Harvard buys up more of Western Avenue in Allston
By adamg - Mon, 08/18/2008 - 7:11pm.
The surprise isn't that Harvard bought something new, of course, but that there was something on Western Avenue it didn't already own.
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they won't quit till they have it all
Harvard has been buying-up my neighborhood and kicking out commercial tenants then leaving the spaces vacant since before I moved to the neighborhood in 1996. Every time I hear about a new straw deal it's like another punch in the gut.
The city of Boston should really crack down on Harvard for that.
The way in which Harvard University expands out into neighborhoods from left to right with impunity and total disregard and callousness for the people who reside in them is an absolute and total disgrace. It' s sickening..what Harvard's been doing. Why doesn't the Menino Administration crack down on Harvard for doing that once and for all, and Northeastern Univ and B. U , too, while they're at it?
Huh?
Have you ever been by 441 Western Ave? It's a little 1-story brick office building. It houses some accountants and a metal products company as far as I can tell. And that I had to find on the internet even though I live around the corner and go by there nearly every day.
You may be speaking to a greater point about Harvard's buy-out of upper Allston, but this one isn't really the poster child for corporo-academic greed.
All of the space that Harvard has bought along there (shown in red on the map on the blog) is commercial. I'm not sure I see the whole trampling of life in Allston. Hell, if they could use some clout to build up that dead space in the Shaw's mall area, more power to them. That place looks like a dead zone with Shaw's all the way in the back of the lot and an empty Staples, K-Mart, and craft store just sitting dead.
But did Harvard cause those commercial vacancies?
The question I have is: did Harvard empty out that strip mall by encouraging the businesses to break their leases, or by not renewing them? That would annoy me if I lived in the neighborhood and patronized those stores.
Dunno
I don't know when it was bought vs. when those businesses left.
I know the Staples relocated to Soldiers Field Road near the Martignetti's. The K-Mart closed and, honestly, it was never very busy and trashier than most K-Marts I've been in. The Watertown Target probably had something to do with it too. The craft/cloth store also never seemed to be busy and had tons of space that it was paying for.
OfficeMax, not Staples
That Staples on Soldiers Field Road was the very first Staples in the world, anywhere. The store on Western Avenue was an OfficeMax.
Hmm
It may have been an OfficeMax first (I sorta remember that. I didn't go to that Shaw's right away, I first used the one in Packard's Corner until I realized just how slummy it was because of the BU student raids on it). It was definitely a Staples just before the end of its life. I needed something they had on sale and found the location through their website. Went there and it was empty. That's when I called the number and they said they had moved to Soldiers Field Rd next to the McDonalds and Martignetti's.
I doubt the Shaw's or the Stop'n'Shop (I think that was also in red on that map) are going anywhere.
yes, they did.
I patronized those stores, and those tenants at Brighton Mills were booted (or leases not renewed) after Harvard bought the property. They might not have been local businesses, but they were stores that were quite nice to have there - and all in walking distance for myself and my neighbors. It's been at least two years by now that they've been closed. Charlesbank Cleaners is also gone, and the building (now owned by Harvard) still vacant. The Citgo at Western Ave. and North Harvard St. was bought by Harvard and now it's empty too. Too bad, I used to get my car inspected there. Take a walk down Soldier's Field Road, and you'll find many buildings with tiny metal plates stating that the property is managed by Harvard Real Estate Services, and the majority of them appear to be vacant.
Maybe they are looking for a
Maybe they are looking for a few years of having these properties vacant so when they go before the city to have it rezoned for University based usages there wont be a fight?
In general I disagree with
In general I disagree with how Harvard does land business. In this case it makes sense that they just buy the land because they owned everything around it anyway.
Whats up with the temporary LLCs? If they had nothing to hide they would just buy the land, not hide behind a mask like they do.
People talk about what Harard has done for Cambridge, or the increasing property values in this spot, and so forth. My problem with that is people who own businesses and live in these areas get pushed out when Harvard buys land and Harvard creates what Harvard wants with the land they buy. If you dont fit into the Harvard masterplan then you get tossed to the curb. Its not a community if the college owns everything that surrounds its campus.