A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to Awaiting Report Item Number 18-97, regarding a report on updating vacant property database and reviewing strategies presented in the Storefront Vacancies Best Practices Report

C I T Y O F C A M B R I D G E Community Development Department IRAM FAROOQ Assistant City Manager for Community Development SANDRA CLARKE Deputy Director Chief of Administration KHALIL MOGASSABI Deputy Director Chief of Planning 344 Broadway Cambridge, MA 02139 Voice: [phone removed] Fax: [phone removed] TTY: [phone removed] www.cambridgema.gov To: Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager From: Iram Farooq, Assistant City Manager for Community Development Date: January 8, 2019 Re: Awaiting Report 18-97 dated September 24, regarding updating the vacant property database and reviewing strategies presented in the Storefront Vacancies Best Practices Report In response to the above-mentioned policy order, we report the following. The City’s Retail Strategic Plan was completed in June 2017, and many of its recommendations to help Cambridge’s small businesses were implemented in Fiscal Year 2018. Initiatives included documenting storefront vacancies best practices, creating a small business data dashboard, promoting commercial district assessments, and hosting small business open houses and a small business summit. Based on the Storefront Vacancy Best Practices report completed in 2018 and comments at the September 12, 2018 Economic Development & University Relations Committee meeting, Community Development Department (CDD) staff have been working on a variety of programs including: • Created a vacant storefront initiative webpage that includes: o A storefront vacancy database first created in July-August 2018; data is being collected and the database is updated quarterly. Information includes owner or leasing company, former tenant (if known), square footage, length of vacancy (if known), and ownership structure. From 2nd quarter 2018 to 3rd quarter 2018, vacancies have decreased from 56 to 51 storefronts, an 8.9% decrease. o Storefront activation resources such as pop- up/activation/placemaking specialists like No Longer Empty, CultureHouse, Spaceus, and the Cambridge Arts Council. • Published district assessments to highlight opportunities in the city’s commercial areas. The Central Square district assessment was completed in 2018, and Inman Square was released in January 2019. The next assessment will be for Porter Square and will be conducted in FY20. • Launched a vacant storefront creative design contest on January 3, 2019 to provide property owners with original artwork to display in their vacant storefront. o Open to artists of all ages & backgrounds; all types of media accepted; artwork must be original.

Page 2 of 2 o 5 winners will receive a one-time honorarium of $1,000 each o Store/property owners will be able to download and print the winning artwork to display as window installations throughout the city starting spring 2019 • Added a range of resources on CDD’s Small Businesses Resources web page, including the Greater Boston Legal Services and Harvard Transactional Law Clinics. • Reviewing internal and external barriers to pop up retail in the city of Cambridge, including permitting, licensing, property owner insurance, etc. • Reviewing community crowd sourcing platforms to develop community supported businesses/ideas for specific vacant properties. • Planning a property owner/agent meeting for spring-summer 2019 to discuss vacancy activation strategies and other city priorities. In addition, with the creation of a new senior position to support Cambridge small businesses, Pardis Saffari has been promoted to Economic Development Senior Manager, and is working directly as the City’s small business liaison. This includes collaborating with other City departments on matters such as small business licensing and permitting processes, City project construction mitigation, and other municipal functions that support the vitality of Cambridge’s retail and small businesses. This adds additional capacity to CDD to work with small businesses in Cambridge.