Word: levitan
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...significant amount of money was spent to upgrade the arcade and there was a hope that it could be turned into a successful retail environment," Levitan said. "A number of stores that were there originally closed and Harvard had trouble finding new tenants...
According to Scott Levitan, vice president of construction and commercial and university operations at Harvard Planning and Real Estate, the University made the decision to change the function of the area because the shops were not performing as well as they had anticipated...
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...
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...
Reis' lease became eligible for renegotiation last October. In late November he finally met with Levitan, who told him that his lease would not be renewed and that in fact no leases would be renegotiated. But Contescu's My Dog kiosk first opened for business in late November, and she was told nothing of the intended closing. In fact, when she expressed concern about the brevity of the kiosk lease, she was told that it was actually to her advantage because it gave her an easy out in case her business failed, and that she could renew indefinitely...