Jonathan Bombaci on Tenacity and the Projects in Downtown Gardner
In Gardner, Bombaci’s firm has invested in residential real estate, renovated commercial real estate, attempted to buy properties from the City of Gardner, and is currently working on 25 Main Street and the Garbose Building. Project delays have resulted in part from a wait on getting enough electricity which is an issue throughout the Downtown.
Jonathan Bombaci spoke about challenges, progress and timetables in the Gardner Magazine interview available on any device. CLICK PLAY.
Jonathan Bombaci stated, “I can’t tell you how many times we start projects and they don’t go to plan, whether it’s something to do with the building, something to do with the renovation, something to do with tenants. So persistence and having a plan A, plan B, plan C definitely goes a long way in this industry.”
With respect to a property on Pine Street, a contractor literally put up a wall in the wrong spot, delaying progress on the building. Project continues.
With respect to 73 Stuart Street, “We very quickly during due diligence, talking to the city, kind of realized that that project wasn’t financially feasible. And so we withdrew.”
With respect to 25 Main Street and Brilla Coffee,”Permits have been approved. There was some back and forth just due to the complexity of the building and the fact that we’re putting in a full hood system, which creates some complications, because obviously they want to do some pretty good cooking there. And piping through a hood system with ventilation out three stories of a historic building has its challenges. So that was part of the delay, but we’re on track. You should see people there working consistently. We’ll have them opened in Q1 2025, pending nothing crazy happening.”
With respect to further progress on the Garbose Building which already has the outside done and a new tenant in the iconic corner spot, “We’re matching everything up to the energy plan. And things don’t move very quickly when you’re talking about energy plans. … Garbose will probably push into Q1 or Q2 of 2026, assuming that we’re able to get the energy plan finalized in a reasonable amount of time.”
With respect to buying locally, “The windows were bought from Maki’s. We buy a lot of our lumber. We buy a lot of our construction material from Maki’s. We also use a lot of local contractors. We do our best to keep as much as we can close to the towns that we’re doing the work in. One, it’s good for relationships, better products, better quality of service, someone you can call when something goes wrong, and two, a lot of times it’s cheaper, you know. Staying locally means that I don’t have to transport it long distances, which tends to save us a lot of time and money, both of which benefit a project.”