Wellesley Business Buzz: Peet’s getting Chased outta town; Wellesley Theatre Project enrolling now

Our round-up of the latest Wellesley, Mass., business news:

Peet’s getting Chased outta town

The rumors that Peet’s Coffee in Wellesley Square might be closing started to swirl in mid-summer. We dutifully reached out to “customer service” to ask if Peet’s would be closing soon, and got a robotic response from “Iris” that “Our Wellesley location on Central Street has not been closed. Have a wonderful day and please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.” OK, not what we asked, but…

The reality of the situation became apparent this past month during a Design Review Board meeting (1-hour, 35-minute mark of Wellesley Media recording) when a project manager working on an interior redesign of the 9 Central St. building described plans for a Chase Bank to move in. Cries of “Not another bank!” have ensued as word has seeped out.

Wellesley has a Chase ATM further east on Washington Street in Wellesley Hills.

Peet’s Coffee regulars will surely be heartened to know that the Chase site will feature not only two ATMs, but also with “what Chase refers to as their ‘living room,’ which is a nice informal area for customers to wait…there’s a media element on the wall.”

Here’s a rendering from the architectural firm on what the outside might look like:

We’ve reached out to Peet’s to get details on when the store will close, and why. We also reached out to the property owner to get their take on the change. We’ll update this post if we hear back from either.

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Wellesley Theatre Project enrolling now for winter and spring 2021

SPONSORED CONTENT: Wellesley Theatre Project is now accepting registrations for its winter and spring sessions open to all students Pre-K through 12th grade. All classes and rehearsals begin the week of January 25th. In person and virtual options are available. In person classes and production rehearsals will take place at the Wellesley Theatre Project Studios, located at the Wellesley Community Center,  219 Washington St. Wellesley.

Wellesley Theatre Project offers classes and workshops in acting, musical theatre dance, private voice lessons, and private dance lessons. Classes and productions are open enrollment and designed for youth with or without previous experience.

For our in person programing, we will be limiting enrollment numbers, using large classrooms, wearing masks, and socially distancing. More here on WTP’s Covid-19 policies and procedures.

In addition to classes and workshops, enrollment is open for WTP’s enrollment-based production class, School House Rock, Jr. This production class is open to all students 2nd-12th grade. The singing auditions will be submitted virtually by Jan. 22nd from selections of the show and dancing and acting auditions will happen on the first in-person rehearsal day for each cast, the week of
January 26th.

Students will meet once a week from 4pm-6:30pm with their cast on their assigned day and then meet as a group on Zoom to rehearse music on Saturdays from noon-2:00pm.

The rehearsal process for School House Rock, Jr. will run through May 21st and the final product will be shared via a ticketed, streaming event.

Wellesley Theatre Project is a nonprofit devoted to providing students with the opportunity to study and experience theatre and performing arts through classes, staged productions, private lessons, workshops and summer camps. WTP empowers youth with life skills learned through exceptional performing arts education, and then challenges them to become Citizen Artists – improving the quality of life in their local and global community by emphasizing collaboration, cultural and social understanding.