If there’s a flaw in modern shopping mall development, it’s that most malls developed or extensively renovated in the last decade and a half lack drama. Natick Collection totally bucks that trend.

The Natick Collection (which was, until very recently, known as the Natick Mall) has been big news here in New England since it opened on September 7. With the center’s dramatic new expansion, the Natick Collection is suddenly New England’s largest mall, with somewhere between 1.7 and 2 million square feet of floor space. But as you’ll see from these pictures, it’s also easily the most dramatic; with vaulted, undulating ceiling lines, a faux-white birch forest, and some truly daring external architecture, Natick Collection strives to be a place you want to go, not just a place you can shop. It could (and probably should) be a model for how to maintain the relevance of super-regional malls.

There’s kind of a long and complicated history of this mall, so it’s necessary to step back a bit. The metrowest region of Massachusetts (or is it better defined as a region of “Boston”?) is a populous and affluent suburban area about 20 miles west of downtown Boston, along the Massachusetts turnpike. Like most New England suburban areas, it’s relatively diverse, from the post-war suburbia of Framingham to extremely affluent enclaves like Weston, but Boston’s western suburbs have long been amongst some of the wealthiest in New England, and they continue to grow in population.

In the 1960s, when this area was first beginning to attract a substantial population base due to suburbanization, the area frequently known as the “Golden Triangle” began to emerge as a shopping district. Defined roughly as the triangle created by Route 9, Route 30, and Speen Street along the Natick/Framingham town line, the Golden Triangle became one of the largest and most active shopping districts in New England, and has been home to (at one time or another) no less than five enclosed shopping malls and many other smaller outdoor shopping centers.

The Natick Mall itself opened in 1966, and some reports have placed it as the first enclosed shopping mall in Massachusetts (I thought this distinction belonged to the Westgate Mall in Brockton?). At the time, it was a small one-level mall with Filene’s and Sears as anchor stores, and around 30 or so stores in the interior. In size and influence, it was somewhat dwarfed by its neighbor, the outdoor (but mall-style) Shoppers World, and in later years by the many other small enclosed malls to spring up in the neighborhood, including the Cloverleaf Mall, the Framingham Mall, and the mysterious, nameless Route 30 Mall.

By the early 1990s, the facility was beginning to look seriously dated and it was also woefully undersized; the Mall at Chestnut Hill and Atrium Mall a few miles to the east in Newton were pulling most of the business from the Natick/Framingham area due to the lack of a single major mall as a focal point. In 1992, Homart Development acquired both the Natick Mall and the neighboring, outdoor Shoppers World, and developed a master plan for the entire parcel. Shoppers World would be “de-malled” and turned into a big box center, and the Natick Mall would be dramatically reconfigured. Truth be told, the “original” Natick Mall ceased to exist at this time. Except for the Filene’s store, which was dramatically remodeled and expanded, the entire mall was demolished (click for video!) and replaced by a larger two level structure, which included a new Sears store (built further down the lot than the older store, to accomodate for a larger mall space) as well as two other anchors: A Lord & Taylor and the final Jordan Marsh store ever constructed. The new (ca. 1994) Natick Mall opened with over 100 stores and approximately 1.2 million square feet of floor space.

The 1994 Natick Mall became the dominant retail center in the metrowest area as a result, and caused the downfall of the area’s remaining small malls, including the Cloverleaf Mall, Framingham Mall, and Route 30 Mall. In 1996–two years after Natick opened–Solomon Pond Mall, a second major mall, opened about 20 minutes away in Marlborough, and since the two centers have co-existed peacefully as the major enclosed malls in the area. But realizing that there was a trend towards larger, super-regional malls (and that Natick Mall’s store roster was pretty straight down the middle and indistinguished), the mall’s owner–now General Growth Properties–announced in 2002 their plans to acquire the adjacent, vacant Wonder Bread factory and add a significant expansion of the Natick Mall to accommodate more upscale tenants. After many negotiations and false starts that woudl last many years, all of which are detailed on the Framingham/Natick Retail Website, it was announced that the expansion would add two anchor stores: Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom, as well as 65 other stores and up to 4 new restaurants. Perhaps even more interestingly, the development would incorporate a 12-story condominium tower attached directly to the new wing of the mall.

Construction took place through most of 2006. During this time, the Federated/May merger caused more shake-ups at the mall, as Macy’s vacated their space (which, again, was the former Jordan Marsh) to move into the former Filene’s, the only building that remained from the original 1966 mall–albeit in dramatically reconfigured form. The vacant Macy’s store was quickly snatched up by JCPenney, who has a limited presence in the Boston market. The older portion of the mall was also renovated to complement the expansion when it was ready to open. During this time, GGP announced their plans to rename the mall simply as “Natick,” a plan that brought on strong opposition from the community, and was dumped in favor of the (almost as) obnoxious “Natick Collection,” which sticks to today.

On September 7, 2007, the newly expanded Natick Collection opened to much fanfare. The expanded mall includes six anchor stores: Macy’s, JCPenney, Lord & Taylor, Sears, Nordstrom, and Neiman Marcus, as well as over 200 specialty retailers. The Natick Collection is now the largest mall in New England, and reportedly the fourth largest on the East Coast and 12th largest in the United States. As of October 2007, construction is underway on a small lifestyle village along the route 9 facade, and when complete will include restaurants such as Maggiano’s Little Italy and Cheesecake Factory. The remainder of the exterior features dramatic, lush landscaping (as shown in these photos) and some truly unusual architecture, especially at the Neiman Marcus building. Inside, the new wing of the mall sports dramatically undulating ceiling lines, a lush “birch forest,” and a spacious center court with a sweeping fountain. The old wing has also been renovated to incorporate hardwood floors on the second level, and the colors have been softened throughout.

What can we say? We’re impressed. For a long time, malls have been treated as disposable entities, not as interesting places to gather. The consideration that went into a center’s architecture was usually limited to discussions on how to maximize sales. General Growth’s approach with Natick Collection places the center as a kind of modern cousin to some of the stunning, classic Victor Gruen malls, and that’s very high praise.

Original 1994 mall:

New 2007 expansion:

The Watertown Mall is a small, 250,000 square foot mall located on Arsenal Street in Watertown, Massachusetts. A week or so ago, I posted about the Arsenal Mall, which was built directly across the street in the early 1980s. The Watertown Mall is its older and smaller sibling, typical of the tiny dumbell-style malls built around New England in the 1970s. This particular mall opened in October 1975 with much fanfare, anchored by a Bradlees Department Store and a Stop & Shop Supermarket. The small enclosed mall between–which is shaped like an “L”–was considered state of the art for the time.

Over the years, there have been many changes at the Watertown Mall, and it’s perhaps surprising that it even remains enclosed. Stop & Shop left the mall eons ago to be replaced by one of the few Omni Foods locations, which closed in 1999. Omni Foods was replaced by a Best Buy (one of the earlier Boston-area locations) in 2000, only to have the mall’s other anchor, Bradlees, die in early 2001. That space would be filled by Target in 2002, and this relatively compatible pair of anchor tenants has kept the small mall space alive. The fact that the mall is literally across the street from (and thus well within walking distance of) the slightly larger Arsenal Mall has undoubtedly helped it survive.

Beyond its anchor stores, most of the tenants in the Watertown Mall have been relatively typical of smaller enclosed malls. There’s an Old Country Buffet and a Registry of Motor Vehicles–both of which are significant draws–and until 2006 there was a location of New England’s once-venerable Strawberries’ Records and Tapes chain, which was a pretty cool place before being acquired by TransWorld and turned into FYE with a different name (later they would just be FYE in every way). Also until 2006, the Watertown Mall was the location of the only Gap Outlet in the immediate Boston area, but that recently moved across the street to the Arsenal Mall. There’s a Papa Gino’s location and some smaller shoe or clothing stores sprinkled throughout the mall.

On its own, the Watertown Mall isn’t a terribly interesting mall, but because its located across from the unusual Arsenal Mall, it’s kind of an interesting place. Truthfully, the Watertown Mall would easily lend itself to big boxing, so it’s shocking (and neat) that it even exists, even if it’s too small to make much impact.

In March 2007, the Boston Globe ran a piece about the mall’s history, continued existence, and (marginal, given its size) malaise, and it’s well worth reading. Like with the Arsenal Mall, we have a limited number of 2001 photos (most of whom look the same as today, except Strawberries is still operational), and we also have a few photos taken in 2006 before The Gap Outlet moved across the street.

2001:

2006:

2007:

A couple weeks back, we were featured in an article in the Weekly Dig. The reporter who wrote the story was big on getting me “in my element,” so to speak, and really wanted to take a field trip to a dead mall. Problem is, the Boston area doesn’t really have any dead malls anymore. Instead I chose one that I think is really interesting from a design perspective, and is a good example of the kind of mid-range mall that’s struggling nowadays. They also took some pictures. The Arsenal Mall is that mall.

The Arsenal Mall opened in 1983 along the banks of the Charles River about five miles west of Boston as the “Arsenal Marketplace.” It occupies two buildings that were part of the Watertown Arsenal, a massive Civil War-era arsenal complex that operated from the early 1800s until 1965. The mall was built by skywalking two long buildings together, and creating a roadway passage underneath the skywalk that allowed cars to drive from the front parking lot to the rear lot. Because of the building’s heritage, it has many historic architectural details (lots of brick, etc.) and because it involves an older, retrofitted building, it has a truly unusual layout. In addition, the mall was constructed directly across the street from the smaller and slightly older Watertown Mall. Shockingly, both malls still operate today.

With about 600,000 square feet and approximately 45 stores, the Arsenal Mall is far from huge. It does fill a void as a convenient, mid-market alternative in the dense inner western suburbs, however: the closest major malls are the Natick Mall (now “Natick Collection”) and Burlington Mall, both 15 miles away, and the Cambridgeside Galleria, which despite being only one town over is kind of a hike and lacks free parking. In addition, there is the Mall at Chestnut Hill and the Atrium Mall in Newton, which borders Watertown to the south, but both malls skew upscale and are somewhat small.

When originally constructed, the Arsenal Mall’s main anchor tenant was one of the few outlets of Rhode Island-based Ann & Hope Department Stores, a chain that practically invented the supercenter discount store (which none other than Sam Walton himself would copy for Wal-Mart). The Ann & Hope store occupied about 80% of one of the mall’s two buildings, with a small “T” shaped court in front. From there, the skywalk carried patrons to the main building, where the concourse turned again before entering a large, airy center court, complete with any original brick details. At that point, the mall split into two levels–the second floor houses a small food court and ultimately ends at a Filene’s Basement anchor, and the first level contains many clothing stores before ending near the mall’s main entrance and a Marshall’s, located underneath the Filene’s Basement.

The mall’s second-level food court was renovated in the mid-late 1990s after the closure of the Boston Garden. The mall incorporated the Garden’s original scoreboard as well as some of its flooring into the food court, and Foot Locker extensively beefed up their facade to match, creating a sports-themed food court that also contains a bit of Boston history, which is pretty neat.

In 2001, Ann & Hope closed all of their stores, including this one, although the chain still exists in a more limited capacity as a low-cost outlet for curtains, bath, and garden supplies. As a result, mall owner Simon decided to carve most of the awkwardly-shaped Ann & Hope store into a Home Depot, leaving a smaller parcel facing the mall. This space would be occupied by Linens N Things. Today, the mall has five anchors: Linens N Things, Old Navy, Marshalls, Filene’s Basement, and Home Depot (which lacks mall access).

The Arsenal Mall’s unusual design and location within a historic structure means it’s an unlikely candidate for big boxing, even if it doesn’t do as well as it once did. For a mall of its size, it has quite a bit of personality and even seems to be getting a few new mid-market tenants (The Gap Outlet and Olympia Sports recently opened, and Samsonite and Stride Rite are coming soon) to replace some of the dollar stores that have recently occupied the center’s mid section. And while it’s far from a dominant mall, it has managed to hang on to a variety of standard mall fare, such as Express, B. Dalton, Victoria’s Secret, Aeropostale, and Bath and Body Works. A lot of clueless Yelp!ers hate it, but what else is new?

Luckily, we have two sets of photos of the Arsenal Mall. The first set was taken in 2001 by Prangeway, and still shows the signage for the recently-shut Ann & Hope store. The second set was taken in May of 2007.

2001:

2007:

Apologies for the home state neglect. Let’s take a break from the Noo Yawka barrage with a mall that even a lot of people living in the Boston area may not know about.

The Walpole Mall is the only enclosed mall serving Boston’s southwest suburbs, along the US1 and I-95 corridor. There is another, larger enclosed mall in North Attleborough (the 1 million square foot Emerald Square Mall) but it’s so far from Boston that it’s really much more in the Providence suburbs, and there used to be a somewhat larger second mall–the Dedham Mall–on this corridor, but it was de-malled gradually from 2000 to 2003. That leaves this somewhat puzzling, 306,000 square foot ancillary mall by its lonesome, on a strip that always seems underdeveloped given its location.

(This is an old Papa Gino’s pizza logo. Isn’t papa great? It seems as though he’s holding barrels full of pizza for you.)

I’m actually hoping that some readers will chime in with a bit of the deeper history of the Walpole Mall, because I don’t know too much. My guess is that it was constructed in the mid-70s to the early ’80s, and its size and layout (basically a modified dumbell) is typical of many of the smaller, Bradlees-anchored malls that sprung up around New England at the time. The mall was given a pretty substantial facelift in 1997 through early 1998 that made it look roughly as it does now, with its strange mix of big box retailers and enclosed mall space. In 2001, management briefly announced a plan to expand the mall by over a million square feet by purchasing much of the residential property behind the mall, but this controversial proposal never came to fruition, disappearing without much of a trace. I specifically remember road trippin’ it up to this mall in early 1998 with some of my friends from high school because it had just been given one of New England’s first Old Navy stores, but that was my first ever visit to the place, and it looked then roughly the same as now. The Office Max store looks more like an old Ames than anything, but it seems to small to be an Ames. I don’t have a clue. The Kohl’s definitely used to be a Bradlees, but I’m a bit puzzled on the rest. Today’s anchors are Kohl’s, Barnes & Noble, Old Navy, Jo-Ann Fabrics, and Office Max.

By the way, there are a few malls along this way that have departed in the past few years, including the previously-mentioned Dedham Mall and the tiny Village Mall in Canton. If by any chance–and it’s a wild and crazy chance, I know–you have any pictures of any of these, I’d, y’know, really love to see them. Dedham was one of my favorites, you see, and now it’s much too late to save anything of note. The place is basically gone now, just a sad and disjointed mass of outward facing big box stores.

Yesterday’s announcement that Simon is mulling a purchase of embattled Mills Corporation has gotten me wondering about one of Mills’ stalled projects right in my own backyard: Tewksbury Mills.

I’ve had an eye on this project for awhile. One of only two new enclosed malls currently proposed for New England, Tewksbury Mills was originally proposed in 2001 or 2002 as a 750,000 sqft, enclosed mall with an entertainment focus. The proposal followed a failed (and slightly more ambitious proposal) by Mills to build a mall on the site of the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station, 15 miles south of Boston. Instead, their focus shifted to the dense suburbs north of Boston, in particular the town of Tewksbury. With a population of nearly 40,000 and many other large suburbs nearby, the retail climate in the area is a bit unique for such dense suburbia. The proposed mall site is about 15 miles south of the New Hampshire border, and New Hampshire has no retail sales tax. As a result, the entire Merrimack Valley region of Massachusetts is somewhat under-retailed (in relation to its population) due to a string of large retail areas located just barely over the state line in New Hampshire, to take advantage of tax laws. The flip side of this, however, is that the populous towns south of the Merrimack Valley–which also includes several populous cities, such as Lowell (with 105,000 people) have to travel relatively considerable distances for more than basic shopping: shoppers either drive to New Hampshire, or south to the Route 128 beltway around Boston. With tax free shopping so nearby, however, there’s always been little hope for any large-scale retail to succeed.

A Mills mall, with its mixture of unusual, off-price tenants and entertainment destinations, may be an exception. Because it would not be competing directly with the large malls on all sides of it, the Tewksbury Mills project seems poised to fill this retail gap without succumbing to the pressures of the existing malls. The following is taken directly from Mills’ informational site on the mall, and it outlines their original plans:

PROPOSED MALL PLAN

Mills Corporation is proposing to develop an enclosed, two-level, 21st century retail and entertainment complex on land owned by the Perkins Trust to service Tewksbury and the surrounding area. Unlike earlier Mills Landmark projects that range in size from 1.1M - 2.2 M square feet of GLA (Gross Leasable Area) Tewksbury Mills will be closer in size to a traditional regional mall but containing a strong entertainment component. Tewksbury Mills will contain between 750,000 and 800,000 square feet of GLA. The term GLA is the standard term used in the real estate industry to measure the comparative size of shopping centers. GLA includes only those areas in the shopping center directly leased to tenants but does not include common use areas such as mall areas and rest rooms which are for the common use and benefit of the tenants and/or the public. The following is a size comparison with other area malls:

Northshore Mall		1,685,000 square feet GLA
Burlington Mall		1,255,072 square feet GLA
Mall at Rockingham Park		1,020,333 square feet GLA
Pheasant Lane Mall		982,191 square feet GLA
Tewksbury Mills		750,000 square feet GLA

As a part of the entertainment component, Tewksbury Mills will contain a theatre complex and a two-surface ice skating facility. Mills has indicated its willingness to make ice time available to Tewksbury residents at a reduced rate. Although firm commitments have not been obtained from retailers for Tewksbury Mills, other Mills projects include factory outlet, off-price and full-price retailers and department stores. In the past, Mills has introduced many new and exciting retail concepts in its projects with retailers such as IKEA, Gibson Bluegrass Guitar Factory, Bass Pro Shops, Off Fifth-Saks Fifth Avenue, Last Call-Neiman Marcus and Crayola Works being but a few. A complete listing of all tenants in other Mills projects is available on the Mills Website, www.themills.com.

As is to be expected, the mall proposal met with skepticism. Tewksbury Mills’ chosen plot had great frontage along I-93, but wasn’t adjacent to any major surface roads, and would necessitate the construction of a long-planned (and long-delayed) system of loop ramps and access roads called the Lowell Junction exit; the interchange would also serve to provide better road access to several office parks and an expanded commuter rail station on the Andover side of the freeway. In addition, residents of the town of Tewksbury were bitterly divided over the proposal, with many fearing increased traffic and damage to local businesses while just as many welcomed the increase tax revenue the mall could generate. The final proposed roadway system would not allow traffic to access any surface streets in Tewksbury, essentially orphaning the parcel (which exists on the far southeastern edge of town, near the Wilmington and Andover lines). Residents proved they were generally amenable to this plan, as it would have very little impact on existing traffic volumes in town. A very close vote to rezone the property for commercial use was approved in 2004, and it seemed Tewksbury Mills would become a reality.

The below map is (like all images in this post) pulled directly from the official Tewksbury Mills site. Note how elaborate the new roadway system is in relation to the mall parcel, and how most of it exists in the neighboring towns of Wilmington and Andover. Also, because the map is a bit confusing, left is north.

Unfortunately, the Mills Corporation’s current financial problems and the state’s inability to construct the offramps speedily enough put the project back into jeopardy, and as it stands now the mall “exists on paper” but may never actually be built. The official website for the mall has been blocked for some time, displaying only the cryptic message that Mills is “updating their website.” While it seems there is a good chance there may still be retail development on the site, it’s seeming increasingly unlikely it will be built by Mills–and by extension, it’s probably increasingly unlikely it will be an enclosed shopping mall.

I admit to being a bit biased since I’m the kind of guy who writes a blog about malls, but I’m in favor of this plan. It has several elements that seem to establish its merit:

• The development parcel is a former waste site and an orphaned piece of land not useful for many other purposes
• Tewksbury Mills would have freeway access, but have a very minor impact on traffic counts on local streets
• The overall development, including the exit ramps, would enhance the area’s mass transit capabilities with an expanded commuter rail station, improved access to the station, and increased parking to the station. It would also be easy to tie to the mall to the station via a shuttle, giving car-free access between Boston and the mall
• Tewksbury Mills is an unusual development in one of the only areas of suburban Boston that is legitimately under-malled, and is positioned within the market to succeed against its competitors

Again, of course, I’m biased. If you want to read Mills’ (equally biased!) FAQ, you can still get to it on their site, as well as a few other pages. At this point, my guess is that this may be the end of the Tewksbury Mills proposal, but given our comprehensive coverage of the New England region, it’s interesting to note the mall that never was, or the mall that may still be.