East Boston business incubator opens after long renovation

Local entrepreneurs are filling retail spaces and offices at a newly opened East Boston business incubator, launching new ventures and fulfilling dreams of becoming their own bosses.

The transformation of the former Public Welfare building at 154 Maverick St. is the culmination of eight years of work and 18 months of renovation for John and Melissa Tyler, themselves entrepreneurs who wanted to give community members an affordable space and access to resources to help realize their dreams of business ownership.

On June 2, 2012, Mayor Thomas M. Menino joined with John and Melissa Tyler for a ribbon-cutting to celebrate the redevelopment of the building.

From left: Clark Moulaison, then-executive director of East Boston Main Streets; John Tyler; Menino; Melissa Tyler; and Ernani DeAraujo, then-East Boston coordinator for the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services.

The Tylers had their work cut out for them. After sitting empty for 25 years, the former Public Welfare building had fallen into disrepair and badly needed to be updated to current standards. They painted walls, repaired and re-sealed the oak woodwork, put down new flooring, and installed a wheelchair lift to make the building accessible to people with disabilities.

Melissa Tyler said they are tentatively calling the space Maverick Market Place but are still deciding on a permanent name.

Quincy resident Mercedes Pica, 42, is the proprietor of Salamander’s Coffee Place, which will be open seven days a week for breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snacks.

“It’s a very, very delicious place to visit, and it has a lot of good, quality food,’’ she said.

Pica, who came to the Boston area from Bogota, Colombia, seven years ago, said she decided to become her own boss after she was laid off from a marketing job at a big downtown firm.

Shirley Pineda, 50, is from Colombia but has lived in East Boston for five years. At Shirley’s Boutique, she sells new and vintage women’s sportswear and accessories. Pineda was among the very first entrepreneurs to sign up for a space and said she is now working on a Facebook page and web site for the shop. She hopes the boutique will be successful enough that she can eventually expand into a second location.

Allison Blaisdell, 42, lives in East Boston, “right up the street’’ from the business incubator building, and has been an acupuncturist for about a decade. She opened her business, Maverick Square Acupuncture, in a second-floor office space because of her success in bringing acupuncture to clients through home visits, she said.

“I started to get busy enough to need space but not busy enough to need a huge storefront clinic,’’ she said.

East Boston resident Sonia Villamil (center) sells D’Lunaas-brand pajamas for women and girls, imported from her native Colombia, at Dulce y Coqueta (“Sweet and Flirty’’), which takes its name from the brand’s slogan. Villamil, 44, has help from her husband, Julio Gonzalez, 42, who is from El Salvador (right); his nephew Antonio Gonzalez, 22 (left); and her son Gustavo Lievano (not shown).

“What we want to do with this kind of business is look for people that have the same energy and passion … and give them the opportunity to open one, to help the people to have their own store too,’’ Julio Gonzalez said.

Juan Gaviria, 42, owns On|Off, where he plans to sell and repair computers, smartphones, and other gadgets, and to offer Spanish-language computer classes. A Winthrop resident for two years, Gaviria came to the US from Colombia in 2005.

“I want to help the Hispanic community to get informed and know a little bit more about technology and communications,’’ he said through a translator.

Malden resident Juan Hoyos, 50, opened Super Cargo to help ship packages from Boston to Latin America. Hoyos said many shipping companies that transport goods to South and Central America are based in New York City and Miami, and have no offices in Boston. Having learned the ins and outs by working in the shipping industry for a dozen years, Hoyos hopes to fill that gap.

Juventina Alvarado, 36, was still sorting inventory for her shop, Zapatería la Buena Amistad (the Good Friendship Shoe Store), which also sells women’s handbags and offers shoe repairs. Alvarado said through a translator that she had worked hard for other people for many years and wanted to have a business of her own and see it grow.

Ari Battulga, 38, is a former East Boston resident who now lives in Stoneham. Her store, the Unique Boutique, specializes in toys, trading cards, T-shirts, and accessories for children, imported from Asia.

“I don’t see much kids’ stuff around here,’’ Battulga said, explaining that parents around the Maverick Square area typically have to make a trip to the Target store in Revere or another shop outside the neighborhood to buy toys and gifts for children. She wants to provide a more convenient option. “They can just stop by here,’’ she said.

The re-opening of the long-derelict building has excited neighborhood residents, but no one is happier than John and Melissa Tyler. Melissa Tyler said she had dreamed since she was 19 of creating a space like this and had spent years looking for the right place to do it.

“I had always looked at properties thinking, ‘Would this fall into that category?’ but I never thought it would be on this grand of a scale,’’ she said.