New Owner Sees Shoe HQ Backpedaling to Auto Use

BOSTON, MA-In the 17 years since Boston Volvo Village has been here on North Beacon Street in the city’s Allston district, owner Raymond Ciccolo has witnessed a plethora of diverse development and businesses arrive on the scene. In buying the former headquarters of New Balance Shoes next door, however, the car dealer is hoping to hearken back to the area’s past when it was the region’s Mecca for automobile sales.

“I’d like to put a vertical dealership in there,” Ciccolo tells GlobeSt.com after paying $4.5 million for the 75,000-sf building. Having housed a diesel truck emporium back in the 1950s and 1960s, the five-story building would be suitable for such a use, maintains Ciccolo, who says he hopes to garner neighborhood support for the concept. Not only is the structure able to accept the load, says Ciccolo, there remain elements such as an oversized freight elevator to accommodate the vehicles. “It’s all ready to go,” says Ciccolo, explaining he would also like to incorporate the building into the existing dealership complex next door. A model of car that would be traded has not been determined, he says.