When I tell folks there’s an old library in Newton Centre (which has recently acted as the health department), they can’t picture it. I can describe it all I want, but most have never been there.
The fact is, the old building is on the National Register of Historic Places and occupies some prime real estate in the center of the city. It’s just steps from the T, has a small parking lot next door and has some of the best bagels in the area right outside its front door.
But what to do with it?
One proposal on the table is to bring MassChallenge to Newton. MassChallenge is a great organization that helps startups get off the ground through an accelerator program. It’s also been the cornerstone of Boston’s Innovation District and was a feather in Mayor Menino’s cap.
The Newton proposal would bring a few select companies to Newton to continue their incubation period, even after the MassChallenge session ends. These are companies that MassChallenge mentors and investors believe have potential, but are in need of a little extra time to help them achieve success. In other words: putting MassChallenge in the old Library would bring much needed life, business and foot traffic to Newton Centre.
This is also about starting a business ecosystem that can help bring other elements of the innovation economy to town.
The key to making all this happen lies with the Board of Aldermen, which has a procedural vote next Tuesday that could move the project forward. To that end, two supportive petitions are circulating on the subject. One, from the Newton-Needham Chamber of Commerce focuses on MassChallenge (full disclosure: I’m part of the group that is spearheading this effort), while the other also focuses on getting allowing MassChallenge to use the building and stopping Newton Centre library building from being sold to a private developer.
I should note that MassChallenge is a non-profit and isn’t asking or money, just use of the building for a three year pilot program. They’re committed to doing the rest, including paying to renovate the inside and pay utilities (which will result in a savings to taxpayers since the city is presently paying to heat the vacant building).
I love the concept. I hate the deal. This city can’t afford to underwrite MassChallenge. They should either do the necessary repairs to the building or pay rent.
@Mike: The building has been vacant for two years. Taxpayers are presently paying to heat an empty building.
MassChallenge will pay to renovate and furnish the inside of the building, including wiring the building, fixing bathrooms etc. And they will pay utilities so we won’t have to. Sometime soon, I’m confident Alderman Hess-Mahan will post a comment telling us what terrible condition the building is in too.
MassChallenge won’t own the building, it’s just a three year pilot program. The city will continue to own it.
So under those circumstances, how much do you think they should pay or be required to invest? And when you answer please keep in mind that this is a non-profit that runs a world-renowned program dedicated to helping new companies get their start, something that can have significant economic benefits for our city.
Congratulations to MassChallenge for its success in stimulating the growth of the sexy, youthful, innovative businesses who win their contests. I honestly mean that. But let’s leave their funding to the large sponsoring corporations who evidently see value in the organization’s output. The city, unfortunately, does not have that luxury.
Just because the mayor had a happy conversation with the MassChallenge founder while sitting next to him on a posh flight back from a junket to Tel Aviv and Dubai, it doesn’t mean that the city should be in the business of offering up public resources for free. I’m sure there are plenty of worthy nonprofits who would like a $0, three-year lease in a well-located, transit-friendly, historically-significant building with $500,000 in city-paid renovations.
Either come up with a fair and transparent way of determining who should use the building lease-free – one that maximizes the return to the public – or sell it off to the highest bidder and use the proceeds to improve the city.
“As a nonprofit, MassChallenge does not take any equity in the companies or place any restrictions on the entrepreneurs.” Good for them, but making a very large public contribution to the “take our money when you most need it, then feel free to fly away” business model doesn’t seem to be sound economics.
And in the end, correct me if I’m wrong, but the goal of the project would be to make a select group of entrepreneurs very wealthy.
Anyway, I shouldn’t gripe. I’m sure this is already a done deal, so please excuse me; I’ve got to cobble together a business plan to pitch to MassChallenge so that I can take advantage of this unique public generosity. During a snow storm a couple of weeks ago, my wife made us watch that godawful Shark Tank show, so I’ve actually got a pretty good idea of how to make a winning pitch.
Oh boy oh boy! A 30-minute walk to work every day awaits! (Or it would if the city were able to plow the sidewalks between our house and Newton Centre, anyway.)
Last week the Globe looked at where the younger crowd is living and Waltham tops the list. That means the young, vibrant folks creating jobs in the innovation economy are located right next door. Meanwhile, Newton downtowns continue to become havens for high end nail salons and banks.
Boston has engineered a downtown revival based on businesses just like those being churned out by MassChallenge. I work for a PR firm based in Newton and we need to compete with businesses that offer offices downtown, where workers can walk to lunch, grab a drink after work, shop and have a vibrant life. It’s not easy, it makes us want to find a new location for our business.
This isn’t good for Newton.
To revive the downtowns we need to attract businesses that can drive foot traffic. That will bring in the storefronts we want. The craft beer store in Newton Centre was just the kind of thing we want, but a combination of low foot traffic and high rents made it impossible to be profitable in that space.
Yes, MassChallenge is getting a good deal here, but so are we. We need to look for more opportunities like this to attract business to Newton.
Chuck,
Would there be any way to make some of the space shareable with the community – perhaps for evening performances or community gatherings during off hours? The space could serve as a community civic innovation incubator as much as a startup incubator.
As far as I understand the proposal, something similar to that is in the works. Though, not for performances, but for business meetups and gatherings.
One of the challenges the N2 Corridor has faced is in finding places to hold meetups and networking events. This space could be used for that purpose.
Though, to be fair, most of the entrepreneurs tend to use a space like this almost around the clock, so there are often people working even late into the night. “Off hours” doesn’t entirely apply here.
Greg, I wouldn’t dream of confusing you with facts, facts, facts.
Just wondering, what was the point of the dubai and tel aviv trip was it personal or business.
also, did the mayor get to fly economy business or first.
The mayor was part of a delegation lead by Gov. Patrick. The mayor used connections made on that trip to launch an effort designed to attract Israeli companies here.
You can learn more about the economic benefits of this connection here.
Ted, Can you explain why you posted what you posted? The capital needs document doesn’t have a date on it, and I’m not sure what MassChallenge’s income tax return has to do with the condition of the building. I don’t understand why there would be an objection to MassChallenge, but perhaps I don’t know the whole story. If MassChallenge will pay for renovations to a building that has been empty for two years, what’s the downside?
I would think there’d be a huge upside on several levels to enhancing Newton’s reputation as a place for innovation and entrepreneurs.
Gail, the public building department’s needs assessment was presented in 2012. I am no expert, but I think it is safe to say that the building has further deteriorated and that the true price to restore it has gone up.
MassChallenge was only going to pay for improvements on the interior of the building. As bad as the inside of the building is (I’ve seen it), there is far more essential, non-cosmetic work that needs to be done to preserve the exterior, fix the leaks, remove mold and asbestos, and secure the envelope, which was where the real chunk of money was always going to be needed. My sincere hope is that the Mayor will work with the Board of Aldermen to find a more suitable location in Newton for MassChallenge that does not require such extensive work just to make it usable.
In addition, I would like to see the Mayor work with the aldermen and the businesses and residents of Newton Centre who all want to see the old library building returned to its former glory and open and accessible to the public. Given how the city has neglected the building for more than 20 years, leaving it in truly deplorable condition, if it means selling or leasing the building to someone who can afford to do the extensive historic preservation work that is required (as the JAPG recommended) then that is what we should do.
Still wondering, did the mayor fly first, business, or economy.
I assume the business ticket to tel aviv and/or dubai and back is well over 5k. Really should not be flying anything other than economy.
@Fantasia – you can be sure that nobody on that trip flew in economy class.
I’d originally thought that the junket was entirely covered by special interests in the usual morally-bankrupt fashion, but I just found some articles claiming that “the cost estimate for Governor Deval Patrick’s upcoming trade mission to Israel, Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is $175,000 dollars,” and that “the administration says the cost of the trip will be picked up in part by private business and also taxpayer funds.” The worst of both worlds!
Well, I sure hope it was successful in improving our ties with Abu Dhabi and Dubai, in particular, where workers from Bangladesh, Nepal, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka are consistently treated with utmost respect and where human rights and social justice – the value of human life, in particular – have always been the Emiratis’ primary concern.
From the TAB May 14, 2014…
I thought the TAB also reported that Newton tax dollars were not spent on the trip but I can’t find that story on line.
Why would the mayor not continue on with the rest of the mission for the parts of the trip after Jerusalem? Maybe he started to see that human rights and social justice generally aren’t the region’s forte, and he decided to disgustedly pack up and come home. Yes, I’m relatively certain that’s what happened. Well played, Mr. Mayor!
The other articles I read, albeit from reactionary sources like Fox 25 and the Herald, left the impression that the mission’s public funding was provided at the state level. I can’t imagine that city funds would have been used for anything other than the mayor’s trip to Logan.
Actually, scratch that last scenario – the mayor had already been previously englightened. The TAB article says that “Warren last visited Israel in August 2012, on a weeklong educational trip financed by the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee.” (My emphasis.)
Any intelligent tenant isn’t going to do leasehold improvements to inhabit this building given its deplorable state, on a 3 year lease !
Get real !
Michael, let me understand this.
You don’t want the Mayor taking the trip, an official trip designed to benefit the City of Newton, using taxpayer funds. And you don’t want him to use private funds. But the trip costs money. Plus, there are benefits to the local economy in terms of attracting business.
So what would have been a good way to pay for the trip? Or would you prefer the Mayor not go at all so you can then complain that he’s not doing anything to attract business to the city?
Chuck, I think it’s absurd for the mayor of a city of 88,000 people to be going on international trade missions.
Newton is part of the greater Boston economy and we sink or swim with it. A company from Israel is not going to specifically decide to relocate to Newton. Their decision would be to relocate to greater Boston, and whether they choose a space in South Boston, Kendall, Coolidge Corner, Newtonville, or someplace else along 128 is going to depend on a number of factors including the ability to find appropriate space, the cost of rent, commuting times, public transit availability, and preexisting ties to the community.
If a business comes over here to scout out space and finds someplace with attractive lease terms offered by Richard Ellis over on Needham St., and then gets a slightly better offer from Colliers in the Needham Industrial Center, do you think they care at all about the location of the town boundaries? The Charles River is not the Rio Grande.
What exactly would the mayor have had to offer foreign businesses? Tax breaks or other financial incentives? That’s not a productive game to be playing. If a corporation is not willing to pay the same rate of taxes as its peers, then we don’t end up gaining. If we’ve got money to throw around, let’s invest in our people, and not businesses who are obligated to maximize profits and are quite likely to fly the coop whenever a better offer comes along.
And even if you don’t agree with that, then why, out of 50 states and 200 countries, does the mayor have to travel to a place that’s 6,000 miles away?
We’ve actually got a dynamic, well-trained team of embassy and consular professionals in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv who are eager and willing to make our pitch for us whenever we’d like. But if the mayor still thinks that he must go in person, then yes, he should pay out of his own pocket. El Al’s got a sale on their nonstop flights in April; business class to Tel Aviv for a little under six grand. Or he could use systemwide upgrades like I do. The commonwealth can’t afford to be wasting money on this nonsense, and the mayor shouldn’t be accepting gifts, in the form of travel or anything else, for any more than $50.
Realistically, everybody is well aware that the mayor’s international junkets are in no way a boon to the city but rather nothing more than a means for him to strengthen his own political trajectory. If he’d like to do that, more power to him; but he shouldn’t be availing himself of funds from the commonwealth or payoffs from special interests seeking to curry favor.
Ultimately, a novel idea might be that he not go on any more silly international missions and just stay here and do some real work.
Yes, the choice of locating in the Boston area is, in part, dup to the Governor. But where to locate here is why the mayors were on the trip.
In reality, most of the Israeli businesses locating here know of Newton (and Brookline) as a place to live and often move their families here. Lesser known to them is the option of locating in Newton. Or, more specifically, why it may make sense for them to locate here based on their stage of growth. A common scenario is to get a temporary office in Boston and then stay there.
However, many are at a different stage and have different needs. Boston may not be right for them but they don’t have the information needed to make better decisions.
So yes, I believe that it says a lot to these companies that the figure head of the community came to meet them. We’re already starting to see interest from Israeli businesses based on that trip, including outreach from those already here to help us (re: CyberArk). Without that effort I’m not sure the interest and excitement would be there on the part of the businesses themselves.
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2014/11/20/suburbs-trying-woo-israeli-businesses-designated-tech-startup-sector/