easy as a mom and pop or a local sort of filling in that space, it’s probably a national big box company that's going to lease that, and there's just less of those out there,” he added.

—Staff writer Diego García Moreno can be reached at diego.garciamoreno@thecrimson.com.

—Staff Writer Summer E. Rose can be reached at summer.rose@thecrimson.com.