Gonzalo Bethencourt started baking sourdough in the basement of his Acton home in the spring of 2025. This fall he plans to paint the dark walls and ceiling of 166 Great Road a light color, swap the black quartz counter for wood, and add a glass wall so customers can watch the dough being shaped. As of mid-September he was still lining up contractors and applying for permits. The space used to be Velvet Vine Café, which opened in early 2025 and has since closed.
On Sunday, October 18, two weeks from today, Acton holds its first Great Road Stroll from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Its sign won't be up yet, because Bethencourt hopes to open by Thanksgiving. Even so, his move says a lot about what is happening on Great Road this year. The businesses arriving are mostly ones that started small nearby and outgrew their first space. The town is spending money to fill empty windows with them, and the Stroll is the first time the whole corridor has been organized as a single street to walk.
Where Great Road's new tenants are coming from
Bethencourt's route to a storefront went through other local businesses first. He sold at farmers' markets. Then he ran Saturday noon pop-ups at Eve and Murray's in West Acton, where the Acton Exchange reported the line often ran out the front door. He added Debra's Natural Gourmet in West Concord and the Concord Cheese Shop in Concord Center, and he sells classic loaves on Fridays at Cucurbit Farm on Parker Street. He did all of this without employees. When the microbakery hit its limit, the empty café on Great Road became the next step. The bigger kitchen will let him add sandwiches on his own bread, plus coffee and other drinks. The new store will be all-electric, with the existing gas line disconnected, and a large oven is coming from Spain.
Adaptive Fitness & Movement followed a similar path from just over the town line. In 2024 it moved from Boxborough into 425 Great Road, the former Colorworks space. It offers adaptive fitness programs for people with autism and other special needs, along with traditional classes. The town's recreation department now lists the program at that address, with activities that include adaptive fitness circuits and adaptive cornhole.
Mobility City opened on August 3 at 155 Great Road, Suite B. It sells, rents and repairs wheelchairs, scooters, hospital beds and lift chairs. The Nashoba Valley Chamber of Commerce hosted its ribbon cutting on August 5.
The Stroll will open with another newcomer. Buckollar, a shop at 133 Great Road, Unit 1, that sells products for large dogs, gets its ribbon cutting at 11:30 a.m. during the event.
The town is paying to fill the empty windows
Some of this turnover is on purpose. On September 23, the Economic Affairs and Community Committee approved $10,000 tax credits each for Adaptive Fitness & Movement and Mobility City through Acton's Vacant Storefront Program. The program supports businesses that open in previously vacant storefronts along Great Road.
The credit comes with a condition. Both businesses agreed to host exhibitions by local artists in their spaces. So a medical-equipment showroom and an adaptive gym will also work as small galleries. This year, art and new storefronts on Great Road are arriving together.
The program isn't finished. The final round of applications is open, and Expressions of Interest are due by October 16, two days before the Stroll. Patricia Costa, Acton's Economic Development Director, is the contact.
The storefronts that left, and the building coming down on purpose
Not every change is an arrival. TJ Maxx and HomeGoods closed their Acton Plaza store and moved up the road to The Point in Littleton. As of the Acton Exchange's August 29 business briefs, no new tenant had been announced. That same report covered Chico's closing at Brookside Shops near Trader Joe's, with Warby Parker getting ready to open in its place.
The biggest physical change planned for Great Road is a demolition. The 1980s brick strip mall that last housed Acton Convenience is scheduled to come down, and the Acton Exchange reported in late August that it would be torn down soon. Great Road Antiques and ThinkForFun had already moved to other Acton locations the year before. The building next door at 471 Great Road, on the corner of Sachem Way and once home to Acton Carpet, is slated to come down as well. Acton Convenience has moved temporarily into Acton Smoke and Vape at 133 Great Road, the same address as Buckollar. Before demolition, owner Leo Bertolami offered the building to the Acton Fire Department for training. None of that training involves active fires.
Bertolami, a longtime Acton resident who also owns Wetherbee Plaza in South Acton, plans two "trade" buildings on the site. They are meant for plumbers, electricians, general contractors and similar businesses. The west building will have four shop spaces, five overhead doors and 8,100 square feet, plus a 2,000-square-foot finished attic. The east building will have four shop spaces and four overhead doors in 7,350 square feet. The Design Review Board responded favorably in its August 2025 memo:
"The exterior of the proposed buildings are designed with a nod to Acton's residential scaled commercial buildings, evident in the villages and in portions along Great Road. The proposed new building's mass will be broken up by dormers, gabled roof planes, and changes in ground plan."
The plans call for neutral gray clapboard, PVC trim, black-framed windows and architectural shingles. A building that looked like a strip mall will be replaced by trade space designed to look like the villages.
Here is where those addresses stand this fall, based on the reporting so far:
| Location | What was there | Fall 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 166 Great Road | Velvet Vine Café, opened early 2025, now closed | Bethencourt Bakehouse, aiming to open by Thanksgiving |
| 155 Great Road, Suite B | Vacant storefront | Mobility City, open since August 3, with a $10,000 storefront credit |
| 425 Great Road | Colorworks | Adaptive Fitness & Movement since 2024, with a $10,000 storefront credit |
| 133 Great Road | Acton Smoke and Vape | Also temporary home of Acton Convenience, and Buckollar's ribbon cutting on October 18 |
| Former Acton Convenience strip mall | Three-store 1980s brick building | Slated for demolition, with two trade buildings planned |
| 471 Great Road at Sachem Way | Acton Carpet | Slated for demolition |
October 18, on foot
Great Road is a corridor you usually drive past, and the Stroll is set up so you can walk it instead. The Office of Economic Development's plan includes seven plazas with special attractions, recreational activities, business promotions, and an art exhibition by local artist Elizabeth Ames. The town's flyer calls it Acton's first, encourages walking and biking, and promises family fun.
The logistics, as the town has published them:
- Parking: Park at the local plazas, along Esterbrook Road, or on Concord Road, then walk Great Road.
- Route: The town's station map shows Northwoods Builders as the start, Powers Gallery along the route, and Dunkin' at the end. Vehicle access at Esterbrook is marked closed.
- Crossings: Police details will be posted at key crossing points to help pedestrians cross the road.
- Ribbon cutting: Buckollar at 11:30 a.m.
- Named participants: The flyer's confirmed-participants graphic shows Buckollar, Huntington Learning Center and First Rugs.
The town hasn't published a full list of participating businesses or what each plaza will offer. Economic Development Committee minutes from July said that getting plazas to cooperate on hosting guest organizations and town activities was still a challenge. The flyer has a scan code for the latest details.
If you want to try the bread before 166 Great Road opens, Bethencourt sells his classic sourdough on Fridays at Cucurbit Farm. The farm, at 32 Parker Street, is running its 11th Annual Scarecrow Contest through October, with public voting on site. His flavors so far include Cheese and Jalapeño, Figs and Red Wine, and Everything Bagel sourdough, plus Belgian triple chocolate sourdough cookies and cranberry muffins made with fruit he picks up from Massachusetts bogs.
When Great Road's storefronts change, the people who live near them feel it before anyone else. If you've been wondering how this year's openings, closings and new construction affect your corner of Acton, Ann Erickson Shaw has followed this corridor for 27 years and is glad to talk it through. Request a personal market consultation.
