A good outcome is possible
To the Editor,
On December 3, the Gazette ran an article, “Local Business Worried about its Future,” about 21st Century Foods’ distress at the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation’s (JPNDC) decision to relocate them in order to create the Center for Equity & Prosperity (CEP).
As JPNDC leaders, we are writing today to re-state our desire to keep 21st Century Foods at The Brewery, in an adaptable space only a few hundred feet from their current location. At the same time, we are equally determined to create the CEP so that thousands of families and small businesses can benefit over the coming years.
The CEP (jpndc.org/capital-campaign/) will allow JPNDC to dramatically expand and improve its asset-building services to hundreds of low-income and primarily BIPOC Boston families. With the support of more than 250 donors, most of whom are JP-based, we have now raised 87% of the $2.7 million needed to create the Center.
The square footage currently occupied by 21st Century Foods—beneath and on both sides of JPNDC’s offices—will make it possible for us to create a large, 100% accessible center with ample training, childcare and other space.
Since mid-2019, we have communicated our plans to the business owners about relocating them to an appropriate space. Relocation includes: (1) paying for relocation costs, (2) making adaptations to the new space so it enhances 21st Century Foods’ opportunities to thrive, and (3) keeping their rent comparable – and very much below market-rate.
We understand it is painful for 21st Century Foods to consider relocating and that small businesses cannot absorb such burdens. That’s why JPNDC has and continues to communicate that we can relocate them, at our expense, in the same complex. We are not a typical commercial landlord, so we are offering what few other commercial landlords would under similar circumstances.
We are so close to raising the remaining funds needed to begin building out the CEP. Meanwhile, other potential tenants are interested in the space that we are holding for 21st Century Foods (vacant for 18 months). The Brewery, a nonprofit subsidiary of JPNDC, lost close to $1 million during COVID. We absorbed that financial loss in order to support our business tenants, but we cannot afford to lose more revenue by holding a significant space vacant indefinitely.
We remain optimistic that a good outcome is possible—for the Center for Equity and Prosperity and for 21st Century Foods.
Charles Hills, Board Co-Chair
Danilo Morales, Board Co-Chair
Teronda Ellis, CEO