The Wake

Harvard Market East on Washington Avenue is unarguably a campus fixture. As the only convenience/grocery store in the Super Block area, it’s a destination for students seeking everything from cigarettes to light bulbs. But the store will be closing its doors for good this year, only a year after its sister business, the original Harvard Market, closed after 100 years of operation.

Brad Mateer, owner of Harvard Market East and the old Harvard Market, says that in contrast to the previous closing, which was motivated by rising costs and diminishing income, Harvard Market East is not closing for financial reasons. He adds, “This has been one of our best years ever!”

Mateer says Harvard Market will remain open until May, when Opus Contractors, who were responsible for constructing Mariucci Arena, will take over the property. The current building is slated for demolition, with the space to be occupied in the future by a mixed-use building with student housing on top and retail on the ground floor. One of the confirmed tenants is a CVS pharmacy (so at least Super Block residents won’t collapse in nic fits from lack of cigarettes).

While Mateer repeatedly stresses that Harvard Market is not in financial crisis, Judith Martin, director of the urban studies program at the University of Minnesota, says that there are economic forces at work around the closing.

“In five or six years, you’re going to have light rail going right past the front doors of businesses on Washington,” says Martin. According to her, when transit is added to a neighborhood and new transit corridors are created, the level of public and private interest in the area goes up, attracting major corporations like CVS. Martin also believes that the opening of the new stadium less than five blocks away from Harvard Market is another major reason that developers are looking at this area of campus. “CVS is thinking about the 50,000 people pouring out of that stadium and wants to sell them aspirin,” says Martin.

Mateer believes the closing of Harvard Market is for the best. “I know what people think of our prices [at the Harvard Market]. But I can’t do much about it. I can’t buy at the same levels at the big names like CVS,” says Mateer. “I’ve been an owner for 13 years. The Harvard Market has been a name on campus for over a hundred years. I have no regrets. I love being on campus, and I love being here, but we were thinking about what was right for the community. This will, in the end, benefit students. Students will see better prices.”

And this is where the greater significance of the Harvard Market can be teased out. Independent stores are what gives areas character and uniqueness. They’re better for the local economy, because they not only provide jobs, but also Brad Mateer, as a local business owner, is far more likely than a CVS shareholder to re-input his money into the local economy. Because they are necessarily based and directed from the locations where they operate, they are better connected to the local community. But when property values and corporate interest in an area rise, independent businesses simply cannot compete. We’ve seen it happen all over: Uptown, Downtown, all over the metro.

With the widespread corporate incursions all over the University area in the recent past, one has to ask whether the closing of another independent business is really good for the community. Are better prices really all students want? How about neighborhood uniqueness and charm?

Martin points out that, these days, if there isn’t development interest in an area, “the city stagnates and you’re in trouble.” It may be naive to expect that neighborhood shopping areas can maintain all of their individuality in the face of a rapidly homogenizing world, but with the University and private developers rapidly expanding into the new “East Gateway” district around the new stadium, I hope we can find a way to allow independent, local businesses to flourish in the area as well. Because I don’t want to live in a suburban mall.

Opus Contractors has done 2800 building projects on college campuses, including Opus Hall at the Catholic University of America in D.C. and Opus Square at Creighton University in Omaha, as well as similar projects at the College of Saint Catherine, and Saint Thomas. To me, there’s something to be said for living somewhere that isn’t just like everyplace else.