Reblogged from The Gazette:

Harvest Co-op plans new JP store

By John Ruch April 29, 2011

FOREST HILLS—Harvest Co-op Markets is planning a new grocery store as part of a retail/office development on Washington Street south of the Forest Hills T Station.

The new market would be 9,000 square feet and could open in late 2012, Harvest General Manager Mike St. Clair told the Gazette. The existing Harvest at 57 South St. would remain open, though its offerings might change, St. Clair said. Harvest, a member-owned co-op based in Cambridge, recently announced the new store on its web site. Also announced is a new Harvest Co-op for the Fenway as part of the Yawkey Station redevelopment.

The new JP store “will offer a full variety of fresh and organic produce, meat, seafood, deli, grocery and health/wellness products,” St. Clair said in an e-mail to the Gazette.

“We have been looking to grow in Jamaica Plain for years to better serve our members and customers with a bigger store, larger product offering and dedicated parking,” said St. Clair, when asked whether the expansion has anything to do with Whole Foods Market coming to JP.

The South Street store is in a good location, but “it is quite small and a challenge to offer a complete grocery shopping experience,” he said. That shop is in a storefront attached to a house with no parking lot.

“We hope to be in this location for a long time,” St. Clair said of the existing JP store. “Our plans are to refine the product variety to best suit the needs of the neighbors in such a challenging facility.”

Last year, Harvest attempted to open a Milton store as part of a development including a CVS Pharmacy. The town meeting rejected that plan due to noise, traffic and property-value concerns, as the Quincy Patriot Ledger reported at the time.

While St. Clair would not name the development team for the new JP store, he confirmed that it is planned for a vacant MBTA parcel on Washington Street at Ukraine Way. Jamaica Plain-based WCI Corp. has a longstanding plan to build a retail/office building there featuring a grocery store.

WCI spokesperson Brian McGinley declined to comment on Harvest’s new store announcement and not confirm or deny its involvement in the WCI plan. He referred questions to Harvest.

The announcement at www.harvest.coop says that the grocer has signed letters of intent with developers on the JP and Fenway projects, and that “neither [project] is certain” to happen.

“The developers selected Harvest because of our excellent reputation in the Metro Boston area for our high-quality and healthy foods, our many years of community involvement and our commitment to environmental stewardship,” the announcement said.

A city-led community planning process for several vacant MBTA parcels around the Forest Hills T Station, which last years and wrapped up in 2009, pegged a grocery store as a top local desire, as the Gazette previously reported.

WCI Corp. won development rights to two of the MBTA lots flanking Washington Street at Ukraine Way.

Its plans for the western parcel, known as “Arboretum Place,” included a 32,000-square-foot building, including a grocery store, with a plaza in front. The plan for the eastern parcel, on the T station side of Washington, involved a 12,000-square-foot office building with ground-floor retail.

The plan includes about 50 on-site parking spaces on the two parcels, as well as on-street parking. Nearly half of the parcels’ area would remain open space.

In community meetings last year, the WCI plan was favorably received, but traffic was a local concern.

“There’s a lot of stuff up in the air,” McGinley said when asked about the status of WCI’s redevelopment of the parcels.

WCI is a developer and contractor whose work includes various residential and commercial buildings around JP, including the company’s headquarters at 500 Amory St.

***

I for one am all for Harvest and pretty much any of the improvements outlined for Forest Hills.

The Haven Burger had me at, “Hello.”

The dictionary describes haven as  –noun 1. a harbor or port. 2. any place of shelter and safety; refuge; asylum. I have been into Jason Waddleton’s restaurant at 2 Perkins Street in Jamaica Plain at least a dozens times now. I am a happy camper. The food is very good, and the value is fair. His Haven Burger is Heaven. It is to die for. Literally, I would gladly welcome death now that I have experienced the mouth-watering delight that is the Haven Burger.

What kind of a friend won’t share his Haven Burger?

I was recently at The Haven with my friend Riaz for an after-work beer and had the chicken salad sandwich and chips. It was very good, but I had to go through the agonizing pain of watching Riaz (in his very upright, gentlemanly sort of way) finish off a Haven Burger. I could smell the sweet aroma of the  onion marmalade and the warm Huntsman cheese. What good is it to be healthy if you are beset with the purgative agony of watching your good friend demolish a Haven Burger? And while I’m thinking about it, what kind of friend would do that to you? I guess I should have been happy for him, right? I should have shared his sumptuous feast vicariously? Bullocks.

The Haven is an all-around good choice especially if you like deer antlers and skirts on men.

In all seriousness, I have given The Haven a good go and I say Blue Ribbon all the way. From The Full Scotch breakfast to deep fried Mars bar late night – you can’t go wrong. Jason has a great selection of beers as well.

I’m a big fan of the rough sawn wood and the darkish, antler adorned, not over stuffed space. It feels sort of homey at The Haven – I’m not sure about Kilt Night though…for more “Best Of” picks check out BJ Ray’s blog for his opinions on The Haven and other Jamaica Plain favs.

Eat Jamaica Plain

Shopping for local food in Jamaica Plain needs to be your priority.

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to beat my head against the wall over this Whole Foods vs. local food community upheaval. The answer seems so obvious but many seem to be more interested in the sound of their own voice than a viable solution. “Can you hear the words coming out of my mouth?” Ever since T.S.H.T.F. and the community caught wind of the approach of the Deathstar Whole Foods I’ve been vexed by the complete lack of creative thought and logical reasoning being employed to understand and solve this issue. There is no local food tractor beam people.

I’m not even going to get into anything that happened in the past or who should have done what, or who deserves to live in Jamaica Plain, or the definition of gentrification or why you should buy local food. You can read that all over the place. I will assume you know why you should buy local food and move on. The big question in my mind is who says anyone has to shop at Whole Foods at all let alone make it their local food source? No one is forcing you. The best way to vote is with your dollars. For food, for fuel, for change, for everything. That’s what America understands. I’m not saying it’s right but that’s the way it is. As a Jamaica Plain real estate agent I know all too well – buyers set the market. Supply and demand, right? If more of us demand fresh local food, someone will supply it.

Local food is right around the corner.

In a recent article by adamg of Universal Hub I learned there are 20 bodegas in Jamaica Plain. I’m familiar with many and I have been patronizing El Progresso Market on the corner of Boylston and Amory for about 6 years. In addition The Plaza Market at Boylston and Haverford began selling local pork, eggs, butter and milk. Unfortunately, I bet they won’t for long. I’m not sure, but the owner doesn’t seem too enthusiastic about this segment of his business when I visit. We need to not only support these small businesses, but repeatedly tell them what we want from them in order to give them our business. If you don’t like Whole Foods go somewhere else. Seek out the nearest mom & pop and buy some groceries. You know what’s kind of fun? Grab something random of which you have no idea what it is. I like the fruit drinks personally. I had never even seen some of those crazy fruits but they’re yummy.

Not surprisingly, I found the Compra Aqui (buy local food eat local food) website featuring all the small local food shops in Jamaica Plain. One of the major problems I see with the small local food movement success strategy is the lack of self promotion and a sustainable marketing effort. Hopefully this will change and maybe they are getting some help.

Direct from the local food website Compra Aqui:

“Jamaica Plain local business districts have a variety of stores that can provide a range of products to satisfy the diverse needs and wants of local residents, and the more people shop in these local businesses, the better these businesses will be able to respond to the needs of our diverse neighborhood.   
First, we hope to promote the dozens of shops in JP with affordably priced food, most of which are owned by local residents from within the Latino/Caribbean community.  Many of these shops currently sell Latino/Caribbean foods, and certainly would entertain offering other products that previously were only available at Hi-Lo.  
At the same time, we hope to promote the local businesses that offer more options of local and organic food than any other neighborhood in Boston.  These businesses include City Feed & Supply (two locations), Harvest Co-op, Plaza Meat Market, two Farmer’s Markets (six months a year), several CSA drop offs and direct farmer-consumer sales.”

This is a great idea. I’m really excited about the Jamaica Plain Shopping Spree this Saturday, April 16th. Here’s what they are offering:

“Come out and support your neighbors on April 16th during the J.P. Shopping Spree.  Our shops will highlights their specialties, offer sales and specials, cooking demos and tips.  Meet the owners of your neighborhood shops and engage in dialogue about what you’re looking for.  Chances are you will find it, and if not, let the local shops know what they are missing on their shelves.  Find the benefits of shopping locally.
Pick up a J.P. Shopping Spree Passport at any of the participating shops the week of the Shopping Spree.  On the 16th, visit 6 shops, and turn your stamped passport in for a raffle.  Winners will receive gift certificates, specials, discounts and more from our local shops. Take the 48 J.P. Loop to conveniently get to all three shopping districts.”

Now where talking! If you don’t want to support Whole Foods, put your money where your mouth is and support the local little guys! Don’t forget the farmer’s markets too! Check out this video of my fellow former Ozarkian and owner of City Feed, David Warner talking about local food.

That’s right. We’re packing it in, shuttin’ it down. We’re dropping the hammer. Closing the doors, turning out the lights, we’re throwing in the towel. Calling it a day.

No, we’re not giving up real estate – just some bad habits. Namely, using way too much paper and fuel. There’s a lot of tradition [read obsolescence] in my business. Folks aren’t all that open to electronic signatures yet, but that’s the way of the future. The Boston Home Team is going paperless. Well, not completely all at once, but we’re going that direction. As soon as we can come up with a viable alternative for property information sheets at open houses I think we’ll about have this problem licked. In the meantime, all of our contracts, offers, purchase & sale documents, etc. will be completely paperless. Electronic signatures are better all around. Thanks to the Esign Act of 2000 (I know! Who knew this has been around more than a decade!):

Electronic and digital signatures are just as binding as traditional pen and ink signatures as long as they are executed through a process that clearly establishes intent to sign and ensures all legal elements of proof. Furthermore, electronic signatures obtained through DocuSign are compliant with the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act of 2000 (ESIGN) and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) which has been adopted in most states. As a result, they are legally binding and backed by a comprehensive audit trail. – Docusign FAQ

Basically, we can now generate any document, mark it up for initials and signatures and send it on it’s way. It ravels from one signer to the next until completely executed at which point it turns into a PDF and Presto! Everyone gets a copy in their inbox. Not even the Devil himself is this efficient when harvesting souls. I’ll bet he doesn’t even provide a copy of the contract.

Spring is in the air. It’s the season for properties to begin hitting the market in earnest. I think we’ve seen the last of the snow, so by the time little green plants start peeking out of the ground you should be prepared to hit the open house trail if you’re in the market for a new home. 143 new properties have hit the market since January 1, but 96 of those came on this month. It’s clearly getting ripe around here. I’m pleased to say I have a number of new homes hitting the market as well. Four this week, a couple next week and hopefully several more over the next month or so. I’m pretty excited about this newest batch of homes – they’re all exceptional values and beautiful. I have open houses all weekend and even a Commuter Open House on Monday for those of you with a little time when you get off the train on Monday. In no particular order, I’ll give you a brief run down on each of them and some of my favorite photos from the shoots. By the way, if you’re in the market, or even just considering it, you might want to sign up on my website as I have some super cool tools that the average home buyer will find quite useful. Ever been scrambling around on a Sunday (lacking the appropriate caffeination) trying to pull open house info from the Boston Globe, Boston.com, some random real estate website, etc? 45 minutes later your hunched over your computer furiously loading all the properties into Google maps and cross-referencing the open house times? No more! Check out my open house search tool. Just plug in your parameters and viola! you’re in business. all the available open houses are magically delivered to your screen, mapped and chronologically ordered. Pretty cool, eh? Sign up for an account for lots of other goodies. Anyway, the task at hand. The smallest of my three new homes is a loft-like condo in The Brewery District adjacent to Stony Brook station between Boylston and Porter. As described in MLS:

Loft-like 2BD in The Brewery District

Perfection. Design, efficiency and location. Brewery District loft steps from Stony Brook Station. Total renovation from basement to roof. High-efficiency heating and point of use, on-demand hot water for kitchen and bath. Amazing insulation in walls and roof. Incredibly well thought out design including cabinetry, and built-in oak/aluminum wardrobe. Roof rights and nice rear deck. This is a great space to just sit and enjoy the light and quiet – it has a certain Zen quality about it.

These descriptions aren’t as easy to write as you think so keep that in mind. Criticism welcome as long as it’s accompanied by a suggestion. This unit is seriously wonderful. It’s going to make some one very happy. I sold it several years ago at Arthouse and they had to pry it from my kicking and screaming then too.

What an amazing ceiling!

This is the perfect starter pad – not just because of the price point, but it’s been renovated really well. Way better than what is typical for a unit like this. Over insulated, thermal panes and steel doors make it efficient, but also really quiet. The look of the ceiling is obviously cool but check out the Miele washing machine/dryer. Under sink you’ll find a point-of-use, on demand hot water system. It runs the kitchen and the bath. Sweet! Open house Sunday April 2, 1:30p-2:30p. I’ll be having a commuter Open House on Monday April 4th, 5:50p-7p.

Next on the list is a single family home on 30 Neillian Crescent, on Moss Hill in Jamaica Plain. This home is one of the best values on the Hill in a long time. It may not be the cheapest ever, but it’s definitely priced right – especially considering the condition:

Beautiful open-plan home in highly desirable neighborhood. New kitchen w/SS apps and large prep space. Guests can sit in dining rm and chat w/the host or lounge in living rm in front of fireplace. Picture window looks out over quiet street of well-maintained homes and enormous corner lot. Each bedrm is bigger than the next with a large master facing the rear of the home. Huge, open family room with direct-entry garage and 3/4 bath. Short walk to Larz Anderson Park. Short commute to Med area.

Immaculate Moss Hill home in Jamaica Plain

30 Neillian Crescent Open Houses Sat April 2, 12-1p & Sun April 3, 1:30-2:30p

Living room with fireplace and picture window.

Finally, last but not least is 41 Bournedale Rd, Jamaica Plain. This is the Woodbourne Neighborhood. There are a handful of duplexes just like this one in the “Bourne” neighborhood and I’m a big fan of the layout. They have kitchen, dining and laundry all in the back with a door to the back porch and yard. There’s a tiny hallway separating the dining area from the living room. On one side of it the designer snuck in a built-in hutch. It’s a nice little surprise when you come around the corner. The living room has a wood burning fireplace and a set of stairs that gently curve upstairs out of site. Very cute. My favorite thing upstairs is a cozy reading room just off the master bedroom. I’d spend a lot of time there if it was my place. Here’s what I wrote on the MLS:

Charming 2 story home w/perfect plan. Property has feel of a house rather than a condo. Open kit/dining room opens to covered porch. Enjoy your morning coffee listening to the birds chirp in the wooded yard. Granite counters and stainless steel appliances. Breakfast bar separates kitchen from dining room with built-in hutch.Walk to T, conservation land, shops and restaurants. Ask about Forest Hills Initiative for exciting information about area future development.

Somewhere Hipsters are gathered around expensive beer, reading these out loud and making fun of me. So be it. Come by this Sunday 3rd and we can have coffee together on the back deck from 12-1p.

One of my favorite rooms in Jamaica Plain

Reblogging this from Boston.com:

I am very excited that each week, fresh, local food will be arriving at the Plaza Meat Market. Located at 207 Boylston Street, between Amory and Washington, just a short walk from Stony Brook station.  A whole pig arrives every other Friday for now. Every cut will be available including offal and bones. They should be able to offer very competitive prices because they are buying the whole pig. They also have local butter, eggs and milk! They hope to also patronize City Growers produce when the season begins in June.

The Plaza Meat Market has been in the neighborhood for 30 years and they hope to expand their local food stocks if the interest is there. Vote with your dollars!

In case you couldn’t find the whole letter, here it is.  From Laura Derba, president of the North Atlantic region for Whole Foods, to Jamaica Plain:

Dear Residents of Jamaica Plain,

We are very pleased to be opening a Whole Foods Market on Centre Street. We have met with city officials and followed the media coverage so we understand that while many of you are excited that we’re coming to JP, there are also a number of concerns and questions. As the regional president of Whole Foods Market, I want to take this opportunity to have what will be the first of many communications that I hope will serve to clarify several issues and ease your concerns.

HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED: When we learned that the aging ownership at Knapp Foods was closing Hi-Lo Foods and making the lease available, we jumped at the chance to be a part of such a diverse, neighborhood with a passion for great food. Prior to signing the lease, however, the news was leaked to the media, along with a lot of false information.

Celebrity sightings in JP?

Our design plans will begin when we gain access to the building in late March. While the interior requires extensive renovations, we have absolutely no plans to change the structure of the building or the exterior features that are so important to the community — the mural, the awning and the clock – will all remain intact.

HI-LO STAFF: We understand and appreciate your concerns for the future of Hi-Lo’s staff. We have already hired several Hi-Lo employees in our stores, and we are working with the local unemployment office to make sure that the remaining employees know that Whole Foods Market is guaranteeing them priority interviews at any of our store locations and facilities.

NEW HIRING: Once renovations are underway and we have an opening date set, we will be holding job screenings at the store location that will be open to the public, as is our standard practice. We plan to hire around 100 Team Members—approximately 70 percent of those positions will be full-time with benefits.

PRODUCT OFFERINGS: We believe that everyone has the right to have access to affordable, high quality, clean food free of artificial ingredients and additives. This includes carrying a wide variety of Latino products. As with all of our stores, we will carry products that cater to the diverse demands of the community. If shoppers express interest in a product and it meets our quality standards, we will carry it.

YOUR COMMUNITY MARKET: Being a community partner is a responsibility we take very seriously. We are eager to show our support and commitment to the wonderful organizations that make up the fabric of the JP neighborhood. As a company we give 5 percent back to our local communities through non-profit organizations and community and education groups.

When we solidify our plan for the store, we will host community meetings to answer all of your questions. Please know that our intentions are to be productive and positive members of the JP community and to provide you with high quality food and exceptional customer service at great value. We understand that we will only be able to prove our commitment to you with our actions.

Sincerely,

Laura Derba

President – North Atlantic Region

Whole Foods Market

If you haven’t already heard the buzz, there’s a new guy in town. Tres Gatos will be serving tapas, music and books. I think it’s a marvelous idea and I wish them well. I won’t try and get all shmarmy describing a place I’ve never been yet – I’ll let you know what I think after I visit. I hope to make it by on Wednesday night if they’re not too crowded. It should be fun to see how they handle first night jitters. Good Luck Tres Gatos!

Tres Gatos opens Wednesday night at 5p! Credit David Schafer