Here’s an exercise.
Compare the south side of Pike Street between Broadway and Harvard Ave with Pike Street between Boylston Ave and Harvard Ave.
Pike Street between Boylston & Harvard (Old Construction):
Businesses such as Ayutthaya Thai Cuisine, Martin-Zambito Fine Art, Rosebud Restaurant & Bar, Salon Chemistry, Babeland, Sal’s Pike Street Barbers, Stitches, Honey Hole, and Edge of the Circle Books.
 Pike Street between Boylston & Harvard |
 Pike Street between Boylston & Harvard |
Pike Street between Harvard & Broadway (New Construction)
Businesses such as AT&T Store, UPS Store, T-Mobile, Kyoto Teriyaki, La Nails, Harvard Cleaners, Subway and of course Top Smoke Shop.
I have no comments just an fun exercise for you.
But then… what was there before Harvard Market was built were a couple of parking lots on the Pike side of the block. (There was a classic old auto-dealership building on the Union corner. It supplied the inspiration for the design of the new block, along with a few of the terra-cotta detailings on the second floor.)
The general point, though, is apt. New construction usually provides high-rent retail spaces that are beyond the means of local business like those in the older block.
If there’s too much new construction in a neighborhood, the business diversity suffers as only chain outfits can afford to rent the new spaces.
Sounds like you hit it on the money. Development is not always bad (particularly when replacing old parking lots) but for some reason the places that are being built are nothing like the existing businesses. I suppose those businesses will serve their purpose if people need to buy a cell phone or something.
And that’s what scares me (and a lot of other people) about the new condo block that’s replacing the manray/Pony/Busstop block. The suburban developer of the block seems to want these kinds of chain outfits in the retail base of the building.
Harvard Market, though, is a different beast. It was great to get a big grocery store and drug store at that corner. And the retail that goes along with it isn’t so bad.
The restaurants on the Broadway side are local businesses, like those in the older block. And even the chains on the Pike side are better than what happens with most grocery stores.
Zoning wisely requires storefronts, but most grocery stores (like the relatively new Safeway on 15th) just put in fake storefronts. Harvard’s real storefronts are far preferable even if they were rented to chains.