Harvard Square changes continue unabated as city signs off on new merchants

Cambridge’s Board of Zoning Appeal has green-lighted plans to open an &pizza pizzeria with a Milk Bar bakery in 1-8 Brattle Street.

It’s but the latest change in a slew of changes in Harvard Square, one of the Boston region’s most rapidly evolving areas.

The merchants will replace the Tory Row restaurant and the Crimson Corner newspaper shop, which closed earlier this year.

Other recent and pending changes in the square just off the similarly named university include a major revamp of its central plaza, including the kiosk that contains the Out of Town News newsstand; the redevelopment of the long-shuttered Harvard Square Theatre; and Harvard’s revamp of its student union and the plaza outside of it.

There’s also the planned redevelopment of 5 John F. Kennedy and 18 Brattle streets, which, among other things, could doom the world’s only Curious George store.

Then there’s the likely sale of two major properties in the area: The aforementioned 1-8 Brattle and 17-41A Brattle. The long, low-slung buildings include such businesses as Black Ink, Cardullo’s, Origins, Brattle Square Florists, and Rebekah Brooks.

The families that have owned the buildings for decades hope to fetch in the neighborhood of $100 million. As the Globe’s Katheleen Conti notes, it’s not clear what will become of the retailers inside when the trades go through.

Stay tuned.

• &pizza, Milk Bar get unanimous go-ahead to open in prominent Harvard Square site [Day]
• Harvard Square properties could fetch more than $100 million [Globe]
• Harvard Square buildings going up for sale, further changing Cambridge enclave [Curbed Boston]
• Harvard Square's major changes, mapped [Curbed Boston]
• Harvard Square Theatre might be reborn as mixed-use building with movie screens [Curbed Boston]
• Harvard Square’s Out-of-Town News kiosk will finish year without ideas for its replacement [Curbed Boston]
• Harvard Square’s Crimson Corner inks deal for new location nearby [Curbed Boston]