How Hood Park is reshaping Sullivan Square
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Hood Park. Photo: Steph Solis/Axios
While the Rutherford Avenue road project languished, Hood Park's developer built a quasi-town square with apartments, lab spaces, offices and retailers.
Why it matters: Catamount Management Corporation has led Sullivan Square's makeover through the COVID-19 pandemic and the years since.
Catch up quick: Hood Park has notched some major tenants, from Canadian cleantech company Ionomr Innovations and Cambridge-bred green aviation fuel startup Lydian to new retailers.
- The fitness club Everybody Fights signed a lease in January for a 28,000-square-foot space that opens in December.
The latest: Catamount restarted plans to build an 18-story tower with a 130-room boutique hotel and 108 apartments, per the Boston Business Journal.
- Next door, Catamount proposed a 25,000-square-foot grocer.
Catamount wanted strong local retailers to cater to locals and employees on campus, but they couldn't take on small businesses that would fold at the first sign of a downturn, says Chris Kaneb, a principal.
- The developer landed on relatively stable retailers like Landry's Bikes, Tradesman Coffee Shop & Pizza and Everybody Fights.
What they're saying: "They have a variety of offerings that give them a little bit of diversity in experience so they don't feel like they're working in a suburban office park," Kaneb says.
- The search for a grocer will be different, he added.
- Grocers run thin profits in a highly competitive industry; chances are, Hood Park will sign with a big name.
Yes, but: Is Hood Park profitable?
- Kaneb demurred when asked, saying they're "very happy" with its financial performance.
- But he pointed to Everybody Fights as a sign.
- "They approached us ... and they had been looking at Charlestown for quite some time," Kaneb says. "That's as strong an endorsement as we could ever hope to get."