Familiar Stores Uprooted For Renovations

Five storefronts along Mass. Ave will undergo a massive overhaul this winter, forcing longtime Harvard Square landmarks to relocate or possibly shut down.

Harvard Real Estate Services (HRES) will renovate the Mass. Ave. building that houses Toscanini’s, Gnomon Copy, smoke shop Leavitt and Pierce, new jewelry store Zinnia, photo shop Ferranti-Dege, and graduate students in its upper floors.

The renovations, which will begin this January, will force all the stores—except for Leavitt and Pierce—to close or move from 1300-1316 Mass. Ave.

“The building had some maintenance issues that needed to be addressed, and this was a good time to do it,” said HRES representative, Carolee Hill.

In order to renovate the storefronts, HRES first had to apply to the Cambridge Historical Commission, according to the Undergraduate Council Liaison to the City of Cambridge Jeffrey Kwong ’09.

Besides revamping all five storefronts and the interiors of four stores, HRES also plans to install central air-conditioning and heating throughout the building, improve electricity and lighting, and add a laundry room to the basement for graduate student tenants. The project will also make the entire building, including all storefronts, handicap accessible, Hill said.

Hill estimated that the renovations would be completed by fall 2007.

When the reconstruction starts this January, Gnomon Copy will move temporarily to a new location in the Holyoke Center.

But the future of three stores still remains unclear.

“Harvard Real Estate is still negotiating with the businesses,” Kwong said yesterday.

Zinnia’s owner, Jen Kurani, 25, who is still involved in negotiations, declined to comment about her store’s future plans.

Serendipity, the clothing store that previously occupied the Zinnia space, closed partly because of news of upcoming facelift, according to Hill.

“Because of the renovations he saw it as a wonderful opportunity to retire,” she said.

When Zinnia first opened, store personnel, aware of the revamping, deliberately did not set out their full inventory, Hill said.

Ferranti-Dege will also be forced to leave the Mass. Ave building during the renovations and may not return, according to Hill.

“He is deciding about retiring,” said Hill. Tony Ferranti, one of the owners of the photogrpahic store, did not return multiple requests for comment yesterday.

Gnomon owner, Michael Skikne said that news of the renovation was not surprising.

“We had known for years that they were going to renovate the building,” he said.

Although Skikne said he was mentally prepared for the renovation, he added that he was worried about the repercussions for his store.

“It will hurt business a lot,” Skikne said.

And Toscanini’s may leave the Square entirely.

According to owner Gus Rancatore, the ice cream and coffee shop is struggling to pay rent and may not be able to survive in the Square.

“Anyone who remembers Harvard Square from five years ago is struck by the decline in the number of people, even on the busiest of days,” Rancatore wrote in an e-mail. “A lot of businesses in the Square have closed. We don’t want to be one of those.”

According to Kwong, Cambridge residents are unhappy with the impending changes.

“Neighborhood reaction has been very negative because they are afraid that these local independent businesses cannot survive,” he said. “It’s troubling that they [HRES] are not getting more community input.”

But in spite of the stores that face relocation or possible shutdown, Leavitt and Pierce will not be forced to move at all.

“The job of emptying it would have been daunting, and it probably wouldn’t have come back,” said owner Paul J. Macdonald, who described his shop as part-museum and part-store. “So we were treated differently.”

Hanging on the walls of the tobacco shop are century old crew oars, Harvard team photos, and other antiques that would have been difficult to remove from the walls, Macdonald said.

“We’ve been here since 1883. Some of the stuff on the walls has been there since then,” he said. “It’s also how much merchandise we have in the store. There is no way we could have done it.”

Macdonald added that the interior of his store was in good condition and did not warrant renovations.

“The other stores are kind of dumpy,” he said.

In the process of making the top floor of the Mass. Ave building, which acts as graduate housing, handicap accessible, a new elevator and staircase will be installed in the south side of the building.

These installations will take up much of the space now occupied by Gnomon Copy, forcing the copy center to move into the space currently used by Toscanini’s when renovation are completed in the fall of 2007.

Toscanini’s storefront will be remodeled to resemble Gnomon’s trademark art deco one in order to accommodate these changes.

Additional renovations will open up the Linden Street side of the building and remove bricks in the windows to make room for a small restaurant.

Power-activated handicap doors will also be installed in Leavitt and Pierce as well as in Zinnia.

—Staff writer Shifra B. Mincer can be reached at smincer@fas.harvard.edu.