Raising the Heights in Needham
Restaurant, planned projects rekindle hopes for Highland
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Drive into Needham from Newton via Highland Avenue, and you are greeted with the vacant Needham Appliance building, in a stucco strip overgrown with weeds. On your left is a vacant gas station, its ``Closed" sign faded from red to a dusty peach.
Farther along Highland is the vacant Zathmary's grocery, once a thriving lunchtime hub that quietly closed its doors in February.
The Heights business section of town presents a sharp contrast to the opposite side of Route 128, where after a quarter-mile or so Highland Avenue turns into Newton's traffic-jammed, store-jammed Needham Street.
But while Newton struggles to decongest Needham Street, just up the road Needham looks for ways to fill empty storefronts.
``There's a perception that there are a lot of vacancies in Needham," said local real estate attorney Roy Cramer , who cited the loss of Zathmary's as a blow to the town.
But last month's opening of the 120-seat Blue on Highland restaurant and two impending building projects are expected to enliven the gateway to Needham Center. Blue on Highland moved into the former Heights Pharmacy, owned by Harvey Tabachnick from 1969 to 2004, early this summer.
The Needham-based Pickwick Associates is on track to propose a plan next month to tear down a vacant gas station on 868 Highland Ave. and replace it with two first-floor storefronts and two second-floor housing units, said lawyer George Giunta Jr., who represents the developer.
Built in 1934, the one-time Arco station has been vacant since about 1996, said former owner Joe Rizzo , when scores of independent gas stores like his were forced to close because they could not afford to implement state-mandated environmental equipment. Rizzo, 74, now works across the street at the Shell station.
Across from the Arco, a vacant building that once housed Needham Appliance and a hair studio will be demolished to make way for an Eastern Bank branch. Construction of the 3,200-square-foot building is begin next month, said bank spokesman Joe Bartolotta.
Needham Appliance, which has stood empty for about two years, was the subject of a long-running battle between customers and owner Kenneth Kaplan. In March 2005, Kaplan was ordered in Middlesex Superior Court to pay $94,000 in damages and attorney fees, according to court records. A lawsuit filed by Attorney General Tom Reilly three years ago is still pending in Boston Bankruptcy Court. The building was auctioned off to a Brookline real estate firm 18 months ago.
Several potential tenants have expressed interest in the 6,000-square-foot space that had been home to Zathmary's, according to Bill McQuillen , president of Boylston Properties, which owns the property. He said the space may be divided into two or more stores.
Head along Highland Avenue past the library, and you'll arrive in Needham Center, where independently owned shops such as Harvey's Hardware on Great Plain Avenue and small offices line the streets surrounding Town Hall.
Although owner-operated stores are a staple of Needham's business community, it's the large chains, such as
New businesses would offer welcome relief to homeowners, who bear nearly 80 percent of the property tax burden, officials say. Businesses paid $14.5 million of the total $69 million tax take last year, according to Dave Davison, Needham's finance director.
Limited space for parking throughout Needham makes it nearly impossible for multinational chains to open in town, with some having strict requirements on the number of spaces needed for one of their stores, according to Cramer, who also serves as chairman of Needham's Conservation Commission.
Instead, Needham has become a restaurant town. Giunta said the eateries helped revive the local economy when a retail boom started fizzling in the 1980s.
A consultant is studying ways to bring more housing, retail and parking to the town center, thus boosting both its day and night life. DiNisco Design Partnership LLC has a target of November 2007 to present a plan for mixed zoning that combines first-floor retail and second-floor condominiums.
Even after the results of the downtown design review are published, according to the town's planning director, Needham residents will have to decide what kind of town they want. ``The question is, does Needham want to be a regional retail area or does it want to service local retail needs?" Lee Newman said.
Residents in one camp want a vibrant town center with upscale chains that will offset residential property taxes. Others don't want to bother with the traffic headaches of Newton's Needham Street.
``Needham has always been of two minds about the commercial character of the town," said Cramer. ``Old Needham is more blue collar. Newer Needham is white collar and highly educated. Younger people are likely to want more services than older folks."
Lauren Meade can be reached at l_meade@globe.com. 
