Cambridge efforts to reduce vacant storefronts showing signs of progress

Cambridge officials say the city's efforts to fill empty retail storefronts are working.

Pardis Saffari, the city's director of economic opportunity, said the city's vacancy rate dropped 12% from November 2024 and October 2025. She credited the city's Vacant Storefront Initiative, aimed at decreasing the number of retail vacancies in the city.

The initiative includes a publicly accessible database of the nearly 100 empty storefronts in major commercial hubs like Central, Harvard and Porter Squares.

The data includes the property's address, owner and former tenant information and the leasing contact. She said the database gives potential tenants an idea on what empty properties are available.

"We need to understand the data to understand the problem," Saffari said.

She said the city also implemented new policies in last June for property owners with vacant storefronts. These rules include requiring property owners to provide contact information in storefront windows for prospective tenants, as well as "coming soon" signs with information about new tenants.

She said not only does the initiative help potential tenants, but also the property owners.

"It finally gives them a point of contact here in the economic opportunity department to connect with and understand what are the programs and other opportunities we provide," Saffari said.

According to the city's data, of the nearly 100 empty storefronts in Cambridge, 17 have been vacant for more than five years.

Saffari said this could be for a number of reasons, such as the location not being appealing for tenants, deals falling through or property owners preparing to make upgrades to the building.

"A lot of our landlords are trying to do their best in finding tenants," Saffari said. "Our goal here is to be the connector to make sure that they know programs are available for their tenants once they sign a lease."

WBUR's Rachell Sanchez-Smith contributed to this report.