Boloco will likely close its Tufts branch on Boston Avenue when the restaurant's five−year lease expires on Nov. 30, CEO and founder John Pepper told the Daily.
While this location has witnessed increased business in the last year, sales continue to be the lowest of the burrito chain's 18 New England restaurants, he said.
"The hard truth of the matter is that we had expected Boston Avenue to be developed more than it has been by now," Pepper said. "Unfortunately the recession hit and everything kind of stopped, so it remained the same as it started in 2006."
Pepper said he had anticipated an increase in sales pending the completion of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA)'s Green Line Extension Project, which would have created a stop near Boston Avenue. But the extension project has been plagued by delays, and while the MBTA and Massachusetts Department of Transportation continue to plan the new Medford T stop, now scheduled to be finished between 2018 and 2020, Pepper said the branch cannot afford to wait.
"I personally will miss having the business there," Pepper said, "but my team that works there will miss friends they've developed over the years."
Even though Boloco has been in jeopardy of closing for a few years, employees at the Boston Avenue location said they were surprised when they learned the company wasn't signing another long−term lease.
"It was kind of a big shocker because I feel like we get a lot of customers," Boloco employee Lamar Walker told the Daily. "I really think they're messing [Tufts students] up. I think that a lot of people don't want Boloco to close."
Branches of the Boloco franchise on average serve 600 customers per day, whereas the Tufts branch only serves about 200 customers per day, making it the burrito chain's least−profitable franchise, Pepper said.
"It's very portable and in most cases it's very delicious," Pepper said. "We've always found that to work well on college campuses. We're on almost every major college in Boston so we thought that Tufts made a lot of sense."
After the Tufts branch ceased its delivery service in April, however, business increased, Pepper said, making him rethink the decision not to sign another lease.
"There is an opportunity that we're working on right now to go month−to−month on our lease," Pepper said. "But if we had something that people really loved at Tufts it would be successful and something just fell flat."
While he's still not sure what the branch will do at the end of its lease in November, Pepper said he hopes customers will offer feedback so he knows what the Tufts community would want from the restaurant if it were to stay open.
"There's no reason to do something that people don't like," Pepper said. "If there's something we can do to get people to want to go to Boloco, we'll do whatever. We can't go totally crazy, but we are pretty crazy."
Boloco's closure will be disappointing to Tufts students who frequent the burrito joint, particularly those who live uphill and off−campus near the Boston Avenue location, like junior Kathryn Galasso.
"It was a nice place to go and I'm definitely sad it's not going to be there," Galasso, who lived in Wren Hall last year, said. "If you needed food it was the closest place to go. It was pretty good with a reasonable price."
Despite the Boston Avenue location's struggling business, Pepper said the 15−year−old business is expanding to six new locations: three in the Boston area, one in Rhode Island and two in Washington, D.C.
"The head scratcher is we've had a great few years," Pepper said. "We love Tufts and we've had so many students come to our events, but it hasn't been enough to cause people to walk down the other side of the hill."
