Are you OK?
Are you OK?
“Are you OK?”
Those were reportedly the last words uttered by Alex Pretti, before he was killed by federal immigration agents on Saturday.
Videos show that Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital, was attempting to help a woman who’d been shoved and pepper-sprayed.
“Are you OK?” is a question we should also be asking our employees, our customers, our neighbors — and each other — right now.
“Newsflash to CEOs and C-Suite executives: Your employees are not OK,” inclusivity expert Colette Phillips said last year, in a message that’s even more relevant today. “In these challenging times, with marginalized voices being silenced, it's more important than ever to lead with empathy, inclusivity and real action.”
Added immigration attorney Jennifer Bade (who, like Phillips, is a chamber member) this week: “I’m realizing I’m getting first-hand experience of what my asylum clients go through when they leave their country because it is no longer safe.”
On Friday, we shared timely information that can be helpful for employers regarding Haitian TPS status or what to do if ICE visits your workplace, plus new employer guidance from the state.
There are many others among us who need our support too, who need us to ask:
“Are you OK?”
For nearly 50 years, they helped Newton bloom
It’s not an exaggeration to say that Newton would be a lesser city if it weren’t for Alan Schlesinger and Steve Buchbinder.
For nearly a half-century, the former B.C. Law classmates helped steer some of the most consequential real estate and commercial transactions in city history.
That’s made them villains in some growth-adverse circles but indispensable allies to generations of business owners who’ve relied on their steady hands and sage advice inside Newton City Hall.
Together they helped shape many of the city’s largest and most complex projects — including 28 Austin Street, Trio, Northland, Riverside Station, plus the JCC, Lasell and 2Life campuses — along with clients across hospitality, health care, financial services and other sectors.
On March 2, the pair, along with several members of the Schlesinger & Buchbinder team, will be joining Dain Torpy, a highly regarded commercial real estate law firm in Boston. (Co-founder Dan Dain is a Needham guy.)
While Dain Torpy is headquartered in Boston, Alan and Steve will be renting space at Gateway Center in Newton Corner and will continue to maintain a local presence and represent clients in the Garden City.
“Alan and I are proud of what we have accomplished since we came together in 1978, and we are looking forward to continuing our relationship in this new setting,” Buchbinder says.
Watertown second best in new lab leases in 2025
It was a renters’ market for lab space in 2025.
Unsurprisingly, Cambridge remained the top destination for life science firms.
But Watertown was second best.
Twenty-two companies signed new leases in Cambridge last year, totaling 1.23 million SF, according to JLL research, cited by Hannah Baratham-Green in the BBJ.
There were 11 new leases totaling 355,571 SF in Watertown. Boston also recorded 11 leases, but for a smaller 343,878 SF, while Waltham saw fewer deals overall — nine leases — that nonetheless totaled a larger 379,194 SF.
“Kendall Square still matters, but it’s increasingly home to Big Pharma,” says Phil Borden, CEO at Labshares, which recently inked one of those Watertown leases.
“[But] the center of gravity for company-building has shifted, and more emerging biotechs now choose Watertown.”
Tuesday grab bag
- Due to all that darn snow, we moved this morning's (Tues.) Real Estate Forum focused ideas to grow housing supply and affordability to Zoom. Reading this at or before 9:30-11 a.m.? Join us.
- Needham’s Sunita Williams has retired from NASA
- The group leading the Envision Needham project will present an overview of its work to redesign Great Plain Ave. to the Select Board tonight. A community-wide event is scheduled for Feb. 4.
- Last week, your chamber became the first business association in the state to sign the “Massachusetts Businesses Pledge to Protect our Immigrant Communities.” Jon Chesto at the Globe explains what’s behind the effort.
- Boston College real estate professor and very good guy Ed Chazen is running for a seat on the Wellesley Planning Board. He previously served from 2003-2008.
- Former Wellesley Planning Director Eric Arbeene is now working at Eversource Energy.
- Another proposed Chapter 40B development on Crafts Street in Newtonville is heading to its first hearing before Zoning Board of Appeals tomorrow (Weds.) at 7 p.m. The proposal from Wood Partners calls for a single building with 234 homes, located directly behind Whole Foods.
- The Venezuelan restaurant Orinoco in Brookline Village is shutting down. (Brookline News)
- ICYMI: Read the Globe’s thoughtful editorial on the pluses and minuses of inclusionary zoning and why it’s important that communities get it right.
- Also read chamber member David Ball’s advice on “Applying the Crisis Playbook to Affordable Housing.”
- The West Suburban YMCA is raffling off a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Super Bowl LX in California to support its Annual Fund. Only 300 tickets are available. Enter.
- I can’t help but wonder if last year’s Newton teachers’ contract talks (and strike) might have proceeded differently if they had done this too.
- Rhode Island may no longer want Mr. Potato Head license plates, but we should.
- If you appreciate our mission and advocacy, but are not directly affiliated with a business or nonprofit, please consider becoming a Chamber Citizen Member. Thank you.
We’re launching a group for Latino and Hispanic professionals
Chamber members Mónica González, Juan Wulff and Claudia Carroll are creating a networking group to bring Latino and Hispanic chamber members together to build community and connection.
The first IMPACTO meeting is this Thursday at 8:30 a.m. RSVP.
Learn about your chamber’s other small networking groups here.
Newton Centre Parklet stays for winter, summer TBD
Finally, you could like, or loathe, the parklet that former Mayor Ruthanne Fuller built in a corner of the Newton Centre triangle parking lot last year and still be scratching your head over the timeline a Newton City Council committee set to determine its fate.
Last week, the Public Safety and Transportation Committee voted to shorten the Newton Centre Pilot Plaza trial from Oct. 31 to May 31, reports Grace Duffy at the BC Heights.
Translation: the parklet stays put during the dead of winter and early spring, when few people might use it.
Then, right as peak outdoor season kicks in—and parking pressure eases with summer vacations—it could be yanked, with the 24 spaces it occupies returned to prior use.
If that sounds backwards, it’s because it is.
Here’s hoping the Laredo administration follows through on its stated desire to explore moving the amenity to the Newton Center Green, or that the council doesn’t pull the parklet just when folks are most likely to enjoy it.
That’s what you need to know for today — Thomas Crapper Day — unless you need to know that the Museum of Personal Failure is really about finding success.
I hope you're dug out. Be back here on Friday.
President & CEO
Charles River Regional Chamber
617.244.1688
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Are you OK?