Harvard Square Clover Location to Permanently Close Amid Financial Struggles

Clover Food Lab will permanently close its Harvard Square location after nearly a decade in the Massachusetts Avenue storefront, a Clover spokesperson confirmed Thursday afternoon, citing “drastic” rent increases and long-term financial sustainability.

The spokesperson wrote that the company will consider other spaces leased by the University to local businesses, including spaces inside the Smith Campus Center. The Zimmer Hall location will reopen on June 22, in line with the start of Harvard Summer School.

Negotiations over the Square location’s rent with the University, which leases the space to Clover, have been ongoing since the beginning of the year. But the proposed rent increase is too high for the company, the spokesperson said, leading to the decision to formally close the Square outpost.

“In the end, the drastic rent increase for the space is not financially sustainable long-term for a small local business like Clover,” the spokesperson wrote.

The spokesperson declined to disclose the terms of Harvard’s rent proposal. A University spokesperson did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Clover, founded by Harvard Business School graduate Ayr Muir in 2008, is a Boston-area fast-casual vegetarian chain that started as a food truck near MIT’s campus.

The closure comes as the Square has seen a string of businesses leave the area in recent years, including Allbirds, CorePower Yoga, and the Starbucks on John F. Kennedy St., which remains vacant.

The Square location first closed when Clover announced in late May that it was shutting down operations across all 12 of their locations and kiosks. But when an angel investor stepped in just days after operations ceased, the company reopened five storefronts across the greater Boston area, including its locations in Central and Kendall Square.

The Harvard Square location is the only Clover storefront confirmed not to reopen. The timeline for the potential reopening of the five locations that remain temporarily closed still unclear.

The spokesperson wrote that “luckily” the Zimmer Hall location is near the Square outpost and that Harvard students remain among the chain’s most stalwart customers.

“We are so proud to have served thousands of Harvard students, staff, and faculty over our years in Harvard Square,” the spokesperson wrote.

As of Thursday afternoon, Clover signage had been removed from the storefront.

—Staff writer Theresa F. Bartelme can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at theresabartelme.15. Follow her on X @theresabartelme.

—Staff writer Shawn A. Boehmer can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at shawnb.18. Follow him on X @ShawnBoehmer.

—Staff writer Uy B. Pham can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at ubp.88. Follow him on X @uybpham.