Wrap To Stay Put With Three-Year Lease

Despite last year’s worries that one of the Square’s most popular dining hall alternatives would be ousted from its Mount Auburn St. home, The Wrap’s lease has been extended for at least another three years.

Harvard Student Agencies (HSA), which owns The Wrap’s 67 Mount Auburn St. location, decided to extend the lease—which was set to expire this October—for a three-year term.

The agreement also includes an option for a second three-year term that would keep The Wrap in its current location until Oct. 2009.

According to HSA General Manager Bob Rombauer, HSA entered into the new lease agreement with John Pepper, The Wrap’s CEO, last October.

Pepper was traveling abroad and unavailable to comment.

Last year, HSA reduced The Wrap’s long-term lease on the space from 2011 to 2003.

But Rombauer stressed that the decision to shorten the lease from its original 2011 termination did not stem from a desire to force out the popular establishment.

“There is no truth to the story that they’re being pushed out,” Rombauer said.

In fact, he said, last year’s changes in the lease were motivated by the organization’s potential space needs.

But a new long-term lease on the HSA’s office space at 17 Holyoke St. temporarily alleviated those concerns, Rombauer said, and HSA could afford to lease out the property at 67 Mount Auburn St. to The Wrap.

Though HSA retains the right not to renew the lease in after 2006, Rombauer said The Wrap would remain as long as possible.

“We will not rent it to anybody else, so if we do not need the space we will renew the lease [until 2009],” he said.

The lease extension assures that The Wrap will continue to serve up bean and cheese burritos and its quintessential “Cape Codder” smoothies for years to come—and several students said they were very happy to hear that it would remain.

“I like it,” Debra Mao ’05 said. “It’s a great place, it has great food, and it has fast service.”

Carmen Iduina ’05 added that she liked The Wrap’s “typical college eatery” atmosphere.

However, not everyone was complimentary.

“They started putting dark meat in the wraps, and I thought that was terrible,” said Deip Nandi ‘04. “I still think it’s a great alternative to the dining hall.”