Newton’s Economic Development Commission met on Tuesday evening to introduce a new digital map that locates vacant storefronts across the city’s thirteen village centers, hoping to update the technology available in Newton and attract new business.
Lauren Berman, director of economic development, and Cheryl Lappin, deputy director of economic development, presented on the database project which has been developing over the past few weeks with the help of two Harvard Kennedy School interns, explained Berman.
“We wanted to get a handle on where those vacant storefronts are,” Berman said. “We were lucky to be blessed with two interns from Harvard’s JFK School of Public Policy who helped create this vacant storefront map, and that’s one of the new tools that Economic Development will be offering.”
The primary mission of the tool is to identify vacancies for new businesses in Newton, according to Berman.
“From my perspective, it does a couple of things,” Berman said. “For one, we want to get a handle on the vacancies … so it helps us get a handle on where we are now, and we need to have different places that we can know to work with.”
In the database, Berman and Lappin included the information, documents, and history needed for entrepreneurs looking to open a business in Newton.
“We took assessors’ database information, we took the city clerk’s business certificates,” Lappin said. “They’re aggregated from several real estate sites, our own Allan Cohen in the Assessing Department walks constantly around the city and queues his own list.”
Because of outdated sources available on Google and the Newton website, Berman and Lappin decided to collect the data themselves from vacant storefronts to ensure the most accurate representation in their digital map.
“We also walked around those centers and identified other ones, and then followed up to see if they were [vacant],” Lappin said.
Economic Development Commissioner Philip Plottel highlighted the disadvantage Newton faces due to a lack of up-to-date data on new and closing businesses, creating uncertainty for entrepreneurs looking to build their ventures.
“All you see is that it’s an outdated version that’s on their website or that it’s an updated version that is pointed to by Google.” Plottel said. “And this is not a new issue. But it does point to a competitive disadvantage that the city puts itself into by not providing the most updated information.”
Newton continues to lack new technology, which is affecting ongoing database updates and the ability to provide accurate information online, causing unpredictability for individuals who want to establish a successful business, explained Plottel.
“[You want to] provide the predictability, which is really what businesses need to be able to be successful,” Plottel said.
While the open storefront database is not yet available for users, the development team is hoping to release the tool in the next month.
