Business buzz: Wellesley Square’s Taylor Block on the block; Hungry Pot opens in Natick; Heat pumps & your wallet

The latest Wellesley, Mass., business news:

Wellesley Square’s Taylor Block on the block

Wellesley’s Taylor Block, consisting of 540-568 Washington St. at the intersection with Grove Street, is up for sale.

The Boston Globe reports that brokerage firm Colliers is shopping the property across from the Wellesley Square train station to developers.

Businesses such as Old School Pizzeria, Rice Burg, and Comina are among the tenants on this stretch.

A Colliers brochure about the two- and three-story property promotes the town’s multifamily development rule changes in line with the MBTA Communities Act. The buildings currently host retail on the first floor, with some offices and apartments above. The brochure cites there being about 128,000 developable square feet of property.

The Globe quotes a Colliers executive named Frank Petz saying: “It’s such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity given the scale of what we’re talking about, the prime location in the heart of Wellesley, and the strength of the [housing] market.”

According to a 2013 post on the Wellesley History blog, the block was constructed by Charles N. Taylor in 1904 to house the Wellesley National Bank that he led, as well as the Post Office that moved across the street to its current Grove Street location in 1964.

Know of businesses coming or going? Don’t keep it to yourself: theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

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First taste of Natick’s new Hungry Pot restaurant

We checked out the newest area restaurant, Hungry Pot, which is located on Rte. 9 east in Natick. You can choose between hot pot and Korean barbecue… we went with the hot pot.

Read more about Hungry Pot in our Natick Report piece.

Heat Pumps can be good for the environment & your wallet

From Larry Derany and Duncan Perry of Smarter Bear Financial

You’ve probably seen a lot of advertisements about heat pumps and their installation. Heat pumps can meet your heating and cooling needs, replacing natural gas, oil, or propane equipment. Recent technology improvements allow heat pumps to work well at the low temperatures in New England winters.  Previously, you would need a backup heat source on very cold days. Whole house heat pumps are a perfect upgrade when your current heating system uses forced hot air. If your current system uses forced hot water – mini-split heat pumps would be the better fit.  Mini-splits are ductless systems that consist of a unit outside your house and one or more small units mounted on a wall inside the room that needs heating and cooling.

Wellesley makes heat pump upgrades a great deal for your family budget in two ways. First, there is a valuable rebate program—all the details can be found at https://wellesleyma.gov/1641/Heat-Pump-Program. In addition, Wellesley has one of the lowest rates for buying electricity in the state at around $.17/KWH compared to a state average of $.29/KWH. Wellesley should be able to keep rates low for residents as the Municipal Light and Power (MLP) team recently activated a giant battery system that can help avoid higher costs of acquiring electricity at peak usage times. The MLP does not generate electricity; they purchase electricity using cost-effective long-term contracts, and the battery system will avoid paying high market rates when demand is high—an intelligent move by the MLP.

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