Belmont Savings Running Commercials Highlighting Customer Service

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Photo: Jamie, an employee at Belmont Savings Bank who is part of a commercial campaign by the bank.

If the people in the commercials being aired during televised Boston Red Sox games looks familiar, they probably are. And you likely saw them working for Belmont’s own savings bank.

That because Belmont Savings Bank launched last week an employee-driven TV/video campaign aimed at demonstrating their commitment to personalized customer service.

As part of the campaign, created by Boathouse Group in Waltham, the bank will begin airing a series of commercials featuring employees offering personable, active and knowledgeable customer service.

“By offering commercials focused on our actual colleagues, we capture the personalities driving our bank and connecting us to the community,” said Bob Mahoney, President and CEO of Belmont Savings Bank.

“These commercials highlight our greatest asset – our people – and what makes banking at Belmont Savings such a uniquely local, and professional, experience.”

The commercials spotlight different employees, with each colleague sharing their personal commitment to their customers and why working in community banking matters to them.  This is the latest innovation from Belmont Savings designed to contrast the bank from the traditional banking campaign which often relies on actors playing bankers.

“With these commercials, we present our employees’ unscripted, passionate responses to why they love working with customers, a contrast to the way big banks traditionally operate,” said Hal Tovin, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Belmont Savings Bank.

As the brainchild of Boathouse, the campaign is the result of the agency’s collaborative relationship with bank. The settings for the commercials include the bank’s bustling supermarket in-store branches and even the homes of several employees.

“We believe the Belmont Savings team approaches banking the right way, demonstrating genuine understanding of their customers in the communities they serve,” said John Connors, founder of Boathouse Group.

The commercials began airing Thursday, March 26 in the markets north and west of Boston using Comcast spotlight. The spots will be viewable on the following stations: AMC, TBS, MTV, ESPN, Discover, Brave, LMN, ABC Family, and on NESN during telecasts of the Boston Red Sox.

 

Owner Readies Loading Dock While Rolling Out a New Convenience Store

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Photo: Faud Nicolas Mukarker, the owner of the Loading Dock, oversees renovations on Brighton Street.

The inside of what will soon become the new The Loading Dock at 11 Brighton St. is filled with men and women speaking English, Spanish and Arabic. The interior is a busy place as the workers bring together the electricity and plumbing, setting up new equipment and completes the detail work.

In the middle of the activity you’ll find Faud Mukarker, the owner of the business at the corner of Flanders Road, approving and overseeing the renovation of what will transform the location that once was home of a White Hen Pantry into an international bistro, kitchen and specialty store with a full liquor license.

“It may not look it, but this will open in about three weeks,” said Mukarker, likely by mid-April.

He points to areas inside the well-lite building where the kitchen will be located, talks about the coffee area and leads visitors where the dining area will be set up, once the convenience store is closed in the next week.

It’s been nearly a year since Mukarker was rewarded the coveted full liquor license by the Board of Selectmen at a well-attended meeting at the Beech Street Center on May 1, 2014. Mukarker said he understood some residents were beginning to wonder about the progress of the transformation of the store.

But Mukarker said he took his time “because I wanted this store to be something special,” referring to the all new equipment, the use of “green” material and systems (bamboo exterior siding and a unique lighting system) and creating extra public spaces.

As Mukarker prepares for the opening of his new flagship store, his other new business is about to have a quieter kickoff. The Zaytoun Market in the strip mall at the corner of Concord Avenue and Bright Road will open its door next week.

Zaytoun – which translates as “olives” in several languages – will take a space at 62 Concord Ave. next to the East Boston Savings Bank loans branch. Mukarker had his eye on the spot for a while, having initial architectural design work done in July 2014.

According to Mukarker, the 1,198 sq.-ft. site will be a traditional convenience store much like the business he runs at Brighton Street with a coffee “bar,” produce for sale and “things you want at the last moment,” said Mukarker.

“Now people have to go to Fresh Pond or [Belmont] Center and they hate that. [Zaytoun] will be here to help get what you want,” he said.

And those needs include lottery tickets and tobacco products, said Mukarker.

Mukarker said, “right or wrong, there is a demand for these, so I want to be able to meet that demand.”

Mukarker gave up his business’ lottery license and stopped tobacco sales as two of the conditions the Board of Selectmen mandated for receiving the full-liquor license a year ago.

One reason Mukarker is opening Zaytoun is for the steady cash stream the lottery brings into a business.

“That’s important for businesses to make a profit. It keeps many stores open,” he said.

Say ‘Cheese!’: Belmont’s Newest Store Set to be Your Fromage Stop

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Photo: Art’s Specialities, Belmont’s new cheese and produce shop, on Trapelo Road. 

When Artur Nergaryan came to the US from Armenia, he began to long for food he loved from his childhood. While the surrounding communities are well stocked with Armenian fare, he still could not find one product he yearned for: cheese.

So Nergaryan decided the best way to find what he wanted was to do it himself.

“So I made my own [cheese] and then wine, that’s how it started,” he said, soon developing an appreciation for all cheeses.

Next week (or hopefully as soon as this weekend), Nergaryan takes his hobby to the next level with the opening of Art’s Specialities in the former home of Diver Jim’s at 369 Trapelo Rd., across the street from the Studio Cinema. 

The 1,700 sq.-ft. retail space will sell an entire array of products from cheese, olive oil, herbs, charcuteries (prepare meats including bacon, ham, sausage, pâtés and confit) as well as loose seeds, tea and nuts. 

But the highlight will be more than 100 cheeses, most produced in the US and especially from New England. 

“I’ve looked for cheese from local farms as they will have the freshness that people will desire,” said Nergaryan. And, no, he will not be selling his own cheese in his shop. 

The store – open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the weekends – will have two employees and hold cooking and health classes, said Nergaryan. 

Market Returns to Center as South End’s Foodie’s Market Set for Macy’s Spot

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Photo: The Foodie’s Market on Washington Street in Boston’s South End. 

The owner of the former Macy’s department store announced today, Monday, March 23, it has signed a lease with a small but growing Boston-based grocery chain to occupy nearly a third of the space in Belmont Center. 

Belmont’s Locatelli Properties said Foodie’s Urban Markets, which has operated a store in Boston’s South End since 1999 before expanding in the past two years into Duxbury and South Boston, will lease 15,000 square foot in the building located on Leonard Street. 

“Our goal is to bring an exciting mix of retailers and restaurants to Belmont Center,” said Kevin Foley, manager of Locatelli Properties.

The deal marks the return of a grocery store in Belmont Center two decades after the previous retailer, J. Bildner & Sons, closed its doors at 69 Leonard St.

Foley told the Belmontonian in December he would seek to fill the nearly 50,000 sq.-ft. commercial space with a range of national, regional or independent retailers and restaurants as tenants.

“Right now, I’m hoping spring or summer 2016 to open,” he told the Belmontonian.

Foodie’s, as it is know to legions of South Enders, was the first up-scale grocery and market on Washington Street 16 years ago as that Boston neighborhood began its gentrification. The now three-store company is known for prepared dinners and lunches, specialty departments, beer and wine selections as well as home delivery service.

‘Lights’, ‘Camera’ … Belmont’s Studio Cinema Returning to ‘Action’

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Photo: The Studio Cinema in Belmont.

The interior lobby just got a recent coat of gray paint. The concession counter has a new top. There are LDC billboards hung on the wall displaying ticket prices and show times. And there are posters proclaiming coming attractions such as the 2015 Academy Awards winning film “Whiplash.”

Belmont’s 96-year-old movie palace, the venerable Studio Cinema, is ready for her latest close-up.

After closing just before the New Year and after months of speculation, owner Jim Bramante said the landmark on Trapelo Road will soon be back in business.

“I’m very close to being back in operation, in about a week or two,” Bramante told the Belmontonian on Wednesday, March 18.

For the past two-and-a-half months, the future of the building at 376 Trapelo Rd. was in doubt as Bramante and a handful of Belmont town departments including fire and inspectional services sought to resolve existing structural and safety issues at the century old building. In mid-January, the outlook for one of the few remaining single-screen movie houses in the country appeared bleak as the two sides came to an apparent impasse.

But Bramante said an agreement was reached in February and work has been progressing to allow the Studio to reopen.

“I’m waiting for another final inspection,” Bramante said, saying there had been a delay in getting the operation going “as there has not been a lot of coordinating within town departments.”

While the cinema is returning, the same can not be said for Cafe Burrito, Bramante’s Mexican-inspired storefront next door to the theater that opened in September 2012 serving “Mission-style” burritos and espresso drinks.

“After a great opening, business got slower and slower until the first of the year, I decided to just shut the door,” Bramante said, noting the business climate “has been one of the worst I’ve ever seen.”

Bramante has not yet decided what to do with the site.

Citing Precedence, Selectmen Deny Jimmy’s Food Mart Beer/Wine License

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Photo: The owners of Jimmy’s Food Mart, Surinder Kaur Dhaliwal and Parmjit Singh with their attorney, Steve Rosales, before the Board of Selectmen.

Citing a precedence in opposing past applicants which failed a fluid set of criteria, the Belmont Board of Selectmen unanimously denied a license to Jimmy’s Food Mart to sell beer and wine from the store at the corner of Belmont and School streets.

“This is about fairness,” Selectman Sami Baghdady told the Belmontonian after the meeting held on Monday, March 16, referring to the board’s recent denials to a pair of Trapleo Road businesses which failed to meet a benchmark of requirements set when the board OK’ed a full liquor license for the Loading Dock on Brighton Street in May 2014.

“If we denied LC Variety and Trapelo Variety

for not meeting certain community standards, how do we approve Jimmy’s when they also failed to do so? That’s unfair to the others,” he explained.

The board’s decision now places the future of Jimmy’s Food Mart into question.

“I don’t know if we can stay open,” said co-owner Parmjit Singh told the Belmontonian after the meeting.

Singh said he heeded the board’s suggestions made by the board three weeks prior when he and his wife and co-owner Surinder Kaur Dhaliwal, first presented their application for a beer and wine license.

“We did all they asked. Why did they now reject us? The business is changed to what they wanted,” he asked Belmont attorney Steve Rosales, who represented the couple.

In their application, the owners informed the town the store would provide popular and affordable brands of beer and wine, products in demand as the four current beer and wine and full liquor license holders in Belmont are providing selections that are viewed as more selective.

“I don’t know about you, but I like,” said Rosales.

At the meeting in February, the board informed the couple it would view their license application more favorably if they fundamentally changed their business model from a corner store selling the staples and sundries into food preparation and a “market”-style operation. The meeting was continued until this Monday.

Singh and Dhaliwal bought the shuttered site of the former Shore Drug in 2013 and opened it as a convenience store in January 2014. The store is managed by their son and business partner, Jimmy Singh. Since opening, neighborhood reaction has been overwhelmingly favorable, with residents commending the owners for operating a clean and inviting business.

Hannah Haynes, who lives on Lewis Road, said Singh polices the area including keeping the sidewalk clear of snow beyond the business’ boundaries and conveniently staying open into the night.

“For someone who works late, I appreciate the light and activity the store brings to the street,” Haynes told the board.

Since the February meeting, the store has set aside a significant square footage of floor space to accommodate South Asian foods, products and fresh “to-go” foods, transforming the store into an “international” market. Singh said he has not yet created a spot to serve or consume food since he would need to obtain a common victualler license.

While praising the new business plan the board strongly suggested Singh and Dhaliwal adopt, and the owners’ decision to voluntarily end tobacco sales, Baghdady said the business, “still doesn’t feel right to me that you have lottery sales.”

“Honestly, [lottery sales] is inconsistent with your business plan,” said Baghdady, telling the owners they would “do better if you got off the lottery and focused on the ethnic food products.”

Singh told the board lottery sales allows the store to stay in operation, providing the business a small profit to soften the high cost of doing business at the site including a $4,000 a month rent in addition to other fees and taxes he must pay.

“I need the lottery. It’s very hard for me to make my money [from the store alone],” said Singh, noting that similar Indian stores in Somerville, Cambridge and surrounding areas all sell lottery tickets to customers who are from South Asia.

Baghdady would not budge from his and the board’s demand the store abandoned lottery sales, noting the “precedence” set in rejecting two previous applications.

Rosales told the board the precedence from the Loading Dock decision was if an establishment wanted a full liquor license, “then you give up [lottery and tobacco] sales.”

The pleas did not move the board.

“I clearly understand that the lottery is a revenue source, but I don’t think you have it tonight, unfortunately,” said Selectman Mark Paolillo.

In addition, the Board noted traffic issues existed on nearby Lewis Road – running perpendicular to Belmont on the same block as Jimmy’s – which could be exasperated with vehicle traffic from Jimmy’s customers.

While Lewis Road residents were critical of the parking and traffic on the roadway at the February meeting, they were nearly universal in commending the owners in their commitment to operating a neighborhood-friendly store.

“I encourage you to keep working on your business plan, expand your business and when you’re ready, then come back,” said Baghdady, suggesting a return is possible in “eight months.”

“I don’t know how they are not ready now?” queried Rosales.

The board voted to accept Baghdady’s “itemized reasons” for denying the application; “I don’t think the use is capable with that neighborhood, I think a lottery license is incapable with our previous decisions and until the Traffic Advisory Committee does take some action on Lewis Road, I think this affects traffic in the residential areas.”

When asked if the board has established a “criteria” for future beer and wine applicants must follow, Baghdady said the board’s new “guidelines” should be taken into consideration by any business seeking a beer and wine license.

“They should know what we expect from applicants,” said Baghdady.

The presence of an unwritten set of rules applying troubled Rosales, a past member of the Board of Selectmen.

“Let me just say personally, [unwritten guidelines] would have been unthinkable when I was a member of the [board of selectmen],” Rosales told the Belmontonian.

When asked to elaborate, Rosales declined with a shake of the head.

When asked if the board has established a criteria future beer and wine applicants must adhere to, Baghdady said the board’s new “guidelines” should be taken into consideration by any business seeking a license.

“They should know what we expect from applicants,” said Baghdady.

When told of the possible closure of the year old operation, Baghdady said the owners should not have based a business decision on the “hope” they would receive a beer and wine license.

“They should have made opening the business contingent on receiving a license, not the other way around,” he said.

Belmont Business Leader Backs School District as Selectmen Discuss Override Tonight

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Photo: Robert Mahoney (right) of Belmont Savings Bank with Ellen Schreiber. 

As the Belmont Board of Selectmen prepare to discuss tonight, Tuesday, Feb. 17, a recommendation from the Financial Task Force for a possible property tax increase to fund the town’s structural budget deficit, one of Belmont’s leading business leaders has threw his support behind the town’s school district as it faces substantial cuts in staff and programs under current budget assumptions for next year.

Belmont Savings Bank’s President and CEO Robert Mahoney wrote a comment to an article in the Belmontonian (Belmont Schools Face ‘Significant, Negative Impact’ in Fiscal ’16 Budget; Loss of 22 Positions, Larger Class Sizes, Feb. 12) that highlighted a pending $1.7 million gap in the district’s fiscal 2016 budget if the schools are required to work within the available revenue that the town has calculated for next year.

Mahoney is the first prominent individual outside of the district to speak out concerning the negative impact on Belmont from possible inaction in securing the necessary funding to keep town schools high ranked.

“[Belmont Superintendent] John Phelan is so right. It took decades for Belmont’s schools to become top tier. At the rate we are going we will be third tier soon,” Mahoney bluntly wrote in a comment posted Feb. 14.

“Once the parents of high potential students move out, and they will, the biggest economic engine in Belmont will sputter to mediocrity and property values will quickly follow the schools down. This is not theory. This pattern has happened over and over in short-sighted communities that have not invested in their future,” Mahoney wrote.

In the past few years, Belmont Savings has become more involved in Belmont, starting a foundation to assist organizations and individuals funding community activities. The most prominent of those was the foundation’s donation of $200,000 this fall that jump started a community drive to raise $400,000 to start construction of a new Underwood Pool adjacent to Concord Avenue.

At Tuesday’s Board of Selectmen meeting – at 6 p.m. in the Selectmen’s room at Town Hall – the board will join up with the Belmont School Committee for a presentation from the district concerning the pending $1.7 million deficit in the pending fiscal ’16 available revenue budget totaling $47.5 million. In two previous public meetings to discuss the budget, Phelan has said the rapid increase in enrollment over the past five years and for years to come has sent expenses skyrocketing as the district. Phelan has advocated the selectmen call for, and voters pass a three-year, $4.5 million Proposition 2 1/2 override to fund the gap.

After the budget meeting, the Selectmen will reconvene to discuss placing an override before voters. If it decides to move in that direction, the board will also have to set a date for the override vote.

 

 

Ho Hum: Belmont Savings Reports Another Record For Annual Earnings

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Another year, another new benchmark as Belmont Savings Bank reported record annual earnings for 2014.

In a press release dated Feb. 12, the bank’s holding company, BSB Bancorp, Inc. reported net income of $1.4 million, or 16 cents per diluted share, for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2014, compared to net income of $645,000, or 7 cents per diluted share, for the same quarter in 2013.

For the year ending Dec. 31, the bank had net income of $4.3 million, or 49 cents per diluted share, as compared to net income of $2.0 million, or 22 cents per diluted share for 2013.

“2014 was another year of balance sheet and income growth. As our scale increases, we would expect further improvement in profitability,” said Bob Mahoney, the holding company’s president and CEO.

That growth was seen on both overall assets and in the bank’s core business, lending. By the end of the year, the bank’s total assets were $1.4 billion, an increase of $371 million or 35 percent from $1.1 billion on Dec. 31, 2013. At the end-of-the-year, deposits totaled $985 million, an increase of $220 million or 29 percent from $765 million in 2013.

On the lending side of the ledger, the bank witnessed end-of-the-year annual net loan growth of $340 million, up an impressive 41 percent from 2013. Increases were seen in:

  • Residential one-to-four family loans; $163 million.
  • commercial real estate loans; $87 million.
  • home equity lines of credit; $39 million.
  • indirect auto loans; $32 million.

“The continuing momentum in core deposit growth was an important contributor to our success in 2014. Each of our business segments, retail, business banking, municipal banking and commercial real estate, grew their customer relationships and their deposit base consistently throughout the year,” said Hal Tovin, executive vice president and chief operating officer.

As of 10 a.m., Feb. 13, the bank’s stock was reported at $18.76/share, just off its 52-week high of $19.35.

 

Hike in Parking Fees Spark Belmont Business Owners Ire

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Photo: Bells & Whistles’ Meghan Aufiero at the community parking lot behind Belmont Center, Tuesday, Feb. 3. 

There was a surprise waiting for Meghan Aufiero as she arrived for work at Bells & Whistles, the home furnishings, gifts and accessories store on Leonard Street on a frigid Tuesday morning, Feb. 3.

As she was putting dollar bills into the parking machine, she discovered the daily rate to park in the Belmont Center commuter lot would cost her an extra $2 a day to $5.

“This is a bummer,” the Winchester resident said when she discovered the 75 percent increase in the price of parking in Belmont’s commercial hub.

Aufiero is just one of dozens of employees of small businesses and franchises feeling the impact of the near doubling of the daily parking charge, approved late last year by the Belmont Board of Selectmen at the recommendation of a citizens/town group that spent more than a year determining the parking operation was not paying its way.

The new parking scheme, which went into effect Sunday, Feb. 1, includes the new fee structure and an attempt to monetize the vast number of commuters who have parked on Belmont streets for nothing, or close to it, for decades.

In addition to the hourly and daily fees jumps, the town has created 10 new weekday parking spots along Royal Road adjacent to the MBTA’s commuter rail station at Belmont Center and spaces in the Belmont Center commuter parking lot reserved for commuter pass holders. Those monthly passes are going for $90 a pop, an increase of $30.
The jump in fees, delayed a month at the request of local businesses, has been as welcome as the two snow storms that have hampered businesses in the town’s main commercial area.

“I can’t, and won’t, tell you how angry I am about this,” said a Leonard Street business proprietor.

Owners say the result of the new commuter parking plan is their staffs are left holding the bag, which needs to be filled with quarters to feed the parking machine.

For Belmont Toys owner Deran Muckjian, the increase will be an additional burden on his employees.

“The are now being asked to pay $1,200 or more this year just to come to work,” he said.

For Shelley MacDonald, who travels from Clarendon Road to Belmont Center, the additional cost of parking is making it harder for her to justify coming to work at the town’s only toy store.

“These little businesses don’t make enough to offset the new price for their employees. How can they retain good workers?” MacDonald asked.

Muckjian is not just upset by the added costs to his employees, but whether the increases are justified. Muckjian said his parking costs in towns where he has other stores are considerably less; in Lexington, he pays $250 a year each for two employee passes while Winchester does not charge a nickel for employee parking permits.

“What are the costs to park here? Keep the blacktop repaired? Making sure the parking machine is working?” Muckjian said.

At the very least, said Muckjian, a discount should be provided to the employees with the subsequent decrease in revenue be made up by increasing the fees on commuters.

A monthly pass at the nearby Alewife Station in Cambridge is $7 a day while the parking lot at the Fitchburg/Acton commuter line stop at the Brandeis stop in Waltham is $4 daily.

So far, there has been little communications between owners and the town on resolving the matter.

Champions Sports Goods owner Gerry Dickhaut said he has yet to receive a reply to a Belmont Center Business Association letter on business owners’ concerns. The single-page note, dated Dec. 8, suggests cutting the increase in the daily rate in half, up a $1 to $4 a day, retain the $60 a month pass for employees while jacking up the cost to commuters to $15 a day, which would still be half the cost of parking in downtown Boston.

But the town official who presented the case for the fee hike at a pair of public meetings last month said the increases in daily and monthly rates are past due.

Belmont Town Treasurer Floyd Carman, said rates have been kept steady since January 2009 while the demand for parking spots is outstripping supply.

“Belmont parking is at a premium. We are not like other towns that either has the space for big lots or a lot of industry that can subsidize parking,” said Carman. “Belmont does not have that luxury; We have a limited number of parking spaces. That’s the facts.”

He said the town’s parking advisory group, made up of residents and town officials, made an extensive analysis of the parking rates in many communities, not just neighboring municipalities. The new price structure “is a function of what it takes to run the program and what’s fair.”

Carman said the need for the town to employ three parking enforcement personnel and keeping all the equipment running requires the town to raise about $35,000 a year on fees to make the program pay for itself.

“Believe me, the town is not getting rich on this increase,” said Carman.

As for alternatives and price breaks for employees, Carman said he has not seen any proposals “come across my desk.”

“If the business association comes to me with a proposal, I am ready to talk to them and then presented to the Board of Selectmen,” said Carman.

Your Business: A New Yoga, Wellness Studio With a Family Vibe

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Photo: GROUNDWORK yoga + wellness in Belmont.

One day before she was to open her new business in Belmont, Megan Dattoli was running a bit behind schedule.

No, it was not because she overslept or was waiting for supplies to arrive; early Thursday morning Dattoli was at Boston Medical Center helping a client deliver her baby. For the past four years, Dattoli has been a birth and postpartum doula, a nonmedical person who assists a woman before, during and after childbirth.

“You have to excuse my appearance but it’s been a long morning,” the Belmont High graduate (’97) who grew up on Homer Road said in the newly-renovated studio space that is now home to GROUNDWORK yoga + wellness, located just around the corner of Trapelo Road on Maple Street (first building off the intersection on the left).

It’s that background in assisting families through the birthing experience that led Dattoli – who lives in Watertown with her two young children and husband (Belmont High class of 1996) – to consider opening a business with the emphasis on bringing a holistic view to promoting family-friendly wellness to the studio.”

“There is such a need for the entire family to focus their wellness, not just before and during a birth, but also afterward,” said Dattoli, who is a yoga instructor.

The new studio will offer yoga and pilates classes and parenting education and childhood enrichment workshops that “encourage self-care of body and mind, healthy families and a mindful community,” according to Dattoli.

During GROUNDWORK’s grand opening weekend, the studio is offering free yoga and Pilates classes, along with discounted class passes and memberships starting today, Friday, Jan. 30 and running through Sunday, Feb 1.

Belmontonian: Tell me about your new studio?

Dattoli: “The yoga and pilates classes will be cornerstone of the business but it would also be nice to having a place to offer new moms support groups and to teach my private childbirth ed classes in a place where I can have group sessions. I’ve rented spaces in the past, but it ended up being difficult conducting recurring meeting when I was moving around all the time.”

Belmontonian: What is your studio’s focus?

Dattoli: “There is definitely a family focus here. Along with yoga and pilates that are open to everyone, we will offer the family and kids classes along with prenatal yoga. And the space will be used for newborn care and other birth-related classes. I’m really excited about the parenting education because we are not as mindful in a lot that we are doing. I’m talking to [someone] who gives workshops on how kids can ‘push your buttons’ which I love.”

Belmontonian: So a typical day at GROUNDWORK will be …

Dattoli: “There will be yoga and pilates in the morning and evenings. Mid-day I plan to offer the moms and kids programs with enrichment programs in the afternoon and on the weekends between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. We will also have an experienced yoga instructor who specializes in senior yoga.”

Belmontonian: There are some great yoga and pilates studios in and around Belmont. Why should people come to you?

Dattoli: “Every studio has their area of expertise and we definitely emphasise the family and parenting side of things. For yoga and pilates, there are so many studios everywhere, that people try out classes and get attached to a teacher or the studio’s vibe. So don’t expect hot yoga here, I want a warm studio with wonderful teachers. I hope it ends up being a little community, a place where people can hang out and not just come to a class. One of my friends said she got five or six hugs every time she goes to yoga because everyone there are friends, and I hope to have a place like that.”

Belmontonian: Where would you like GROUNDWORK to be a year from now?

Dattoli: “I’d hope to have a place with a lot of offerings that people can choose from and enjoy. I haven’t packed the studios schedule because I will actively be seeking feedback and suggestions. I’m really hoping to have families follow us from the prenatal to the mom who needs a break and wants a yoga class Wednesday morning.”

For more information, please visit www.groundworkwellness.com