Word: hpre
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Last month, after refusing for months to budge from its original proposal, Harvard Planning and Real Estate (HPRE) offered to sell 100 units--26 percent of its formerly rent-controlled property--to the city at below market price...
When the arcade first opened in the fall of 1993, HPRE--which was then Harvard Real Estate (HRE)--went out of its way to entice merchants to the arcade by creating the impression of considerable retail potential. HPRE wined and dined prospective merchants and threw a huge gala opening. Irma B. King Licorish, proprietor of the Caribbean-African Creations kiosk, said she feels Harvard "enticed us in here under false pretenses...
Given the above facts, HPRE's decision to cancel so many leases comes in extremely bad faith. Harvard is first and foremost a university, not a corporation, and should not use the community in such a manner. Levitan mentioned that the kiosk owners who are leaving are being given a six-month grace period and help in relocating, but this hardly seems to compensate for the loss of their initial investments and the disruption in their lives...
...truly troubling aspect of this, however, is that there is evidence that HPRE continued to deceive merchants as to the longevity of the project even after it knew that the kiosks and some stores would be forced...
According to Levitan, HPRE only began to seriously rethink the mission of the arcade this past November, and the final decision to "wind down the kiosk program" was announced at a meeting in late January. However, Reis and Contescu said they believe this is untrue...