About a year and a half ago, on Nov. 27, 2007, I wrote a column entitled “This Space is for Rent,” pleading with Cornell to help revitalize Collegetown and explaining that Harvard had just helped a new business to open in the area near its Cambridge campus. I said that the new Harvard business was reminiscent of exactly what Collegetown needed.

The description of the new establishment in Cambridge was as follows: “The store … will serve deli sandwiches with a seating area, … high-end grocery items, … and convenience items, like 7-11. [The store] will also have a produce section, a salad bar and a large prepared-food buffet section, similar to Whole Foods.”

Well, folks, as most of you have probably noticed, my prayers were finally answered (exactly one-and-a-half months before my graduation).

Last Thursday, Green Café opened at the corner of College Ave. and Dryden Rd. and, judging from the look I got at it on Thursday evening, “The store … will serve deli sandwiches with a seating area, … high-end grocery items, … and convenience items, like 7-11. [The store] will also have a produce section, a salad bar and a large prepared-food buffet section, similar to Whole Foods.”

It’s just what the doctor ordered — for many reasons.

Regardless of whether the food is good or whether it is just terrible (I’ve been limited to a sample of the free food they gave out on Thursday and am not writing this with the purpose of giving them free advertising or a restaurant review), the fact that there’s a one-stop-shop in Collegetown for sandwiches, salads, sushi, coffee and the like is good for everyone — for it will cause the incumbent businesses, like CTB, Starbucks, Jack’s Collegetown Grill and even Wilson Farms to compete for customers.

It’s likely to lower prices and increase quality.

And it’s likely to help attract other businesses to Collegetown as well.

(In fact, Green Café’s flagship location is on Park Ave. South in Manhattan. Could this be the beginning of an expansion of New York City businesses into Ithaca?)

Additionally, given the existence of the covenant not to compete agreed to by several Collegetown establishments, discussed in a Sun article back in February (“Collegetown Eateries Evade Competition,” Feb. 10, 2009), adding an establishment that will have a grilled chicken salad that will compete with Aladdin’s will surely drive down the price of any grilled chicken salad purchased in Collegetown. It might even cause those restaurants that are party to the covenant to re-think their participation (although from the looks of the article, the covenant is built into the leases of the participating businesses).

The building at the corner of College and Dryden sat vacant for an indeterminate number of years prior to Thursday’s grand opening. At some point prior to the start of my undergraduate tenure here in the fall of 2002, it was actually a full bank branch. For a period of 2-3 (or maybe four?) years, it was a large building with just an ATM in the front vestibule.

And, for the last couple of years, it has sat completely vacant — the largest, most prominent example of the real estate problems Collegetown has had throughout the majority of the last decade.

But now look at Collegetown: Slowly but surely things are picking up. Across the street from Green Café, Kraftees has moved into the former Collegetown Deli location. Kaplan has filled the space in Sheldon Court that had driven me crazy since the Bike Rack moved across the street several years ago. Yes, there’s still a lot of open real estate, and most of these changes are just examples of existing businesses switching their locations, but at least there’s reason for optimism — and less empty storefronts on the main drags.

Of course, with the state of the economy, we can’t really expect too much more expansion in the near future, but it’s clear that finally there’s some movement in an area which has had way too many “For Rent” signs for far too long.

One can only hope that the addition of new business to Collegetown might eventually be coupled with the addition of new residential units that might eventually bring greater competition and therefore lower rents. Whereas, at least to a certain extent, these two items are unrelated, hopefully movement in the commercial leasing area, coupled with the lift on the moratorium on new construction in Collegetown, will cause downward movement in prices in the residential leasing sector as well.

So, here’s to you, Green Café — thanks for filling a gigantic hole in Collegetown, possibly in our wallets, definitely in our stomachs — and, hopefully, in our hearts.