Future of Harvard Square’s Out of Town News uncertain
The City of Cambridge’s $4.6 million redesign and renovation project for the brick plaza in the middle of Harvard Square does not include plans to keep the iconic newsstand, The Boston Globe reports.
Following three years of brainstorming what to do with the plaza, city officials say they want the historic city-owned kiosk to remain, but for public use rather than a private business.
Iram Farooq, assistant city manager for community development, told the newspaper the kiosk is a special place but the newsstand has not been financially viable.
“In our conversations there is an understanding that use will have to go away because it lacks viability, so our conversation. . . is that it needs a new use,” Farooq said.
The kiosk was built in 1928 as the entrance to the subway, and Out of Town News moved into the structure in 1984, according to the Globe. It was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Officials want contruction on the plaza to start in the fall of 2017, according to the Globe.
Mike Patel, owner of Muckey’s Corporation, which operates Out of Town News, told the newspaper the business is profitable and he would like to stay in the 500-foot kiosk after the city’s renovations of the plaza.
“It’s not great, but what can you do? We don’t own the property,” Patel said. “I’m willing to work with the city. We’ve been there seven years; people love the place.”
Read the full Globe report here.
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