Approved lab developments by developers Asana Partners and Scape have introduced uncertainty into the future of Davis Square’s retail landscape. Photo by Steve Adams | Banker & Tradesman Staff
Somerville is preparing to tackle lingering retail storefront vacancies and the displacement of local businesses that threaten to sap vibrancy from its commercial districts even as a sizable development pipeline is poised to bring a boost in foot traffic to prominent squares.
The seemingly contradictory trends point to a market failure that’s prompted a city task force to consider the creation of a nonprofit municipal real estate corporation, which would acquire retail space and sublease storefronts at affordable rents.
“The odds are stacked against you,” said Christina Pasucucci Ciampa, a member of the Somerville Anti Displacement Task Force and a local bookstore owner. “Once those small businesses don’t exist, it’s all chains, and we know that is not what makes Somerville what it is.”
Ciampa leads the task force’s small enterprise displacement committee, which has been researching strategies in collaboration with Harvard Kennedy School students. An imminent report lays out the challenges faced by small businesses in the wake of the pandemic, including the role that redevelopment plays in displacement.
Preliminary recommendations include new fines for landlords of long-vacant retail storefronts, and minimum requirements for affordable retail space in developments above a certain size threshold.
City Strategizes with Retailers
Somerville’s desirability as a commercial development landing spot in the past decade has brought massive new mixed-use projects including Federal Realty’s Assembly Row and US2’s Union Square including millions of square feet of high-rise offices, labs and apartment towers. Other developers responding to the region’s housing crunch have targeted small commercial properties for redevelopment as apartments and condominiums, displacing retail tenants.
“There is no such thing that exists currently as a tenant bill of rights for commercial space,” Ciampa commented at a recent task force presentation. “And I think it’s time. We are definitely feeling the domino effects of what’s happening from the rental [housing] crunch and the displacement on that side.”
A 130 percent rent increase over two years prompted Ciampa to relocate All She Wrote Books, her feminist and queer-themed bookstore, from its Assembly Row home since 2020. It recently reopened in the ground floor of a small multifamily building at 75 Washington St. near Union Square.
Ciampa largely undertook the space search herself, pointing to a potential growing role for city hall in the retail displacement issue. Initial recommendations include creation of a commercial tenant toolkit with tips for small businesses and a database of “swing space” for businesses facing immediate eviction.
The strategies address situations such as businesses that have lost leases and operate on a tenant-at-will basis, said Adriana Fernandes, a senior planner for minority and women-owned business support for the city of Somerville. The task force and Harvard Kennedy School students have been working with Main Street organizations in East Somerville and Union Square, including outreach to minority-owned businesses whose owners may have limited English speaking skills.
“We want our new businesses and infrastructure to complement the existing businesses and help them, not disrupt them,” said Ted Fields, a senior planner in Somerville’s Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development.
A State of Flux in Davis Square
New ownership of Davis Square properties has introduced uncertainty into the future of the retail businesses. Asana Partners, a North Carolina retail developer, has emerged a major landlord in the heart of Davis Square with a series of acquisitions in recent years.
In March, three retail buildings owned by Asana Partners at 256-260 Elm St. were approved for redevelopment as “7th Spoke,” a 4-story lab building. No groundbreaking has been announced, and Asana Partners did not return a message seeking an update.
The 7th Spoke site is directly across from a block of storefronts where British developer Scape has approval for a 188,000-square-foot life science development, although no construction has started and developers have not announced any tenant commitments.
Asana Partners also owns the former Social Security administration building at 240 Elm St. that was most recently anchored by grocer bFresh, which closed in September. The prospect of a lingering vacancy would echo the disuse of the former Star Market property at 299 Broadway, which sat vacant for 15 years before being acquired by Mark Development this fall for a potential multifamily development.
Although Somerville requires vacant property owners to register and pay an annual fee, the task force is favoring an ordinance enacting fines for long-vacant properties.
Zoning Requirements for Affordable Storefronts?
Somerville already has sought to address displacement through zoning bylaws that require major developments to include space for arts and creative enterprises that have found it increasingly difficult to find or afford space for studios, rehearsals and performances. Typically, developers are required to set aside 5 percent to 10 percent of the square-footage in new buildings for arts and creative enterprises, under zoning enacted in 2019.
Steve Adams
With small businesses facing many of the same pressures, the next step could be a similar requirement for affordable retail space, according to the task force’s preliminary recommendations.
Ultimately, the city could step in as a landlord of last resort for local retailers. A nonprofit development corporation would acquire properties and sublease them at below-market rates. Specifics of funding sources and organizational structure are still being studied, Fields said, but the concept has a similar local precedent in Cambridge. The city’s Redevelopment Authority purchased an office building in 2019 that had been placed on the market at 93-99 Bishop Allen Drive, to prevent displacement of 11 social service agency tenants.
“We are in the very early stages of looking at this concept, but we are willing to consider it as a long-term strategy to keep our local businesses,” Fields said.
