After downturn, businesses return to Wellesley Square
Empty storefronts are filling up again in Wellesley Square. After the steady stream of closings that left the heart of Wellesley’s downtown shopping area spotted with vacancies, businesses are returning.
“We’ve actually had a lot of new business,” said Wellesley’s planning director, Meghan Jop. “There’s certainly still a few vacancies but we’ve seen at least five new tenants come in within the past four or five months.”
J. P. Licks, Isabel Harvey, Lacrosse Unlimited and Gustare Oils and Vinegars have moved in to Central Street, lighting up dark storefronts.
Gustare sits next to the soon-to-be MiniLuxe beauty spa. Just two doors down, a Boloco Restaurant is in the works, said Jop, and the now-shuttered Hudson across the street will become a Papyrus paper goods store.
“There’s been a lot of negative press about vacancies, and now it’s filled up,” said Annette Born, principal for commercial real estate brokerage firm Urban/Born Associates, who represents two landlords with property on Central Street.
“The story that looked so bad is not so bad,” she said.
Born said that last year, she had seven vacant storefronts in Wellesley Square. Now, she said, she’s down to two – and they’re not vacant due to lack of interest.
“We’re looking for the right tenant,” she said. “We have people interested.”
Last year, merchants were heading in the opposite direction. Since the end of 2010, Ann Taylor, Trappings, Clarks, The Body Shop and Different Drummer have all closed their doors, and sat waiting for new business in a recession.
Some storefronts sat empty for even longer: The spot that Boloco will occupy once belonged to Betsy’s, a women’s clothing store, said Jop. It has been vacant for two years, she said.
The vacancies were new to affluent Wellesley.
“It’s something that had never happened before,” said Born. “It was very scary.”
The town stepped in to stem the tide, creating the Wellesley Square Initiative last spring. The Initiative is staffed by Jop, members of the Planning Board, members of the Board of Selectmen, and Wellesley's Executive Director, and its goal is to bring business back to Wellelsey Square.
“The board of selectmen and the planning board have really been working hard to do all we can,” said Jop. They’ve worked to beautify the area, fixing lighting and trimming trees, and have slowly increased foot traffic on the street.
They have also worked with local artist Laura Fragasso, who solicits art from around the community to fill empty storefronts as part of the Wellesley Community Art Project she started this past October.
“It’s really been a highlight during times of transition, everyone comes together,” she said.
Colorful self-portraits painted by Tenacre Country Day School sixth-graders currently adorn the windows of Rugged Bear, a closed children’s clothing company on Central Street.
Fragasso said that people throughout Wellesley have come together to try to bring light back to Wellesley Square.
“When you start an initiative, and it takes off and all these people wanting it to work, at then end of the day, that is a good place to be,” she said.
There are still some empty storefronts: the news is not all good. Thunder, a sporting goods store, is dark under its bright blue awning, “Retail Space for Lease” signs in its windows. Between the planned sites for Boloco and MiniLuxe there is another vacancy.
“I think I’d say Wellesley Square Initiative is a work in progress,” said Jop. “I think there’s still a lot of work to be had.”
Kimberly Kissam, owner of Isabel Harvey, a light and airy accessory shop across the street from Rugged Bear, said that as a native of Wellesley she’s believed all along that business would return to the Square.
“This is where it’s happening,” said Kissam, who grew up in town. “I know Wellesley pretty well. People come to Wellesley. Even though there are vacancies, they’ll fill up.”
She and her sister moved their store to Central Street over the summer she said, as she pinned blue and white tulle to a mannequin decked out with necklaces and a scarf.
“Wellesley needed a makeover. Wellesley needed young new breath,” she said.
Sales, she said, have been phenomenal.
“I’m not sure I’d be in downtown Wellesley without a bad economy. The landlord really gave us a chance.”
Evan Allen can be reached at evan.allen@globe.com.
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