CORRECTION APPENDED

Come this summer, there will be six ice cream or frozen yogurt stores within walking distance of the Yard, but only one of them will boast four walls of grass.

“This isn’t going to be like walking on a pasture, it’s going to be like walking into a pasture,” said J.P. Licks founder Vince Petryk of the unorthodox plans for his new Mass. Avenue location. “They dry it and then it’s treated to be fire-proof. This is for all intents and purposes a grass-covered store....I don’t know if it’s going to look great or bad, but it’ll be different.”

Petryk said he plans to open the unusually decorated ice cream shop—his eighth J.P. Licks location in the Boston-area—by the end of June. (The closest store is currently in Somerville’s Davis Square, near Tufts University.)

The store, which will also serve coffee starting at 6 a.m., takes over a Harvard-owned location at 1312 Mass. Ave., next door to the former location of Toscanini’s, another local ice cream store. The University leased the property at “20 to 25 percent” below what the market rate would have been, according to Petryk.

“The University tends to offer more reasonable rents to its preferred businesses, which are local businesses and not national chains, so they actually contacted me about the space,” the J.P. Licks founder said. “That they see us as an asset to the entire Harvard community was actually very flattering.”

But one ice cream store owner criticized Harvard’s real estate practices for giving the Square newcomer an unfair advantage with discounted rent.

“He was invited into that location, and it’s very unfair in my opinion to the time and energy we put into the Harvard community,” said Steve Herrell, founder of Herrell’s Ice Cream, which has a store on Dunster Street. “All of the sudden I have a major competitor staring me down the nose.” [SEE CORRECTION]

Harvard University Commercial Real Estate could not be reached for comment yesterday afternoon.

Four other ice cream and frozen yogurt stores—Lizzy’s, Baskin-Robbins, Ben & Jerry’s, and Berryline—also call the Square home.

Ben & Jerry’s Manager Joe B. Magnant said it was too early to tell how the new store’s arrival would impact business, but that he was optimistic about the effects of competition.

“It can improve it just because it becomes more part of the culture of Harvard Square—kind of the way that [coffee-store chain] Starbucks increased sales with all of its shops,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if our sales won’t be a little down when [J.P. Licks] opens but we’ll see how it goes.”

Petryk said he didn’t believe his entry would upset the Square’s ice cream balance.

“I’ve had J.P. Licks for 27 years, and we’ve never really competed with other ice cream shops. We’re not going to get into any sort of an ice cream war with the other shops,” he said. “Herrell’s is sort of the grandfather of ice cream stores there, and Herrell’s has it’s customers and they’re probably not going to be my customers.”

Harvard leased the location to J.P. Licks for five years with three options for five-year renewals, Petryk said, adding that he would likely take all three.

“I plan to be there for 20 years,” he said, adding that he had been trying to find an affordable real estate there for a decade. “Harvard Square has always been my favorite place to go in Boston.”

Herrell, whose store has been selling ice cream to Square consumers for decades, said he would just have to “see what happens.”

“He’s got a much better location than I have and my guess is he pays much better rent,” Herrell said of Petryk. “That’s not a good formula in a world of capitalism.”

—Staff writer Clifford M. Marks can be reached at cmarks@fas.harvard.edu.

CORRECTION
The May 20 story "Ice Cream Joint Grows in Square" incorrectly attributed remarks by Jeff Stanett, who owns the Herrell's Ice Cream location on Dunster Street, to Steve Herrell, founder of the Herrell's franchise. Each quotation in the story attributed to Herrell should have been attributed to Stanett.