CAPTION: Sherry Grancey of Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty.

In the face of an increasingly competitive marketplace, Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty announced yesterday that it has acquired Grancey & Company Real Estate of Charlestown.
“I was looking for a way to compete with the bigger companies that have come in and taken the market share,” said Sherry Grancey, who founded the Charlestown firm circa 1988. “I wanted to go from being a boutique office to joining an international firm. In my mind, Sotheby’s was the best option.”
Gibson Sotheby’s, a Boston affiliate of the famed international auction house with offices in the South End, Back Bay, Waterfront, South Boston, Dorchester and Westwood, has re-branded the One Thompson Square business with its own company name. Grancey and her longtime business partner, Frank Celeste, have stepped down as owners of the company and will now work exclusively as brokers for Gibson Sotheby’s. Chris Tuite, who lives in Charlestown with his family and currently manages the Sotheby’s office on the waterfront, was named managing partner and will now oversee daily operations at the Thompson Square office.
“We’ve known Chris for more than 10 years and couldn’t wish for a better manager,” Grancey said. “[Frank and I] want to concentrate on our loyal clients throughout the city.”
Grancey, who grew up north of Boston in Acton, arrived in Charlestown by chance on a rainy night in the mid ‘80s. At that time, her Jeep broke down in Thompson Square while she was searching for an apartment in the city. Within an hour, patrons from the coffee shop at One Thompson Square had fixed her car for her, and she had received an offer to stay the night from local resident Mary Walsh.
“I couldn’t have run into nicer people, and that really made my decision to move into Charlestown, rather than any other part of the city,” Grancey said.
After settling in the neighborhood a short while later, Grancey launched her real estate career when she was hired to manage the Navy Yard office of Boston Waterfront Realty. The office closed in the late ‘80s, however, when the Navy Yard didn’t grow as quickly as expected and, as a result of the passage of Reagan’s Tax Reform Act of 1986, which Grancey said “stopped tax benefits for real estate investors, especially in urban markets.”
By 1988, the country was in a recession and Grancey set up her new office in the only place she could afford: a desk with a phone in the hallway of One Thompson Square. She met Celeste, who had a background in commercial real estate, a few months later and invited him on as her business partner. Together, they were on the frontlines during a period that saw Charlestown become one of the most desirable neighborhoods to live in Boston.
“Charlestown was just beginning its growth period where single-family homes were being renovated and multi-family homes were being converted onto condos,” Grancey said. “We were part of that growth. We joined forces and grew the company to be the biggest and most profitable real estate company in Charlestown for many years.”
Last fall, Grancey and Celeste sensed the changing market and began interviewing with various real estate companies and franchises to explore future options for their firm. Sotheby’s was immediately their first choice, but the painstaking approval process took months to complete.
“In our search, Sotheby’s name recognition and what they stand for – integrity, personalized service and superb marketing - was way beyond any company we interviewed with,” Grancey said, “but there were times when we didn’t think we would be chosen as the local Sotheby’s office.”
John Ranco, director of sales for Gibson Sotheby’s, said the Charlestown office would offer “high quality, white glove services,” including attractive marketing materials produced in-house and distributed worldwide.
In addition to being equipped with flat-screen TVs that will show the latest listings, the office will also be reset to accommodate up to 15 agents who will have access to state-of-the art Internet technology that can connect buyers and sellers anywhere in the world within a half-hour.
“I’m flattered [Sotheby’s] considered us as their next acquisition,” Grancey said. “It’s one of the nicest scenarios we could have hoped for.”

CAPTION: Pictured, left to right, at Boston Baseball Tavern Fundraiser are Charlestown resident and event host Jim Cloonan; Dr. Denise Faustman, director of the MGH Immunobiology Laboratory; Karen O'Brien; Pat Powers of Charlestown; Dan Fitzgerald of Charlestown; and Charlestown native Brian Callahan.

When a Charlestown native and his family race in the Adidas Dublin Marathon in Ireland’s capital later this month, 100 percent of the money they raise will go to support Massachusetts General Hospital’s groundbreaking research to cure Juvenile Diabetes, which is now underway a short distance from his childhood home at the Faustman Lab in the Navy Yard.
In the winter of 2004, Charlestown native Brian Callahan learned his 8-year-old daughter, Gracie, had type 1 diabetes, the same insidious illness that his mother was diagnosed with when he was Gracie’s age. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease where white blood cells attack the pancreatic cells, thereby preventing the body from producing insulin. Unlike type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 95 percent of all cases of the diabetes and is typically found in adults, type 1 diabetes commonly afflicts children.
Following Gracie’s diagnosis, Callahan began reading everything he could about new treatments and potential cures for the disease and soon learned of Dr. Denise Faustman, the director of the MGH Immunobiology Laboratory whose lab successfully reversed advanced type 1 diabetes in mice in 2001. (Dr. Faustman began human clinical trials in the search for the cure for type 1 diabetes in March of 2008). By a stroke of luck, Callahan learned that Dr. Faustman’s lab was located two buildings away from his office in the Navy Yard, and that her assistant, Lynne Murphy, was a fellow Townie. With Murphy’s assistance, Callahan met with Dr. Faustman, and after learning that she raised all the money used for her research, he wanted to help.
In November of 2005, Callahan, along with his brother, Dennis and good friend, Ray Derosas of Medford, ran in the New York Marathon to support Dr. Faustman’s research, and to honor Gracie and seven other local children also suffering from the disease: Alex O’Donovan, Jared Darnell, Lian McDonough, Oona Sullivan, Merry Morrison, Reilly White and Nicholas Killoran. Callahan and the others raised about $20,000 for Dr. Faustman and launched www.byebyediabetes.org soon afterwards.
“The marathon was a way to deal with the enormous amount of grief,” Callahan recalled. “I wanted Gracie to know I really cared and that we could make a difference in her future.”
Before the marathon, Callahan and his fellow racers accepted an offer from a Boston firefighter to run alongside members of the New York Fire Department in the race. The New York firefighters gave Callahan and the others a ride to the starting line and picked them up at the finish. Back at the NYPD’s hotel suite, Callahan proposed to his friends that they run in the Dublin Marathon to support Dr. Faustman’s Juvenile Diabetes research.
On Oct. 27, nearly three years after the plan was hatched following the New York Marathon, Callahan will take participate in the Dublin road race with his brother Dennis, his wife Annmarie, his daughter Brenna and friends. They will all pay their own expenses, donating all their proceeds to Dr. Faustman’s lab. Like the New York Marathon, Callahan and his companions will also race in honor of Gracie and the seven other local children suffering from Juvenile Diabetes, whose names will all appear on the back of each runner’s T-shirt.
Callahan admits he considered canceling his plans due to the recent economic downturn, but he ultimately decided the cause was too important to forego the marathon.
“We committed to this and started training many months ago,” Callahan said. “The thing that really troubles me is that kids from all backgrounds and countries have type 1 diabetes. We realize these are tough times, but there is never a good time to be a kid with diabetes.”
With the strides that Dr. Faustman is now making in the fight against type 1 diabetes, Callahan wishes above all else that someday a child diagnosed with the disease will run a marathon.
“It’s my hope that one day, one of these kids will run a marathon because there’s nothing they can’t do,” Callahan said.
To learn more about finding the cure for Juvenile Diabetes, visit www.byebyediabetes.org.

CAPTION: Pictured, left to right, are Brian Thomas, Kobe the yellow lab, Leah Busque and Kevin Busque.

Charlestown resident Leah Busque credits her 100-pound yellow lab Kobe as the inspiration for her new business, RUNmyERRAND.
In February, Leah and her husband, Kevin Busque, were waiting for friends to join them at their home before a night out at a Boston restaurant. Leah realized they were out of dog food, but didn’t want to inconvenience their cab driver by stopping to pick some up on their way home.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if we could hire someone to pick up dog food and have it waiting in our driveway when we got home?” Leah thought.
Then, it dawned on her: Someone should create a Web site that connects busy people who needs errands run with others willing to perform their chores for a set fee. Leah bought the RUNmyERRANd.com domain name before they even left for dinner, and four months later, she would leave her job as a software engineer with IBM to establish the new company.
RUNmyErrand, which Leah and Kevin founded with fellow Charlestown resident Brian Thomas, had its official launch on Sept. 15. The Web site allows people to post errands they need done, ranging from delivering dry cleaning to picking up a resident parking sticker at City Hall. The errand sender and errand runner then negotiate a fee that is paid to the runner upon satisfactory completion of the task. The site is also equipped with Google map technology, which allows errand runners to maximize trips and provide services for multiple senders in the same geographical area.
As for the payment method, senders buy packages of credits directly from RUNmyERRAND that are used to post errands, pay the runners’ fees and reimburse runners for goods purchased. (RUNmyERRAND also offers discounts on bulk purchases of credits). Credits can also be used to purchase virtual gift cards, enabling senders to pay for their friends and relatives’ errands.
To learn more, visit www.RUNmyERRAND.com.

CAPTION: Building 105 in the Navy Yard.

With the approval of its board of directors, the Boston Redevelopment Authority has issued a Request for Interest for the redevelopment of Building 105 on First Avenue in the Navy Yard.
Building 105, also known as the Chain Forge Building, was constructed in the early 1900s and served as the U.S. Navy’s sole source of chain for decades. The Army Corps of Engineers has spent $6 million on environmental cleanup of the building. While the BRA retains ownership of the building, the National Park Service owns the equipment and machinery inside.
The BRA is seeking an adaptive reuse of the building and is releasing the RFI to see if there is interest in redeveloping the building. Interested applicants should contact the BRA secretary’s office at 617-722-4300 in order to pick up and view the RFI document.
The redevelopment of the Charlestown Navy Yard has served as a model for the re-use of former military bases in the United States. Since the BRA took ownership of the area in 1978, nearly 1.3 million square feet of office and 1,300 housing units have been developed while preserving its historic nature and unique maritime character.