Woburn Village Redevelopment | Woburn

[DrFreewind]

Redevelopment of the old Woburn Mall into a strip mall with housing and smaller satellite retail buildings

https://woburnvillage.com/

Old mall

New layout

Site layout

Some pictures I took the other day

 

[gac108]

It was called the Woburn Mall before. Now Woburn Village is the new name of the whole complex including the apartments/condos.

 

[Life Coach Mike]

I'm from Woburn. Avoided this mall from the time it was built. Aside from JoAnn fabrics and Market Basket there was nothing to recommend it. An exterior refresh didn't do much good. The interior finishes also felt cheap. This recreation makes much more sense and hopefully will influences many more of the shopping areas in the surrounding communities.

 

[DZH22]

The Woburn Mall was basically a carbon copy of the Billerica Mall, including both having Market Baskets attached. The Billerica Mall had the Funspot arcade that I loved as a kid. Woburn Mall had Lechmere with all the latest electronics, always fun to browse. I think they both had a Papa Ginos. Woburn Mall probably had slightly better food overall, but I was too young to really have a clear picture of which mall surpassed the other during their (1980's?) heydays.

 

[Pheldy34]

I live in Woburn now and these new shops are a welcome addition...I'm surprised to see Sally's coming to town! They're first expansion, hopefully it is almost as good as the original.

 

[Roxxma]

The Woburn Mall was basically a carbon copy of the Billerica Mall, including both having Market Baskets attached. The Woburn Mall had the Funspot arcade that I loved as a kid. Woburn Mall had Lechmere with all the latest electronics, always fun to browse. I think they both had a Papa Ginos. Woburn Mall probably had slightly better food overall, but I was too young to really have a clear picture of which mall surpassed the other during their (1980's?) heydays.

Yeah, I grew up just under three miles away, on the other side of the Mill Pond Reservoir in Burlington and would occasionally bike over that way with friends, mostly via trails through the conservation areas and under the Edison lines. It, like its twin in Billerica, was always such a depressing place (although Billerica had the added burden of being anchored by a K-Mart -at least Woburn had a Lechmere- and I think both had a DEB Shops (the height of eighties fashion and retail design: racks hung from the ceilings by chains). And brown brick everywhere. This is near or on the site of the tanneries that contaminated Woburn's drinking water, which in turn caused the cancer that killed a bunch of kids.

 

[MrDee12345]

The Woburn Mall was basically a carbon copy of the Billerica Mall, including both having Market Baskets attached. The Woburn Mall had the Funspot arcade that I loved as a kid. Woburn Mall had Lechmere with all the latest electronics, always fun to browse. I think they both had a Papa Ginos. Woburn Mall probably had slightly better food overall, but I was too young to really have a clear picture of which mall surpassed the other during their (1980's?) heydays.

Growing up in Billerica, I remember being amazed at the similarities. From what I do remember, as the Billerica Mall started to go down hill, the Woburn Mall stayed strong a bit longer. Woburn was also willing to make necessary changes to keep the mall viable. In Billerica, for years, they had the anchor stores on either side and a completely hollowed out inside, so much so that they closed the gate to the rest of the mall so that you could only go into the K-Mart and smoke shop.

 

[DZH22]

I meant to say the Billerica Mall had Funspot, while Woburn had Lechmere. I actually had a birthday party at the Papa Ginos then Funspot when I was 8, and it was a big hit!

 

[gac108]

Yeah, I grew up just under three miles away, on the other side of the Mill Pond Reservoir in Burlington and would occasionally bike over that way with friends, mostly via trails through the conservation areas and under the Edison lines. It, like its twin in Billerica, was always such a depressing place (although Billerica had the added burden of being anchored by a K-Mart -at least Woburn had a Lechmere- and I think both had a DEB Shops (the height of eighties fashion and retail design: racks hung from the ceilings by chains). And brown brick everywhere. This is near or on the site of the tanneries that contaminated Woburn's drinking water, which in turn caused the cancer that killed a bunch of kids.

I live in Woburn, near the (almost completely dried-up) Aberjona Creek, which was the spilloff from the old tannery, which was actually off Washington St further up. That very large site is still half undeveloped (across from the exit from 95), where awhile ago there had been a car dealership (I think Pontiac and Buick?) but it has long since been torn down and is just overgrown with shrubs now. The other half of the site is what was built a few years ago with a Chick fil-a (ugh! embarrassing), 110 Grill, the Red Robin which has already closed down, and a couple new hotels and I believe a condo building. That whole area had been the old tannery 50 years ago. That stretch of Washington St has slowly been turning into a nice shopping and dining district, though some places are struggling to remain viable and there's still a great deal of vacant stores in the various plazas. It's kind of baffling to me as the location is incredible, being right next to 95, a half mile down from the Montvale Ave 93 exit, and tons of housing developments and renovations going on in the residential neighborhoods all around it. My little street alone has 2 brand new huge homes that were just built after the old rundown ones were leveled and they're selling for close to a million a piece! And I'm not even in the fancy parts of Woburn by the Winchester or Lexington lines! I grew up in Malden and even I thought of Woburn, much like Billerica, as being filled with poor druggies and drunks (I know, as if Malden wasn't back then lol, but Malden was city to me and Woburn was suburbs, so I guess I expected better). Just like Somerville and many other Boston area cities, Woburn has turned the corner and become a very expensive place to live. But hey, at least we still have free water!

 

[Roxxma]

Yeah, that was one of the tanneries responsible, there were some more up by where Anderson RTC is now. The smokestacks stood until the mid to late 90s. I remember when they imploded one of them, my father swears he could feel the concussion from it on Mill St in Burlington (he also said that he felt the Madison Hotel implosion in the 1980s and the Danvers chemical plant explosion on Thanksgiving a few years ago)