Miso Market building update

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Followup to http://davis-square.livejournal.com/2989159.html

I talked to a guy behind the counter tonight, and he said they have 3 years on their lease. The petition is to try to prevent shenanigans. I don't know what good it would do vs. having a good lawyer, but I approve of no landowner shenanigans so signed. He'd be happy -- I don't know his position -- with being paid to void the lease and go elsewhere, the ethical alternative to shenanigans, but thought that had been ruled out already. Building plan is 2-4 stories (he thought) of housing with businesses underneath, just as we all want. But now 3/4 of the site is empty, and will probably remain so for 3 years unless the owners can find some user who doesn't mind leaving in 3 years, thus I guess the fear of possible shenanigans, because the math is odd.

I wonder how much it would cost to get the spaces up to basic housing code. Lots of college students wouldn't mind a 3 year deadline.

Comments

[ron_newman]

The best thing the landlord could do is bring in a series of temporary ('pop-up') businesses.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but how many of those exist? Only ones I've seen are Halloween and fireworks stores, and I bet the latter aren't even legal in this state.

[ron_newman]

Fireworks are most definitely illegal in Massachusetts, but there are lots of temporary art and craft stores that pop up in early November for holiday shoppers.

Also, occasionally big national companies set up temporary stores to get attention for particular products. That would be a nice draw to Porter Square.

[benign-cremator.livejournal.com]

There are a number of types of season stores. I used to be general manager of one that sold calenders, and continued to get adverts from other vendors/companies that sold you franchises on seasonal pop-up stores until I moved out of Pittsburgh. If you are willing to deal with the continuing logistics headache, you can go from Halloween (which is the most lucrative of the bunch) to Christmas and/or calenders, to Valentine's and cards, to Pool and Spa and/or backyard grilling, and back to Halloween, and that does not include non-seasonal temporary retail offerings, like gemstones and naturalist gifts, candles, specialty brand clothing and accessories (Gucci and Louis Vuitton are big players here), and so on. Think about any seasonal or temporary display that you might see in any other retail store, and realize most of them can be specialized into a store front for one of two months, and then turned over. There are companies whose sole existence is in supporting pop-up retail store fronts that do something for 6 to 12 weeks and turn over. Vacant is the oldest and most respected name here, but there are others. And some cities have created incubator programs around pop-up store fronts to help revitalize declining communities, such as BoxPark London, and PopupHood in Oakland CA.

And this is only the retail space. Last year, I was technical director for the Boston Babydolls production of the Wrathskellar (playing this year at the Davis Sq Theater, behind Saloon), where we took over an empty store front and turned it into a 3 stage (4 performing space), audience in the round theater, playing for the month of October, gone by Nov 7th. And that space is within walking distance of both Davis and Porter.

None or all of which may or may not work for the space in question. The point is not that any of these will work for that space. The point is that there are seasonal options beyond just the standard Halloween store, and if someone has the endurance to deal with the never ending logistics and planning, then rolling over pop-up businesses can work for that space. All of which are better then letting empty space remain empty.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

didn't that building have a Calendar store 2 years back when the space was empty?

[ron_newman]

Actors' Shakespeare Project turned the former Poor Little Rich Girl store in Davis Square into a temporary theatre space for a few months, before the current tenant (Found) moved in.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

I wonder how much it would cost to get the spaces up to basic housing code.

How could you? To get an occupancy permit for rental housing, every room needs to have a window, for one thing. That means you could get maybe two rooms, maybe three, out of the Bob Slate space if you did a ton of demo and put windows in the back and on the side, two rooms max out of the Stellabella space if you put windows at the back, and I doubt you could do anything with the Bookcellar space to bring it up to residential code.

The thing is, too, that empty commercial space is a tax writeoff, so it may be financially advantageous for whoever owns the space to let it sit empty than for them to invest tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars in creating temporary residential housing.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

It has had a calendar store, and it had the Sign of the Dove pop-up one Christmas season.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

All of which are better then letting empty space remain empty.

From a community development standpoint, I agree 100%. It may not be the case from the owners' financial standpoint, though.

[ron_newman]

Isn't it always better to collect rent than not to collect it?

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

The tax writeoff might be more advantageous to them in the particular situation than devoting the staff hours to managing the temporary tenants. I don't know anything about the owners of this building or what their corporate structure might be, though.

[ron_newman]

The Slate family (as in Bob Slate Stationers) owns this building.