The building that’s home to the General Store has new owners. They are Matt Marolda and Betsy Starr, longtime residents of Harvard.
The sale was announced Monday afternoon, Sept. 22, by Steve Nigzus of Harborside Realty, who brokered the purchase with the building’s former owners, Adam and Lyn Horowitz, who currently reside in South Africa.
The closing was conducted electronically by attorneys in Acton and Gloucester, representing the sellers and buyers. The price was $900,000, “well over the asking price,” Nigzus confirmed in a Tuesday morning email.
Matt Marolda and Betsy Starr. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
In an interview last week, Marolda and Starr told the Press they are committed to preserving the building as “a place and space for the community,” while supporting store owner Scott Hayward and continuing to provide a home for the Harvard Press. They say they see unrealized potential in both the building and store and will be working with Hayward to unlock it.
“Harvard General Store has a way of gently reminding its custodians that it’s time to move on,” Horowitz wrote the Press Tuesday morning. “She demands care and attention which requires people with vision and patience.”
“When Lyn and I asked ourselves whether we were still good custodians, we could not in good conscience pretend that as absentee owners we were working in the best interests of Harvard and the store. The timing of our decision to sell and the willingness of Elizabeth and Matt to step in, is incredibly fortuitous and we wish them and all the residents who frequent this landmark building, the very best for the future.”
‘It didn’t take long’
Marolda and Starr learned the building was for sale from a front page story in the Aug. 15 issue of the Harvard Press. They were out of town, but had taken the paper with them. Their immediate reaction was one of shock, concern for the building’s loss as a community center.
“I don’t think it took long before we started thinking maybe this is something we should get involved in,” said Marolda. “I don’t think we had a lot of debate about it.”
Added Starr: “I think we’re both really committed to the town and really see this building and the General Store as such an asset, such a central part [of the community] and just wanted, like everybody else, to preserve it and to maintain it.”
Within 36 hours Marolda and Starr had contacted Nigzus with an offer. Once the building was advertised, Nigzus said, six parties came forward with interest in it, but Marolda and Starr’s offer “blew them out of the water.” “Matt, who grew up in Harvard, knew the history of the building and together he and Betsy wanted to preserve this vital part of our community. It has been an exciting few weeks bringing this transaction to a close.”
“We wanted to move quickly,” said Marolda. “That’s why it was such a quick close. … We wanted Adam and Lyn to have an easy choice, because the concern was who knows what’s going to happen?”
Leases for the store and the Harvard Press have yet to be negotiated with the new owners, but Hayward said in an interview Tuesday morning that he felt a sense of calm he hadn’t felt since he first learned the building would be sold. Owning a business and not knowing the future had been a source of anxiety, he said. “I think [the sale] could be the start of … a new era for the town.”
Speaking for the Press, co-owner Lisa Aciukewicz said: “We were so fortunate to have the Horowitzes offer us space in the General Store. The offer to remain is like lightning striking twice. We could not be more grateful nor more excited to have Matt and Betsy assume ownership of this treasure of a building.”
Locally born and raised
Marolda and Starr were both born and raised in Massachusetts, Marolda in Harvard and Starr in Southborough. The couple met at Bowdoin College.
Marolda built a successful 20-year career by applying his expertise in data analysis and artificial intelligence to solve business problems in a variety of industries, from professional sports (including the Celtics) to insurance and Hollywood film production and marketing (including “Kong” and “Dune”). A serial entrepreneur, he currently consults and invests from an office in Copley Square.
Starr is a research associate at the National Institute on Out-of-School Time, a research and training organization that promotes and improves the quality of before-school, after-school, expanded learning, and summer programs.
The Maroldas have two children. They have lived in Harvard since 2003.
“The farms and wooded trails along with the sense of community drew us—we were looking for someplace with a small town feel and lots of open space but that would be accessible to Boston,” Starr told the Press. “For several of our early years in town, Matt had office space on Ayer Road, which was nice.” Though offered a chance to move to Los Angeles, it took them less than 15 minutes to decide against it, she said.
Three tenets
Marolda and Starr said three tenets guided their decision to buy the building. First, a desire to preserve it as a community space. “We were concerned about what it would mean for the community if it went away,” said Starr. Marolda said he remembered how empty and sad town center had seemed during the period the building was unoccupied, before the Horowitzes brought it back to life. “We didn’t want to go back to those days,” he said.
Second, Marolda said, they also wanted to preserve the building’s current uses as a general store and home for the town’s newspaper. Marolda says he and Starr realized pretty quickly that the reason people were so passionate about the building was because of the cafe and store that Hayward had built, a place they loved. “We’re excited to work with Scott to partner and figure out how to make the store’s concepts sustainable.” “Business as usual, but with an upward trend,” Marolda said.
Their third tenet, Marolda and Starr said, was to make prudent investments in the building, but not to be “financially foolish.” Think of us as “patient capital,” Marolda said. The building is in good shape considering its age, they said, but sprinklers and better air-conditioning are on their radar.
However, Marolda told the Press, “Making something sustainable means it has to be viable.” “We’re going to be very patient with long, long horizons,” Marolda said. “We live here. We’re not going anywhere.”
Matt Marolda and Betsy Starr pose in front of their recent purchase, the building at 1 Still River Road that houses the General Store and the Harvard Press. The pair purchased the building from Adam and Lyn Horowitz, Sept. 22.
