Mall Repurposing proposals

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DominusNovus

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One of my favorite ideas is repurposing indoor shopping malls, many of which are not adapting to the evolving economy. The Atrium in Chestnut Hill is the latest example. As a fan of mixed use, I personally think they should have turned half/two thirds of it into offices, instead of all of it, but oh well. I do like how the Natick Mall has condominiums attached, but they are very much separated from the rest of the mall itself.

I've seen a few pieces on the concept in my searching (http://www.mrsc.org/artdocmisc/cnumallsmainstreets.pdf was the best I found), but most seem to be fairly dated. While I understand that development is certainly more difficult in the poor economy we're in, I'm also inclined to think that such an economy puts these obsolete shopping malls in the kind of position where they *need* to adapt.

So, does anyone have any good sources on the topic, or local examples of any such projects?
 
A local example of how NOT to do it is Assembly Square. It used to be an indoor mall and was converted into a big-box center.
 
Not the atrium, but right down the street at Chestnut hill Mall and the shopping center that had the Macy's and movie theater. It's going to be called something lame like, the Street, but definitely an overhaul.
 
choo said:
Not the atrium, but right down the street at Chestnut hill Mall and the shopping center that had the Macy's and movie theater. It's going to be called something lame like, the Street, but definitely an overhaul.
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Macy*s was supposed to be repurposed into a gym and my friend even worked on the drawings for that conversion, but ultimately, they decided just to tear Macy*s down completely and build new.
 
choo said:
Not the atrium, but right down the street at Chestnut hill Mall and the shopping center that had the Macy's and movie theater. It's going to be called something lame like, the Street, but definitely an overhaul.
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Living right next to it. But thats more of just an expansion of an existing shopping center, rather than a total restructuring of it. Very little is actually changing, as far as the layout. Across the street, there's a much better example, with the old Omni Foods being replaced with a multi-use (retail and offices) center, with a facade up against the street, parking in the middle (not that it matters much on Rte 9 anyway...)
 
I would love to know how many people use the T to get to the chestnut hill shopping center? It's easily walkable though maybe not obviously so.

What's interesting to me is that the center or retail gravity is shifting much closer to the T - away from the indoor malls and towards this "The Street" and Wegmans.

I expect sometime in the next few years there will be a push for traffic calming and "boulevardization" on the small section of Rt 9 between Hammond Pond Parkway and Ja
Hammond Street given the activity on both sides.
 
Ah, something I love to play around with too! :)

I've played around with the idea of what the mall in my hometown, Square One in Saugus, would be like if it were to convert into a mixed use space. The mall seems to be struggling compared to back in the 1990s or even early 2000s. I imagine the interior of the mall becoming an arcade-style street, so not much changes, but maybe perched some residential over the stores while leaving the glass over the arcade in place to let light down. Maybe put in some residential/office/hotel midrises in one of the parking lots, with retail around the bottom. Try to get some of the inward facing stores to open up to the outside as well. And most important, IMO, would be doing away with the rigid mall hours which all stores must conform to.

There's always two bus routes there, the 430 to Malden Center Station in one direction, and Cliftondale Square and Saugus Center in the other. Then there's the 429 to Northgate Shopping Center in one direction, and Lynn/Central Square in the other. Melrose has long been interested in having a bus go from Oak Grove, up through downtown, and to the mall, so that could become a new route. And the 428's terminus could be moved to the mall to provide an express bus route to Haymarket for the mall.
 
Amusingly, Victor Gruen originally envisioned his malls as forming the seed of a new community which would be surrounded by housing as they grew up.
 
datadyne007 said:
A local example of how NOT to do it is Assembly Square. It used to be an indoor mall and was converted into a big-box center.
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Why not. I think Assembly Square is a SMART use of an old indoor mall. A quick look at deadmalls.com can tell you what happens to a indoor mall when its left for neglect. Many don't change at all and just get re-purposed but left looking "Mall like" because the exterior or the footprint does not change.

I think it was a smart move. I mean the building sat pretty much empty since the mid 1990s before anything was ever done. Plus that building, unlike other more traditional indoor malls, Assembly Square wasn't built AS a mall, it was a factory, so repurposing it to something else would have to be pretty unique.

An excellent example of a re-purposed mall is.. unfortunately not here in Boston, but Rack Space's headquarters in San Antonio Texas. It was a large shopping mall that was in a bad section of town. It was known for shootings inside the mall, so the mall closed due to lack of business. RackSpace bought it adn now is slowly converting the ENTIRE mall into office space.

It is pretty neat what the interior looks like. Much of the food court was left alone and is now the "cafeteria", each old anchor store is a division (one is the help desk I believe). And they aren't done. What's neat about this project is that RackSpace picked up the mall for pennies, and now has more space than they know what to do with to expand their company.
 
BostonUrbEx said:
Ah, something I love to play around with too! :)

I've played around with the idea of what the mall in my hometown, Square One in Saugus, would be like if it were to convert into a mixed use space. The mall seems to be struggling compared to back in the 1990s or even early 2000s. I imagine the interior of the mall becoming an arcade-style street, so not much changes, but maybe perched some residential over the stores while leaving the glass over the arcade in place to let light down. Maybe put in some residential/office/hotel midrises in one of the parking lots, with retail around the bottom. Try to get some of the inward facing stores to open up to the outside as well. And most important, IMO, would be doing away with the rigid mall hours which all stores must conform to.

There's always two bus routes there, the 430 to Malden Center Station in one direction, and Cliftondale Square and Saugus Center in the other. Then there's the 429 to Northgate Shopping Center in one direction, and Lynn/Central Square in the other. Melrose has long been interested in having a bus go from Oak Grove, up through downtown, and to the mall, so that could become a new route. And the 428's terminus could be moved to the mall to provide an express bus route to Haymarket for the mall.
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I find the Square One Mall funny.. only because it was built as a strip mall. Then converted to an indoor mall in the mid-80s. Then it looks like it'll be converted to something else.
 
The Dedham Mall was reconfigured from dreary, dark indoor focused to a brighter, outdoor focus. Unfortunately, the footprint is such that it really resembles a series of proximate strip malls, without very good pedestrian connections from one section to another. An example of a really well done conversion can be found in Orange, CA. The Block, nee The City went from something very similar to the old Dedham Mall to something very similar to Legacy Place. But unlike Legacy Place, the pedestrian promenades are not shoe horned in around a parking lot. Basically, they took the roof off the interior promenade and turned it in to open, car free space.

A rather inviting approach:
Block-at-Orange2-lrg.jpg


Imagine the spaces between buildings as hallways, and you have the prior incarnation:
blockatOrange.jpg
 
So, I was working on the south shore, and swung by a few accounts in the Hannover Mall and then Independence Mall in Kingston. (perhaps the discussion might better fit in the Greater New England forum)

Wow. Talk about depressing. Kingston, in particular, is absolutely dead. But, I can't help but get sorta whimsical:

Take a dying one story mall like Independence. Build a second floor, with its own walkway (just like a typical multi-story mall). Assign the second floor as offices. Build a third+ floor for condos/apartments (something like one of those hotel atriums, where the rooms/balconies overlook the indoor pool and dining area). See what happens.
 
I actually mentioned that to someone just last week. Kingston used to outshine Hanover when I was a kid but growth down in Plymouth made Kingston the odd man out. It's got a great main promenade to do some real interesting mix use in my mind. It could be particularly large if a developer could stage it and max out the opportunity over time. There's also the commuter rail right down the street to boot so it would be a very attractive mix use spot if done right
 
The Kingston Mall is the worst. If someone were to document the life cycle of a mall, the entry of not one but two eyebrow threading places would tell you its time for hospice care. More than one brazilian prom dress store is also an indicator. They are so desperate to fill any space that they keep moving to the next lowest common denominator. Indoor mini golf. Indoor bouncy houses, a used/discounted bookstore, a zumba studio. Even the cell phone stores have left. You know a mall is screwed if even the Hot Topic devoted to suburban goth mall rats closes up and goes away.
 
CitySquare in Worcester might count as mall repurposing, but it's really just tearing 3/4 of it down to replace with offices.
 
Visited the Taunton Mall today, and it seems to be only marginally better than Independence. I'd think either mall could do well for itself if they upgraded their movie theaters, for one.
 
DominusNovus said:
Visited the Taunton Mall today, and it seems to be only marginally better than Independence. I'd think either mall could do well for itself if they upgraded their movie theaters, for one.
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The Silver City Galleria was actually just sold and is being completely refreshed according to my brother who works at the mall. New restaurants, stores, interior upgrades, including putting the staircase back in Center Court. They're really going all in on this dead mall.

The Galleria was so successful after it opened, it caused backups for miles down 24 and they had to redesign the exits simply for the mall. You'd never guess that in the mall's current state. I remember the days when you had to wait in lines that wrapped all the way out to Center Court for movie tickets at the Hoyt's Cinema.

The North Dartmouth Mall (now the newly refreshed Dartmouth Mall) and especially South Shore Plaza (a regional behemoth) are poaching shoppers from the North and South. There is plenty of potential for the Galleria if they fill the mall back up with the right stores. The money in Lakeville is all being lost to South Shore Plaza.
 
DominusNovus said:
Visited the Taunton Mall today, and it seems to be only marginally better than Independence. I'd think either mall could do well for itself if they upgraded their movie theaters, for one.
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Independence just completed a major reno to the theaters. Stadium seating, super everything. Notable that there isn't even a full service restaurant in the mall any more. Once upon a time we would go to the Uno's (ugh, but only choice) before seeing a movie. Closest restaurant with real food and a liquor license is now a couple of miles away. Huge problem.
 
What's the current status of the Square 1 Mall in Saugus? That place used to depress the hell out of me. I can't quite put my finger on why, but I always felt it had sort of the same atmosphere as Museum Place in Salem, but on a much larger scale.
 
Meadow Glen mall could use a redo while we are at it. Integrate it into the streets around.

My thinking is that anything that is not a big destination mall (SS Plaza, Natick, Burlington) or a healthy regional mall (Hanover, probably others), should be made multi-story mixed used and semi-open air. You could probably then do the same with the smaller but still doing well regional malls.
 
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