The apartment project at 1740 Massachusetts Ave. at Linnaean Street is on track for a permit submission in June and demolition in the months that follow – and the three businesses there have notice they may need to leave as soon as Aug. 8-10, the developer said.
Keezer’s clothing store is the farthest along in its plans, with a lease in place and construction already underway at a location nearby. Simon’s Coffee Shop has an idea for how it might survive the coming 18 to 20 months of construction, after which it can come back. And there’s good reason to think the building will get a replacement pharmacy for the Walgreens that’s being displaced.
If all goes to plan, the 64,330-square-foot, six-story building will be ready for move-in as soon as the spring or summer of 2028, with 71 homes – 13 of them affordable, including a pair of three-bedroom units – and bicycle parking (75 long-term and 13 short-term spaces), but no car parking. Ground-floor and basement commercial space could host the return of Simon’s, Keezer’s and a pharmacy.
“We want them to be there,” said Adam Siegel of Old North Development and SGL Development. “We indicated to Simon’s and Keezer’s that they could stay [past the termination date] on a month-to-month basis if our project is slowed down for any reason.”
Walgreens is more likely to move out on the termination date, Siegel said. A worker at the store said Wednesday that staff hadn’t been told their last day; an email was left afterward with the chain’s corporate offices about its plans for the area.
Keezer’s started in Cambridgeport near Central Square in 1895, but was forced to relocate after 122 years when its building was sold in 2017. Now work has begun to turn the former Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage offices at 1730 Massachusetts Ave. into a third location, said staff at the clothing store and a contractor entering the site Tuesday. The new location is more than 7,200 square feet including the finished basement, a setup similar to what the store has now at 1740 Massachusetts Ave.
Like Siegel, staff weren’t sure if Keezer’s would return when construction was done. “They just need to keep their operation running, which we completely understand,” Siegel said.
Simon’s is the same position.
“I’ve been talking with real estate people and a few city people about relocating temporarily, so I can come back to serve the community I’ve been serving for 20-plus years,” said Simon Yu, the shop’s founder, on Tuesday. “I don’t have a lot of options. Either I move or I wait.”
Waiting would mean no Simon’s Coffee Shop, which worries the regulars. Yu said he’s been getting 10 to 20 questions a day about what will happen when demolition arrives in the fall.
Any location he finds for the next two to three years needs the right electrical and plumbing installations – and the right rental agreement. An obvious move is to fill the Shepard Post space at 1662 Massachusetts Ave.: It was a Coffee Connection until Starbucks bought the chain from local roaster George Howell in the mid-1990s; Starbucks was there until the company’s September purge of 400-plus U.S. and Canadian locations, more than 20 of which were in Massachusetts. That included four in Cambridge and Somerville.
Yu believes the site is still under lease by Starbucks, and worries its rent is “unsustainable.”
“If it goes over $10,000 a month, which the Starbucks location probably is, that’s not very sustainable,” he said.
He’s hoping that instead he can create a coffee pop-up at an existing nearby business, re-creating the dynamic at Tilde in North Cambridge or Jaho in Central Square, with Simon’s selling coffee and pastry during the day, then closing in time for a transition to restaurant and wine bar. He turned to local food and film writer Tom Meek to make the connection.
Old North is also trying to get the final retail component back in place for 2028: “We’d love to have a pharmacy, and we’ve told our brokerage team at Atlantic Retail. They’re putting the word out quite wide,” Siegel said. “Most tenants don’t commit three years in advance, but there have been some people that have reached out.”
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