Jumbo Capital bought the Taylor Block more than a year ago. So far the biggest change on Washington Street at Grove is a martial arts studio getting ready to move into an old home decor shop. That is a fair preview of the next several years. The block was sold at what looked like the start of a redevelopment, and so far it is being run as a set of storefronts that turn over one tenant at a time.
The site covers about 1.2 acres and roughly 70,000 square feet of two- and three-story buildings, across from the commuter rail stop. It has shops and restaurants on the ground floor, offices and apartments upstairs, and a car repair shop around the back, as the Charles River Regional Chamber described it when the sale closed. Here is how the street-level spaces stand this week.
| Address | Storefront | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 552 Washington St. | Old School Pizzeria | Serving since March 2011 |
| 552 Washington St. | Rice Burg | Here since 2019, after starting as a food truck in 2015 |
| Next to 566 Washington St. | Tutto Italiano | Still on the block |
| 556 Washington St. | Former European Manor | Closed summer 2023 after more than 35 years; Simply Stated moved in that November |
| 558 Washington St. | Former Panoply Spa and Boutique | Closed February 2025 |
| 566 Washington St. | Former Comina, incoming Wellesley Jiujitsu | Comina closed January 2026; studio aiming for December |
The housing math that keeps the buildings standing
When the Sullivan family put the block on the market in November 2024, it was pitched as a redevelopment site. Part of the pitch was Wellesley's new MBTA Communities zoning. The numbers behind that zoning are modest. The block has about 20 apartments today. The new rules allow roughly 20 units by right, about what is already there, and up to 28 with a special permit. The Boston Globe concluded that even a housing-focused rebuild "would likely add only a few units."
The price followed those limits. Colliers assessed the site at $23 million when it was listed. Jumbo paid $15.25 million, according to The Swellesley Report, about a third below that figure. If a site can add only eight more apartments, tearing it down is hard to justify, and the income comes from the storefronts and apartments already there.
The owner's attention is on Route 9
Jumbo Capital is based in Quincy. Jay Hirsh founded it in 2009, and the firm says it manages more than 4 million square feet and $700 million in assets. The Taylor Block is one of several Wellesley properties it has bought in quick succession:
- 2023: Seven office buildings from Haynes Management for $48.5 million, including 40 Grove Street and addresses on Washington Street, Laurel Avenue and Prescott Street, as Bisnow reported.
- Fall 2025: The Taylor Block.
- By fall 2026: 888 Worcester Street, the former temporary Town Hall, and 110 Cedar Street, an office complex with medical tenants near Barton Road.
The active project in that list is 888 Worcester. Jumbo has partnered with Life Care Services on a senior living complex there, with independent living, assisted living and memory care. An earlier presentation put it at 150 to 200 units. The town's land use departments, which still have offices in the building, plan to move out around mid-2027. At the Planning Board's Nov. 2 meeting, members described conversations about bringing a proposal to Annual Town Meeting in the spring. They also cautioned Jumbo about the warrant deadline.
That priority is the clearest guide to the Square. At the Sept. 29 All Board meeting, Executive Director Meghan Jop said that because Jumbo is focused on 888 Worcester, it is unlikely to do much with the Taylor Block for five years, The Swellesley Report wrote. She was describing what she expects, not a promise from the company. Even so, it matches the zoning math and the price.
What a block run lease by lease looks like
The signs of it are in the windows. Brown paper and "for lease" signs went up on some empty storefronts this fall, as the block looks for tenants to replace Comina and Panoply. Comina was a home decor shop that had been in Wellesley for more than 32 years. It closed in January. The Swellesley Report wrote that it had been getting numerous questions about what would happen to the businesses on the strip.
Jumbo's public comments have been brief. Tom Powers, who handles acquisitions, told the Boston Business Journal that the company sees both a need for multifamily housing in Wellesley Square and the community's connection to the block's small businesses. The Globe carried his summary:
"Every property we look at is situational."
So far, that approach has produced the old Comina space as the first new tenant. Wellesley Jiujitsu, also referred to as All 1 MMA, has filed to use more than 3,000 square feet at 566 Washington Street for Brazilian jiu-jitsu, kickboxing and wrestling classes for kids and adults. The co-owners are Paul Rosado, a jiu-jitsu black belt and longtime coach, and Paul Karger, who ran GLORY Kickboxing's U.S. operations and chaired the Massachusetts State Athletic Commission. Rosado has said the studio is aiming to open in December. The studio joins a growing roster of fitness businesses in Wellesley, with more on the way.
The tenants who were here before the sale
The people still doing business on the block are, for now, the ones who set what it feels like. Old School Pizzeria opened at 552 Washington in March 2011. Rice Burg, which sells Asian-inspired rice burgers and bowls, ran as a food truck starting in 2015 before opening its first storefront at the same address in 2019. Tutto Italiano sits next to the Comina space and is still on the block.
The mixed layout these businesses work in is as old as the block. Charles N. Taylor built it in 1903 and 1904 for Wellesley's first bank, which opened on June 20, 1904. That first three-story brick building had the bank on the ground floor and offices and apartments above, according to the Wellesley history archive. More than a century later, the block still has commerce at street level and people living upstairs, and the zoning keeps the number of apartments close to where it is now.
Around the corner, empty storefronts are filling with shops
The rest of the Square shows what tenants are looking for this year. Bridgewater Chocolate opened in late October at 59 Central Street, in the old Wellesley Toy Shop space. It is the Connecticut confectioner's only store outside that state. Its Thanksgiving lineup includes chocolate turkeys priced from about $10 to $230. Elsewhere on Washington Street, The Cashmere Sale is back for its 16th year in the former Dover Saddlery at 595 Washington Street. It is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m., through Dec. 22.
A chocolatier in a former toy shop and a seasonal pop-up in the old Dover Saddlery space are the kinds of tenants the Taylor Block's papered windows are competing for. On the block itself, the next announced change is the jiu-jitsu studio at 566 Washington Street, which is aiming to open in December.
Our office at 572 Washington Street is on the same stretch as the Taylor Block, so we see these windows every day. If you own nearby or are thinking about what changes in the Square mean for your street, Rutledge Properties is glad to talk it through with you directly.
