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Old downtown hardware store’s fate is up in the air
Retail and residential seen as possible uses for antiquated building
Boston Business Journal – August 10, 2007
by Michelle Hillman – Journal staff
The Hardware Outlet Co. is an odd duck among the sleek office towers on High Street. After the death of owner Francis Ramacorti, his widow and the law firm in charge of the estate are trying to decide what to do with the property.
The Hardware Outlet Co. was more than just a dirty, disorganized sliver of a store where office workers could go to find random knickknacks for home repairs.
The store, which has been closed since the owner, Francis “Frank” Ramacorti died a year ago, was somewhat of a landmark in Boston given it was the home-improvement store in a district populated by the 9 to 5 crowd. Located in Boston’s Financial District at 51 High St., the store gained notoriety for its unusual location and purpose.
Ramacorti also became known himself for his refusal to sell the property, which had caught the attention of many commercial developers eyes over the years.
Now his widow, Karen Ramacorti, and Ropes & Gray LLP — the law firm in charge of the Ramacorti estate — are trying to decide what to do with the property which is sandwiched between the 99 High St. tower and Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority offices.
Karen, who resides in Reading, said she is in discussions with one hardware store operator who would like to lease the property but she has not made a decision about whether she will lease or sell the building.
Though the slender building is just shy of 12,000 square feet and is assessed at $916,600, it could be an attractive site for a small retailer, boutique company or even for residential uses, said David Begelfer, chief executive officer of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. Begelfer guessed that if sold, the property could garner approximately $1 million or possibly more depending on how many stories could be added to the four-story building. The lack of development sites in Boston, no matter how small, could also drive interest and price.
“The location is great, it’s a relatively small building,” Begelfer said. “You (could) own your own building, and that’s rare in Boston.”
Karen Ramacorti expects she’ll make a decision by this fall and said although there are sentimental reasons to see the property continue as a hardware store, she acknowledged “it’s not a very good business decision.”
Her husband purchased the property in 1934 as a real estate investment and never intended to run the hardware store until the day he died. But Ramacorti knew a lot about hardware and repairs and grew to know his customers, said Karen. The store was so narrow that there was only one aisle up the center stacked from floor to ceiling with odds and ends.
“I think he had a lot of years invested in it and he liked it,” said Karen Ramacorti. “A lot of people come in in the neighborhood… it was almost like a social club.”
Customers would come to poke around in the old, unconventional hardware store to find things they couldn’t get elsewhere. Now the family is in the process of removing paints and pesticides from the building, which is stocked to the roof with hardware supplies. There are no family members interested in carrying on the hardware store’s legacy, said Karen Ramacorti.
The closing of the Hardware Outlet is representative of more than just another small, family-owned business fading away or an antiquated piece of real estate ripe for redevelopment. It’s symptomatic of what is happening to small businesses across the region and country, said Steve Adams, regional advocate for the U.S. Small Business Administration in Boston.
“This business is closing its doors not because they couldn’t make it but because the owner died,” said Adams. “This is a really interesting microcosm of what’s going to happen all over the city and all over the region because small business (owners) have no plan after they retire or after they die.”
Adams, who used to visit the “beat-up old hardware store,” said he thought it was unlikely the store would continue as a hardware outlet, given the property’s value.
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1931 - 2006 (75 years)
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