The New Retail Thread

BussesAin'tTrains said:
And a Burger King was next to a Wendy's... that's just how fast food competition works.
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On my way home from working late at CambridgeSide, I used to stop at the Copley BK for a chicken fries meal and then go next door for a Frosty.
 
A Burger King next to a Wendy's is not nearly as ridiculous as two Starbucks locations on the same street.
 
Burger King deserved to close for getting rid of cheesy tots.
 
brucepf said:
Why would a Burger King need a kitchen?!
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Compared to the other dumps, Burger King actually does cook their burgers (albeit on an automatic grill, but still).

If you go through the drive-thru late at night they usually make you wait in the parking lot for a bit while they cook to order.

(Forgive me, I grew up in the country with nothing but fast food. All my friends worked at either BK, Taco Bell of KFC. I know way too much about their ops.)
 
No pics... but I went out to Chestnut Hill the other day to get the battery in my watch swapped out (bought it there, free batteries, yay!)

"The Street" is 100% done from the outside, but a lot of the interior spaces on the upper floors are still under construction. For a mall, it's not bad. I only drove through the parking lot... which is terrible. They just redid it and it's now a thousand times worse. Confusing traffic patterns make it impossible to drive more than a few feet without coming on three or four cars who cant figure out how to get around each other.


The renovation of the Mall at Chestnut Hill looks great. I used to work there and the freshening up has helped a lot. The fancy Chinese food place got redone and is much more modern inside, California Pizza kitchen moved over there replacing the restaurant that was on the ground floor (Charlies?), and has "patio seating" opening up into the mall, complete with trees. It actually looks pretty swanky if you're into fake outdoor dining in a mall. There are a few empty storefronts on the corridor out to the parking lot, but Simon has covered them over very well, I didn't even notice them at first.

I briefly went into Uniqlo. The store's merchandising with gap-esque stripes of color on the walls from all the different shirts is visually impressive, I saw the store instantly from the other side of the mall. I didn't spend much time inside though as I really don't like their fall collection. Wayyy too heavily featuring puffy vest jacket... things. I was slightly disappointed that Crate & Barrel closed the furniture store downstairs, leaving only housewares upstairs. I'm not a big C&B fan but always enjoyed browsing there, and it kind of killed my whole plan for waiting while they fixed my watch.

Overall, the Mall has vastly improved. There was a lot more life than the usual three people, there was actually an audible hum from people talking, and it was a Monday at 2.


The Atrium is officially no more. The entire interior and exterior has been torn off, only a few facade panels remain clinging to the structure. What's happening here again? Condos?


Finally, Chestnut Hill Square (I think that's what they're calling it). I didn't spend any time anywhere but Wegmans, but it lives up to the hype. They absolutely blow every other supermarket around here out of the water. Despite having a Stop & Shop and a Shaws within less than a mile of my house, Wegmans is my new go-to supermarket. I hope to god they put Shaws out of business and take over their spaces.


They also redid Route 9 a bit out front, and no surprise they screwed it up. They added another lane on the inbound side from roughly Florence street to the ramps for the Hammond Pond Parkway. But for some reason instead of doing the logical thing and having the new lane be exit-only for Hammond, and the middle lane be an option lane (either exit or continue straight over the overpass) they have the new lane continue about 200' further past the offramp and then end in a merge before the overpass. Horrible backups from typical masshole behavior of waiting until the last second to merge. Just unbelievably stupid planning.


Anyway, there's my updates from sprawlville!
 
davem said:
The Atrium is officially no more. The entire interior and exterior has been torn off, only a few facade panels remain clinging to the structure. What's happening here again? Condos?
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Doctors offices.
 
davem said:
They also redid Route 9 a bit out front, and no surprise they screwed it up. They added another lane on the inbound side from roughly Florence street to the ramps for the Hammond Pond Parkway. But for some reason instead of doing the logical thing and having the new lane be exit-only for Hammond, and the middle lane be an option lane (either exit or continue straight over the overpass) they have the new lane continue about 200' further past the offramp and then end in a merge before the overpass. Horrible backups from typical masshole behavior of waiting until the last second to merge. Just unbelievably stupid planning.
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You are dead on. At first I thought the traffic in the area was just due to the construction of Chestnut Hill Square and the Street but when both of those projects finished and the traffic got worse I knew something was terribly wrong. Hopefully they will figure this out because it can often take almost 30 minutes to go the few miles from the 128/Rt. 9 interchange to the Rt.9/Hammond Street intersection.
 
datadyne007 said:
Doctors offices.
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It is no longer exclusively being offered as medical space. Expect to see a mix of tenants along with a food court of some kind, a fitness facility and shuttle service to the Green Line among other amenities. Here is a rendering:
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There is a god. A modernist jewel box replacing the Atrium! I've been hoping I'd live long enough to start seeing the PoMo nightmares of the 80's and 90's demolished or renovated. Next...500 Boylston!
 
BosDevelop said:
You are dead on. At first I thought the traffic in the area was just due to the construction of Chestnut Hill Square and the Street but when both of those projects finished and the traffic got worse I knew something was terribly wrong. Hopefully they will figure this out because it can often take almost 30 minutes to go the few miles from the 128/Rt. 9 interchange to the Rt.9/Hammond Street intersection.
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The transportation "engineers" did the same thing on Westbound Rte 9. They added a third lane westbound which should have terminated as a right turn only lane at Florence St. Instead the lane continues through the intersection for a very short distance and then abruptly merges, resulting in aggressive lane hopping and merging.
 
I actually think this all comes down to the Hammond Street light, which is poorly timed and not suited to the new scale of traffic going to and coming from the new shopping centers. That's where the hard slog always comes to an end.

(Nice Eastbound detour around the jumble if you ever need it: Florence > Heath > Woodland > Heath and either follow that through to Lee Street or take one of the small streets out to Route 9 once you're beyond Hammond St.)
 
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Shepard said:
(Nice Westbound detour around the jumble if you ever need it: Florence > Heath > Woodland > Heath and either follow that through to Lee Street or take one of the small streets out to Route 9 once you're beyond Hammond St.)
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westbound? Wouldn't that be an eastbound detour?
 
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