A popular farmers market coffee seller gets a brick-and-mortar cafe, Momma’s Grocery + Wine expands from North Cambridge with a soft-serve ice cream specialty and an eco-friendly Somerville housewares and bath and body shop fulfills a mission with bulk buys, all coming in November with the opening of 1175 Cambridge St., in the Wellington-Harrington neighborhood near Inman Square.
That’s where the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority tests its Neighbor Storefronts Project, the result of talks begun in 2019 to address a much-discussed but hard-to-address problem in the city: Displacement isn’t just happening to residents, and retailers need affordable rents too.
“Many landlords are reluctant to lease to independently owned businesses. They would prefer corporately backed, more established retail operations, which makes it harder for some of our local small businesses,” said Josh Croom, a project manager for the CRA, at the organization’s June 17 meeting.
Also: “Retail spaces are often too large and come with associated rents that are too high,” yet come unfinished, requiring large capital investments, Croom said, summing up research from the past few years that came, in part, from the owners of the three businesses coming to Cambridge Street.
The project team emerged with another finding about the entrepreneurial experience, one that magnifies the others: “Small-business owners lack the experience and resources to effectively negotiate with landlords,” Croom said.
The CRA’s answer was to buy the ground-floor former offices of the nonprofit developer Just A Start and its basement storage in January 2025, putting in $2.7 million to remake the space into five retail units of 2,991 leasable square feet – now four units, because Momma’s opted to combine two for a larger selling area – while exploring what residents wanted to see benefit from the project. A series of listening events last year with Nicola Williams and the Williams Agency drew 500 participants, finding the businesses residents said they wanted most: bookstores, a grocery and cafes, eateries and nightlife options such as wine bars. To see the project through, the authority decided to negotiate low-cost, renewable three-year leases with qualifying businesses.
“We’re prioritizing folks who are trying to scale their business but facing difficulties,” Croom said.
Bids for spaces went out in January, drawing 40 businesses to information sessions. Sixteen wound up submitting applications due March 23, and tenants were selected in April.
Negotiations are ongoing this month for three that made the cut: Cini Coffee and its founder, Nefisa Siraj; Green Tiger & Co. and its founder Trang Trinh; and Momma’s Grocery + Wine and its founder, Danielle Pattavina. As part of the program, the CRA offers technical help and money toward its tenants’ needs in a new location. Cini is getting $41,000 for equipment purchases as well as $10,000 toward customization of the retail space, Croom said. Similar customization grants go to the other owners, and the authority and retail strategy partner Ann Ehrhart will point them toward other funding, such as a municipal Small Business Enhancement Program and storefront improvement grants.
Construction and fit out of the retail spaces is expected to end in late October or early November, meaning the stores can have a grand opening on Small Business Saturday – the buy-local answer to the holiday season’s Black Friday that this year lands on Nov. 28. By that time, the final unit should be filled; new bidding was to go out in late June to replace a South Boston plant seller that was accepted into the program but aborted, Croom said.
The grand opening is expected to involve the entire Cambridge Street corridor with the help of the East Cambridge Business Association, “one of the last vestiges of local small businesses in old Cambridge left,” Croom said. The hope is that growing buzz “translates into a lot of traffic and patronage when we open” – and that 1175 Cambridge St. will be just the first Neighbor Storefronts Project location.
The owners introduced themselves to the CRA board, making it clear that the project allows them to expand, rather than replace, their current businesses.
Momma’s Grocery + Wine
Momma’s somehow fits into its 800 square feet at 2304 Massachusetts Ave., North Cambridge, “everything a grocery store has, all from New England” and sourced directly from farmers, Pattavina said. There’s also a broad selection of natural wines and maple soft-serve ice cream “that has just taken on a life of its own.” (Croom agreed that he’s “seen people have hissy fits at her store because they don’t have ice cream.”) After working in restaurants for more than 20 years, Pattavina had plenty of connections to fill her shelves but not the experience to find or craft the perfect space; the size and lack of storage means she can’t buy in volume, “so my groceries look more expensive,” and she can’t present all brands she would hope. “I’m limited to like two types of yogurt rather than maybe four, because we can’t display that much stuff,” she said. “I can’t even really sell flowers right now because they can’t go into refrigeration at night.”
The new store is 1,000 square feet, though, not including a large storage space in the basement – and will have two entries, one leading customers directly to groceries and the other toward the ice cream: Momma’s famous maple, the one Pattavina said she cares most about for its regional roots, and chocolate and vanilla.
The existing Momma’s will stay open. “I made a lot of errors in that store. I’ve kind of outgrown some parts of it, and had I had some experience, I may have set things up a bit different. There were also some constraints,” Pattavina said. “Still, it’s very sweet, and I love it.”
Cini Coffee
In Ethiopia, Siraj worked for 22 years exporting coffee all over the world. After she moved to the United States, “I couldn’t find real coffee,” she told the CRA board. “So I started this thing.” Cini was established at the Brighton farmers market in 2018, but Siraj has grown her circuit to include markets throughout Greater Boston and as far away as Framingham. “It’s insane how many people know who Nefisa is,” Croom said.
Cini is taking an 854-square-foot corner space built to be a cafe – her first brick-and-mortar location – but expects to keep selling at markets and trade shows with small-batch, hand-roasted beans grown in Ethiopia and shipped directly to her. “People without food, without anything, they come and discuss and solve their problems with coffee culture in my country,” Siraj said. “I need to create that in this coffee shop.” She’s also expanded her menu to include chai and matcha, and finds these days that hibiscus tea is perhaps her most popular item. “I am more than my coffee,” she said, and it will be a relief to have more room to make and sell drinks than the small van she uses now.
Green Tiger
Plastic pollution has been on Trinh’s mind for 10 years, and three years ago she took action to do something about it, quitting a great job to “create something I’m passionate about.” That meant opening Green Tiger in July 2024 at Bow Market, 1 Bow Market Way, Union Square, Somerville, to fight consumer waste by selling reusable items, refills and products made to last or without plastics. Despite expanding in March, breaking down a wall into the next second-story unit to almost double the size of her store, a problem remains: She still can’t order in true bulk. “I would just get everything shipped to my home and haul these containers all the way across the balcony. It’s really difficult,” she said. At her new location, 599-square-foot spot with storage at the CRA project, she can order larger shipments more easily, and at a bigger volume that lets her lower prices.
She opened Green Tiger with “zero experience,” she said, and now nears her expansion to a second location conscious of what it might bring. Bow Market gets less foot traffic where she is than around the courtyard below, and fewer customers on weekdays than weekends, with weather and special events playing a big role; Cambridge Street offers a whole new dynamic to test. She appreciates that Bow welcomed her with a one-year lease, giving her the confidence to renew for five years. Similarly, she appreciates the CRA’s three-year lease.
“A lot of places require 10 years or more,” Trinh said, “and it’s very intimidating.”
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