The long-ailing Billerica Mall in Billerica, Massachusetts seems destined to be facing the wrecking ball soon.
This classic dead mall has been in roughly the same condition since 1999, which is when we at Labelscar first visited it. Built sometime in the early 1970s as part of a quartet of malls constructed around the Boston area, it was–initially–nearly identical to the other three. Of those, only one–the appropriately-named Woburn Mall in Woburn, Massachusetts–is still operating, and it was renovated pretty extensively in 2004. Weymouth’s Harbourlight Mall was demolished in 2000 and Chelsea’s Mystic Mall was unexpectedly shuttered in 2002, and sits mostly unchanged today. None of these malls were terribly entertaining. Each was designed as a community-oriented center with about 250,000 square feet of selling space. In all cases, they had a Market Basket grocery store that had an exterior entrance only, and most (if not all) of the malls were originally built with Kmart as the opposing anchor. Billerica is the only one that’s hung on to Kmart, which is the chief reason anyone enters the mall itself anymore. Beyond a newsstand, a formalwear shop, a Papa Ginos restaurant, and a golf training school (which–OMG–so visibly occupies a former Deb Shops location), there’s nothing but shuttered storefronts. And boy, does the Billerica Mall ever have some great shuttered storefronts!–Just look at our pictures, which were all taken in April 2005. I particularly like the “gnashing teeth” facade on that one storefront. The entire parcel is shaped like an “L,” with the mall extending between Kmart and Burlington Coat Factory (which sealed its entrance in late 2005), and an outdoor plaza extending from Burlington Coat Factory to Market Basket.
Rumor has it that the enclosed portion of this long-dead mall will soon be demolished to make room for a Home Depot to sandwich itself between the two anchors. (You can see a site plan if you want, but I warn you that it’s a PDF!) While it’s always sad to see a mall go–especially a gem like this right in my own backyard–it’s hard to feel much sympathy for a property that’s been blighted for close to a decade, if not more. The Billerica Mall is located on route 3a, pretty far off of major highways, and is not located in a major retail area. It was clearly built just to serve residents of Billerica and nearby Burlington, Tewksbury, and Lowell. Labelscar would’ve loved to see it be successful as an enclosed mall again, but it would require some major cosmetic upgrades and repositioning as a leisurely convenience-oriented mall, with a lot of the kinds of stores that appeal to soccer moms (love ya, TJX!). That wide center court would’ve made a nice place for a Starbucks or a similar coffee shop, too, and it would’ve really made for a cool gathering place in this large and sprawling blue collar suburb. Unfortunately, the Billerica Mall seems destined to go the way that many other enclosed malls have gone in the past few years.
Oh man thanks for this post. I ran across this mall in ’93 on a late night destiantion-less drive. I was in art school at the time. Walking into this place was like stepping out of a time machine. It seemed very much unchanged since the late ’70’s, and it was such an assault on my mind that it all seems like a fuzzy dream. That arcade had carpeted walls. Whew!
Later, in school, I wrote a story about a scientist who discovered a cure for a horrible disease…the Billerica Virus!
I also first discovered this place around 2002 while on a destinationless drive. Up the street was one of my favorite place out of time Mom and Pop video stores caleld Video Thunder, which has also closed.
The last time I was at this Mall was in August or so and the guy who runs the dollar store/junk store in the majority of the closed mall was complaining to a friend that he just hoped they would let him stay until Christmas because he had purchased a lot of Christmas goods to sell. Last year they had a bit of a flea market in there around Christmastime.
Weirdly the dollar/junk store was giving people their purchases in Bradlee’s bags, I had to buy something just to get a bad (I’m a bit mental I know)
I would have loved to have seen that Arcade in its heyday.
Wow, this brings back some memory’s. I lived in Billerica in the ’70s and remembered when this mall opened. It seemed like a happening place at the time (I was about 10-11) but looking back, I think there were signs of trouble in the early days. I don’t think the mall was ever fully occupied and there always seemed to be temporary stores that would pop for events like Christmas and Halloween. There was a full service restaurant and bar at the far end of the mall (Thackerys?) at the Market Basket end of the mall that always seemed to do ok.
That planter pictured in the center of the mall above was originally a fountain and the darker shaded area of floor around it was sunken seating area lined with benches. Seems odd that they would fill it in like that.
*UPDATE*
I just visited this mall again (2/19/07) and was shocked to see it was still open…sort of. You can no longer access Burlington Coat Factory fromt the Mall.
The Dollar Store (which has recently been taking up most of the unused space) has signs up everywhere saying they are going out of Business and everything must go but that they hope to be there at least through the Winter.
The only open stores are Papa Gino’s, KMart and Hudson News although there is a sense that they won’t be open long (the KMart has signs saying they no longer do lay away, etc)
So it’s still hanging on, you can still walk around in the 95% closed mall, it’s very strange. If I had a digital camera I would have loved to have taken some hi-res shots as they have some amazing 70s mall features in there.
i moved to billerica in the mid 70s and remember that that was the first place i ventured out to. duiring the 70s and early 80s, it was a thriving teen hangout and a really nice place to spend the day because every store was affordable. no store was beyond the average budget. a great place to bring you kid for the day. by the way i used to bring my son to that arcade in its hey day. i used to let him play the arcade games and didnt bother putting any money in as long as the samples ran, he thought he was playing. he was 2-3. in the 70s it was pinball machines, in the 80s when my son was small, it was arcade games.
I was 13 when the Billerica Mall opened. We were the original mall rats and loved hanging out there. The middle area which used to be a sunken seating space was filled in because it got vandalized frequently and kids would hang out there and smoke. The newsstand used to carry pot paraphernalia and the arcade was mostly pin ball machines in the 70s, later changing to video games. I haven’t been to the Billerica mall in over 10 years. It makes me sad to see a big part of my youth rot away like this. Thanks for the memories.
LOL… it’s so funny that you have dedicated this page to the ghost town that is the Billerica Mall.
I grew up in Billerica and I now live in the neighboring town of Chelmsford (which are long-standing arch rival towns, by the way) so I have seen the progression over the years to the lame, half-dead establishment it is today.
Back in 80s when this mall was still “cool” there were tons of kids just hanging around at the mall…. Zodiac Pet, Deb, the Record store (which actually sold LP records!), the arcade and TJMaxx were favorites in the mall’s prime…. the was also a short period where the mall house a “Taco Casa” (the most horrific looking food ever!), a Barnes and Noble (believe it or not) and a few furniture stores.
I keep hopeing they’ll turn this place into something cool… like an indoor skate park or a nightclub of some sort…. bring it back to life in some way. It’s not a bad place, it’s in a great location and it deserves to be resurrected.
The mall did not have a Barnes and Noble, but rather a Walden Books. And if I remember correctly, Taco Casa was there for quite some time. My Mom worked at the Almy’s and we would visit her there and eat fried Ice Cream at Taco Casa and then eat pizza and listen to the juke boxers at the tables over at Papa Gino’s!!!
HOLY CRAP!
I lived there in the early 90’s and I could walk to that place from my house before I had a car. It still looks exactly the same.
Drew was right about it being Waldenbooks, not Barnes and Noble.
I haven’t seen anyone mention the movie theater that was there. It’s phone number was 66-FLICK. The last movie I saw there was Stargate. I went with a buddy and we were the only two people in any of the Theatres. The girl behind the counter gave us a tub sized popcorn for free and a tub to hold our Cokes.
Funtime was the balls back in the day. The walls were carpeted, in a thick, dark carpet that made the whole thing dark as midnight.
And listening to the jukeboxes at Papa Gino’s was one of my favorite pastimes. To give you an idea how long ago it was that I did that, Paula Abdul’s “Forever Your Girl” was on that thing along with “Buffalo Stance” by Nenah Cherry.
I too grew up in Billerica and hung out at the mall during the 80’s. It is sad to see the state of the mall now. I remember “Funtime Arcade” in it’s heyday and how all the kids from the high school hung out there. I also remember the “record store” and Deb Shop, G&G, the pet store, Kay Jewelers, Almy’s… And does anyone else remember (down toward the end of the mall furthest from KMart) the little t-shirt store – you could go in & choose any decal you want & they would “iron” it on the t-shirt??? I loved that place!!! It’s too bad they can’t revamp the mall – what a waste of space…
Like many others, I grew up in Billerica and I often found myself going to ‘the mall’ during the summer. I would spend some time in the bookstore and papa gino’s, and often grab an ice cream at Baskin Robbins for the walk back (my fave was July’s flavor of the month, pink bubblegum).
I also remember at one point when the majority of the stores in the mall were shoe stores.
I am sad to see the mall in the shape it is in, and if you visit it on a day like today, (rainy), you would often see buckets and barrels every few feet to catch the water drops that were leaking from the roof.
At one point I wanted to open a ‘teen scene’ in place of the shops and arcade. A place with dancing, roller skating (hey, I did grow up in the ’70’s), movies, food, arcade/games,etc. Just some place for teens to hang out and gather. Obviously that never happened, but it might have been nice.
Oh my goodness. I’m 14 and I live in Billerica. It is a ghost town. There is no place for teenagers to hangout. All that is open in the mall is; KMart, Ma and Pops Dry Cleaning, Papa Ginos,Bank of America ATM, Burlington Coat Factory Lincoln Liquors, and Market Basket. It may sound like a lot, but it isn’t. I wish the movie theature a nd the arcade was still there.
I was here today to give a pictoral update. The mall sign has been removed, Burlington Coat Factory closed its mall entrance and it’s official: half the mall is now “gated off” — or caution-taped due to the alarming vacancy rate. You can only go as far as hitting Kmart to Papa Gino’s — everything else is now off-limits. I was going to pull a stunt and defy the rule, but I just felt like being a good boy today.
Here’s the photo gallery, in and out of the mall all taken by myself: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10073060@N00/sets/72157604324078603/
Oh, and you forgot to mention an extra gem: this mall has a Kmart with a decades old street and garden shop signs!
I graduated in 1989 and have wonderful memories of being a teen being “dropped off” at the mall and thought I was so cool, meeting up w/friends etc……..
I truly wish they would make it a MALL again!!!
Bring in a Chunky’s, a few “teen” stores that you KNOW would generate lots and lots of $$$$$
I look at the pics and it makes me so mad that the elected”townies” don’t fight for a true LANDMARK of Billerica…….
Is there anyone that has set up any “save the mall” organizations?????
Oh, how sad!
Like many who have visited this site, I grew up in Billerica in the 80’s and ’90’s, and have very fond memories of the mall in it’s heyday.
When I was very small, I’d save my pennies to buy candy at the Fanny Farmer candy store. My first ‘formal’ dress came from Deb, and I had my first date at the Papa Gino’s. We did our weekly grocery shopping at the Market Basket. Oh, and I had forgotten about the iron-on shirt place!
(I refused to eat at that taco place, though. Even when I was 10, it kinda scared me. *grin*)
So Laura what year did you graduate? Isn’t it such a shame that it looks like this now 🙁
DEAD MALL!
DEAD MALL!
DEAD MALL!
It’s dead!. I work at the Market Basket there and i can’t stand seeing all the dead space!
I was there about a week ago. I cannot believe the stores are still open.
It’s still the same as it was 3 years ago when I first visited it.
I remember whent eh mall opened up in 1977 it was the happening thing back in the 1970’s and early 1980’s I moved the BIllerica in 1974 and lived there till I got married, but I moved back for awhile and I went to the mall and it was a shell in its self. I remember when it opened up there was a hobby store, Record store, many clothes storesKmart was the main anchor and Market basket was its other anchor. I wnet there recently with my daughter and the mall smelled like a tolet. I am ashamed by the resident of billerica by not letting Homedepot in. The People who move to Billerica are just a bunch of tree hugging former city dwellers. A few years ago I posted a blog on this subject about what should become of the mall and I suggested making it a fine dining mall gut the empty stores out and rent out spaces to restruants and make it into the USA’s first restruant mall with all fine dinning put tables in the mall make a retracatable roof to let in open air and close it when it rains and in the winter. I guess the People who live in Billerica today don’t have vision like I had when I lived there in the 70’s 80’s and 90’s
Looks like they are still going to demall it amd give it a facelift, keeping kmart, BCF, and Market Basket:
http://www.rdmanagement.com/files/BillericaMA.pdf
I was a security guard at the Billerica Mall (and the sister Woburn Mall) when it first opened. It was a real happening place where everyone would go, it was THE place. You would see everybody in town there and families, unlike today. I remember one night when I was guarding it overnight on Prom night, I saw a flame in front of K-Mart. I went barreling down there in my car to find a Prom-date couple with a little card table set-up and a empty bottle with a candle in its throat, a bottle of “soda” (I didn’t look too close….) and a pizza. They were doing a romantic takeoff of the “Good Bye” girl I believe. The girl was embarrassed and the guy was playing it off very cool. I said it was a good night to eat dinner outside and to pleae throw the bottle away in the trash when they were done. Then, I drove to the far end of the parking lot to give them a bit of privacy. Also caught my best friend’s younger sister necking out back there once…
I’m pretty sure it opened before 77, maybe around 74. A couple times I got Ice Cream Sundaes with my family at a restaurant in the back of Kmart long before my teen years in 77. I saw Ice Castles (78) at the 2 screen movie theater and it had been open a while by that time. There used to be a Radio Shack near where the cleaners is now. Good recall on the Thackerys btw. There was either a Brighams or Baskin Robins near the entrance near Papa Gino’s. I think the Hobby shop was a Erich Fuch’s(sp?). It’s too bad, the mall wasn’t doing THAT bad until the early to mid 90s. It seemed like around the time the Walden Books closed, the whole mall just went south. Woburn mall, despite its location and anchor stores (TJX, Panera, Sports Authority, etc.) doesn’t seem that much better off with regard to the smaller retail venues. The Liberty Tree Mall’s smaller retailers suffered the same fate. The “DEB” or “Mariannes” type retailer is non-existent and “Teen” retailers like Hollister, American Eagle, Urban Outfitters and Abercrombie probably think such locations “cheapen” their brand. Sorry, going long here, but has anyone proposed a urban-chic “Thrift” store model? I know they’ve tried the whole craft-kiosk thing, but the mall is so close to Burlington, if they offered affordable leases to younger hipper shop keepers, they might be able to sell the demographic to an “EB Games” or “Urban Outfitters” type chain along with the requisite “teen” hangout coffee shop (no Starbucks allowed type of thing).
This is the greatest website of the history of the great Billerica Mall. We need to reconstruct the commercial history of this place. At Taco Casa, i recall there being one of those lemonade/fruit punch machines that constantly circulates the liquid to keep it mixed. What was the name of the t-shirt place? What was in before Burlington Coat? Keep the history alive!
i never saw the full mall. but what i remember it was cool. im sad though the woburn mall which was almost identical got remodeled recently but billerica just goes to crap. today i was at the junk store and there was an open space i walked through and part of the cieling was falling in. i forget where the places were though. im sending the town a letter purposing to fix it up, my uncle is a carpenter.
Before Burlington Coat was TJ MAXX
the billerica mall is in the best location in town just a short walk from the library… after some thinking i consulted with my family and we decided to write newspaper editorials to get people’s attention the home depot idea has been turned away
The mall was built around 1974, I use to walk through the fields before it was there to go to church next door. A&P was also there before Market Basket. The part that was Almys (now Burlington) was a late add on in the later 70s. Record Town was the bomb, and Fun Time moved three times within the mall. Sad to see my old town looking so bad.
I remember in the 90’s when my brother went to CCD next door at the church, my mom took me to the Baskin Robbbins there to get an ice cream. Last week i saw people tearing stuff out of it. Its a shame to see it in its current state. The Billerica Flick was a good theater in the early 90’s. The owners should either update the mall’s appearence or lower the renting prices for some of the stores to attract more retailers.
Daniel – at this point the bulk of the mall is beyond repair. If you go to Burlington Coat Factory and look a the ceiling, you will see several large plastic sheets. At the center of each sheet is a garden hose attached to it by duct tape. The hoses drop to the store floor into plastic buckets.
A year ago, in the local paper, a Billerica resident who recently came from Woburn commented that the Woburn Mall was in a similar condition, until Lowes was built across the screet. The increased traffic let to an increased value of the mall, to the point that it is triving today (see Woburn Mall links).
Home Depot was prepared to not only occupy part of the mall, but the property management company was willing to rebuild the entire site adding space for smaller stores, restaurents, etc. After a three year battle, the town defeated the proposal. Home Depot is now loosing money and is shutting down stores – so they will not contest this now. With the economy today, it will be at least several years before we see anything done with the property. Alan is correct: a small group of residents fought against bringing in large chain stores into Billerica and won.
I would like to see this mall come back to life. I think that the Flick would be a great start.Who is the property management company that owns it?
I shot a student film in one of the abandoned stores in this mall a few years ago. Sitting around in the dead space was creepy. I think my favorite part was the “news” store that sold nothing but cigarettes and porn.
Jim,
Although a revitilization of the Billerica Mall would be terrific, the residents of Billerica don’t want Home Depot for many reasons. It will bring huge amounts of traffic into a poorly designed area and will almost assuredly put O’Connor Hardware (one of the largest independent hardware stores in MA) out of business. The Billerica residents care more about supporting a local business than encouraging a big box store to take over the town.
Hopefully other stores can open and pull the mall out of its rundown state. I have never seen the mall in its heyday, I just know that it is an awful eyesore now.
Student film? What store? I’d like to check that out.
I worked on an Emerson College film there. We set up an old “computer store” in an abandoned sore down at the Burlington Coat Factory end. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s online anywhere so no one can see our dear Billerica Mall!
Does anyone have pictures of the mall in it’s heyday? My husband and I dated through the 80s and hung out there. We broke up there, made up there, made promises there, so many memories. We’ve been together 25 years now but live in California now. We are soooo sad to see its demise. I don’t think we ever took pictures up there but it would be a kick to see pictures from the 80s.
Karen,
Your statement is not true! Unless you did a poll of the 40,000 residents in town.
THE mall is being renovated because I saw new stores being built inside and they r repainting the outside. I know this because I went there today.
@Brian,
I think the tee shirt place was called Top of the Town, and before Burlington Coat and TJX was the Almays Department Store that I worked at in 1985. There used to be a store on the KMart side that sold leather vests, pocket books, mocassins and jewelry, but I can’t remember its name. I just remembered that there was a card and gift store near Debs once too.
I lived in Billerica in the 80’s and my friends and I would walk there in all kinds of weather to hang out. I bought most of my records there during that time, spent many quarters on video games and ran many miles from security guards. Sucks to see it look like that.
I’ve posted 29 pictures of the current condition of the Billerica Mall over at Yelp:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/billerica-mall-billerica
Jeez, that has been “under constrcution” for quite a while, what are they “constructing”?
The mall is where we would go andhang out with friends as kids. Since then I’ve moved from Billerica, but it’s depressing to see what has become of this place. I remember when they used to have a Baskin Robbins and many other stores! They used to have Santa and The Easter Bunny, but now they have a Kmart, News store, Ma’s dry Cleaning, Coat Factory, Dollar Tree,Market Basket, and a ton of empty stores that no tenants want to move into because of roof conditions. If anybody has pictures they shoud upload them to let people see what this place used to be.
Whats happening to the Billerica Mall is that its being demalled. When done, i’ll be a front end plaza
how long has the mall been this way for? I went here 10 years ago (I am from Plymouth NH) and it was dead then, when was the mall full and what kind of stores where there? Why are there 3 Market Baskets here and what was STuarts down the road like. I didnt mind this Kmart, it was on average with most. I love the VINTAGE KMARt on the mall sign.
@daniel fife, the mall has been more or less like this for at LEAST ten years. It’s gotten worse over the time but it was pretty much as dead then as it is now. From what I understand it emptied out sometime in the early-mid 1990s but was relatively successful in the 80s.
whats doing it to this mall??????? when I first went there 10 years ago there was almost nothing in here, and i havent been back in since. but whats doing it? An d how junky was the Stuarts that was down the road?
whats your view of the Kmart? its the only store of its kind in Billerica.
After Home Depot and/or RD Managment spend $1 million on engineering, design, and legal fees to rebuild the mall, the vocal minority of Billerica stopped it. Now, unable to rebuild, they are currently gutting the place. I rode my bike behind the mall last week – they broke open a wall and one can see the demo work being done. I don’t know who will move in there – a mom and pop store will not survive and a chain store will face a huge legal battle with the town. I think gutting the store is mostly to eliminate problems with mold and rats.
@Stacey,
Yes, I remember that store down on the left side. They had Grateful Dead t-shirts.
Does anyone remember that, somewhere between 89 and 92, when the Mall first started to lose buisiness, they tried to revitalize it by changing where the main entrance was? I was in Jr. High at the time, and we had an art project that was put up to dedicate the new entrance. I remember thinking that people would be seeing my school’s art for years to come….
Just an update that all of the empty parts of the mall have been gutted to the bare walls and ceilings. There are For Lease signs everywhere. The Papa Gino’s closed recently, so the center section between the News Shop and Burlington Coat Factory is now completely hollowed out, as is the former Cinema up to Dollar Tree (former Lincoln Liquors). Word is that it is being converted to a strip mall. We’ll see. The place looks so awful, I hope they do something with it.
They are putting a planet fitness and a Big Lots in the empty space along with retail space
Update: Planet Fitness is coming next month. Not sure of the status of Big Lots. They painted the mall tan. It looks exactly what it is, an outdated mall with a coat of paint – kind of like lipstick on a pig.
The parking lot still holds over 1500 cars -way too big but the town will not give them any type of variance to do anything. So all they can do is paint and remodel within the existing footprint. How sad. Billerica could have had a brand new shopping center with modern stores and restaurents, new landscaping, and $1 million of infrastructure improvements to the town’s center for free.
The vocal minority destroyed this project for two reasons. First, they did not want additional traffic coming to the mall (Duhhh!) and more importantly, they felt Home Depot would put O’Conner’s Hardware out of business or at least take some of their profits.
This mall is butt ugly and now it will NEVER change. It will only attract second rate retailers and will not serve as a magnet retail center to attract other businesses. This is exactly what the town wanted and this is wnat they got.
Life long resident of Chelmsford-(now THAT was a mall!). Used to stop here with my mom on the way back from Burlington Mall on days off from school.
They should’ve knocked the mini-stores and made bigger stores. I think they should knock the building down and made it like what used to be Royal Ridge until what it is today.
I actually like what they are doing. They are tearing down the outdated facade of the whole building and re-building it as storefronts (kind of like The Loop and Burlington Commons). I would rather go to O’Connor than buy the lesser quality goods at Home Depot. Wonder if they’ll fill the rest of it now that they are doing work to it. I do miss the “old days’ of the arcade and movie theater. The record store, the T-shirt shop, Waldenbooks, etc. Still, it couldn’t last like that. Glad to see them sprucing it up. I know to some folks that’ll never be enough, but I’m just glad to see it coming back to life.
@Jim,
It’s funny you think a Home Depot is good looking. I have never seen a Home Depot that is a nice looking building. I myself don’t find a Home Depot desirable in any way. None of the strip malls in Billerica are decent looking. Landscaping is non-existent in all of them. Even Billerica town common is in need of some landscaping. Your idea of a Home depot making the place better really is just trading one dump for another. There are so many in the surrounding towns if one needs to go there.
Personally I am glad the town is not getting a home depot, the mall wouldn’t have looked any better than it will when this project is done. Either way, this mall is in a terrible location. The mall owners have done no favors to the town and If it were up to me I would have had the property condemned years ago and made them tear it down.
@Linda,
Why so down on Home Depot? Ever been to the one in Hyannis next to Stop and Shop. It is scaled down a bit with a nice wooden storefront. You must also hate Lowes as well. By the way, where do you to to buy any major home purchases?
Your personal feelings aside, having a store like Home Depot in a (strip) mall attracts lots of people, which in turns attracts lots of other businesses and restaurants to set up stores nearby.
My point is that a development such as this could have been done tastefully with town involvement and infrastructure improvements. By painting the mall with no structural changes, the owners are sending a message that there will be no plans tear down and rebuild. Old building with second or third rate tenants.
When I was a resident of Tewksbury back in the 90’s, my parents would take me to this mall pretty much all the time. O’Connor Hardware was on Tower Farm Rd just about next door to the mall until it moved to where the former Purity Supreme store used to be. (O’Connor Hardware is now in the O’Connor Plaza next door to Walgreens). O’Connor Hardware moved to its current location around 1996 after Purity closed. I miss the Flick Cinema here too which closed after the theater in Lowell, MA opened. I remember going to this mall a lot as a little boy. So much has changed throughout these years!
This is no longer a mall, it is called The Shops at Billerica and the stores are no longer connected from the inside. Burlington Coat Factory is still there and is a huge draw. The Market Basket, KMart and some of the other old stores are also still there. A Big Lots Store, Planet Fitness, a Party Supply Store, Great Clips, Pro Nails and Spa, Kessler’s Karate School, Dollar Tree, Sweet Kiwi Yogurt a Subway Shop have all opened their doors in the last couple of years. The space, inside and outside, has been completely renovated and nearly all rented. This shopping center is thriving and much improved over the past 2-3 years. Some of you need to take a drive by there and see for yourselves and stop bashing Billerica.