We’ve seen the empty retail spaces in our neighborhood. Storefronts vacant with “for lease” signs in the window. Some remain vacant for years while the landlord waits for a tenant to pay a higher rent (Hello Robert Lyons Hair Salon building on West Broadway). Well, City Councilor Matthew O’Malley (District 6) (who represents wants to see these empty spots filled with new businesses and a way to do that would be to charge a fee to landlords who chose to keep these retail spaces vacant.
According to the Boston Globe, O’Malley has requested a council hearing to investigate how many storefronts are vacant and for how long. He also wold like to discuss whether the city can issue a fee for landlords who choose to keep properties empty.
So maybe there’s hope for our business district to be fully occupied and thriving! We’d also love to see incentives for landlords to rent to small independent businesses too!
What do you think?
They should expand this beyond retail space and should be applied to all types space (residential, industrial, etc) including parking spaces. There are far too many land bankers in this city.
A little birdie told me that Boston Properties has seen year over year declines in the amount of cars that park in their garages, they’ve maintained their revenue stream by dramatically increasing the parking costs in those garages.
Won’t happen. You can’t legislate private property owners to fill their space. That is like asking an employee to work for less money. Will not happen.
That’s ridiculous. It’s private property and they have a right to leave it empty if they so choose. What happens next when he doesn’t like how the front of my house looks? Slippery slope. Lots of other things to work on councilor.
Robert Lyons had a 21E issue that needed to be resolved. took years
That robert Lyons storefront is a disgrace.. it’s been a eyesore for years. Something should be done with it..last week permits were approved for condos in that block which will improve the block of Broadway which SLOWLY being improved..lets hope the Lyons storefront will be developed into something POSITIVE.
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I’m sure nothing will hold water legally and this is a slippery slope, but I’d like to see some type of fee, nuisance tax, etc. levied on residential property which gets purchased, permits are pulled for and then they remain vacant for years. Can a bond or some type of escrow be required for these properties upon purchase so that they’ll be renovated in a timely manner? Or maybe my property tax could be lowered if I live next door to or if one of these eyesores is on my block. My valuation is based on the average purchase price of neighboring property. Why can’t it work in reverse?