Photo by Erin Caruso
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his morning, Cambridge Day reported that Joseph and Nabil Sater, the brothers behind the Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub in Cambridge, are hoping to build up from the pre-existing structure that houses the venues and companion club ZuZu, constructing a building that will house some 50 to 100 condos and community spaces.
Basically, the owner of the building died, and the Saters have the option to buy the building from their late landlord’s family at some point in the next two years. This could be rad (albeit expensive) or terrible, depending on who you talk to, and so far the biggest concerns for potential tenants interested in living above the Boston music landmark(s) have to do with noise complaints and dealing with the midweek rock show crowd when you come home with an armful of groceries all “Get off my lawn!”-style.
Samantha Fore and I are both members of the Boston community (even though we, y’know, no longer live here), and we talked on Twitter this afternoon about the potential ramifications of the Middle East development deal. At first, the biggest head-scratcher for me was the value of the property — $7 million for that corner seems way too low, given the fact that Mass Ave in Central Square is the primest of Greater Boston real estate. She and I went back and forth (and are continuing to do so via gChat as I type this) about what this could mean for the neighborhood. Those condos are gonna be pricey as hell, as a quick Trulia search will show you that finding a two-bedroom spot to buy in that area is pretty much impossible unless you want to look upwards of $750k.
The kinds of tenants who can afford to live there, as Sam pointed out, are hardly those who are going to be interested in the sounds emanating from ZuZu at the height of Soulelujah on a Saturday night.
And then Sam brought up a huge, scary point: What the hell happens if MIT, Berklee or Harvard makes a counter-offer on the property now that this development is public? What if the Saters get outbid, and what if the landlord’s family goes with the highest bidder, who very likely could transform the cultural fabric of one of Boston’s most vibrant artistic communities?
The Saters, hopefully, have a deal where they’ll get the first crack at making an offer on the property, and the Boston music scene can only hope that this is how things go. MIT has buildings all throughout Central Square, and a couple of frats are located further down and across the street from the Middle East.
MIT also collects rent checks from Naga, Veggie Galaxy, and the Central Square Theater, as the institution owns the buildings directly next to the Middle East Upstairs. Berklee, across the river, could see an investment in a real estate deal in Central Square as immensely valuable as well — sure, they bought up a ton of buildings on Boylston already and have Café 939 and a gorgeous performance hall, but owning a building on a strip that half their students hope to play one day would be huge. Harvard, further down Massachusetts Avenue, has its own venues through their connection to the American Repertory Theater, but who’s to say that they wouldn’t be interested in acquiring these properties?
The point is that 472 Mass Ave, the official address the corner the Middle East resides on, is also in the cross-hairs of three prominent universities that are constantly looking to expand as their student populations do.
The thought of any of them -— explicitly MIT — taking on an initiative remotely similar to the ones the Saters are proposing is scary in that it’ll dramatically shift the cultural identity of the neighborhood (and frankly, sterilize it). The condos may be expensive and the noise complaints are a legitimate concern for potential tenants (and man, that building could use a serious facelift from a structural perspective, anyway) but remaining in the Middle East family is crucial for the block and the city’s music scene at large.
This is all highly speculative, and I do want to stress that, but as this continues to develop, it’s important to bring up any and all questions that pertain to the shifting shape of the most important intersection in Boston music geography —- and history.
Below is an artist rendering of the proposed Middle East property from last night’s community meeting…
