Central Square Growing

By Joshua Resnick -- The Lynn Journal

Wednesday, March 9, 2005

John Olson of Columbia Insurance is a strapping, gregarious patrician Lynn businessman.

He has moved his business from the edge of Market Street to 31 Central Square, into a fabulous period building looking out on what he perceives as the new Lynn that is growing all around him.

Olson said he and other members of the Central Square Committee recently solicited the owners of Red Bones, the famous rib house in Davis Square Somerville, to come to Central Square.

What’s even better, added Olson, “The owners were intrigued by downtown Lynn and are considering placing a restaurant here.”

Olson believes locating an anchor restaurant or retail outlet that draws more people into the square, and which will serve as well the hundreds of new residents now moving in, is absolutely essential.

Seven major condo, commercial and loft development projects within 50 yards of his new office is slowly but surely transforming Central Square from a ghost town to a boomtown.

On top of putting his money where his mouth is, Olson, 43, a Maplewood Road resident and Colby College graduate with a master’s degree in business from Suffolk University, has taken the leadership of the Central Square Development Committee.

The committee includes the Mayo Group, which is doing so much to transform Lynn’s downtown; Omars Jewelers, Chamber Executive Director Kevin Donohue, Community Development Director Hal MacGaughey, EDIC Director Peter Deveau, Mike Conlon, aid to the mayor, Representative Steve Walsh and Lynn Arts, Raw Arts, the Lynn Journal and the Daily Item.

Olson said he has moved to Central Square, into the building at number 31, because the square is coming alive, and in a way it hasn't been for almost two decades.

“I see the future of the downtown as up and up and up,” he said during an interview last week.

Business is growing in the square. Our business is growing. The development committee is reaching out. The energy is impressive. It can't help but to reinvent the square into something those of us who grew up here are used to.”

Like many lifelong Lynners, Olson remembers Central Square in the great days, when the square teemed with people and dozens of stores large and small, when Central Square and Market Street were an Appian Way of sorts, a place where all kinds of commerce took place every day of the week.

Olson is not just another Lynner hoping for a resurgence. He's doing something about it and his family and business associations are strong enough to make a difference.

Olson’s grandfather was the late James Leo McGuinness, Lynn’s former supertintendent of schools.

His father-in-law is the legendary, longtime Lynn businessman now retired to Florida, Norm Dion, who bought the Columbia Agency from the Flynn Family during the Depression, and year by year built it up to what it is today -- a substantial local insurer that writes business insurance all over the state through a consortium of business groups.

“Of course, at our core, is a substantial number of loyal Lynn clients,” Olson said.

“Everyone has been helpful from the mayor on down. The possibilities are all wide open. We’re looking toward the bigger picture, to go out and get the businesses to come here that will improve the lifestyle of those living and working downtown,” he said.