READING, MA-Eight new retail outlets occupying 70,000 sf are set to open by Labor Day at the Crossing at Walkers Brook, a $90-million lifestyle center built on a former landfill. Developers say the second phase will be fully leased by the time its September grand opening celebration gets under way.
Five of those tenants, Staples, Starbucks, Bear Rock Café bakery and coffee house, Bank of America and Linens 'n Things, opened in July, The Paper Store and Verizon opened this month and Romano's Macaroni Grill Italian restaurant will open by Labor Day.
"Not only are we 100% leased, but all are 100% blue-ribbon tenants" Mark Dickinson, president of Dickinson Development Corp., tells GlobeSt.com. "The quality of the location and the fact that the location lends itself to retail made it relatively easy" to lease up.
Dickinson, whose Quincy, MA firm developed the 33.5-acre lifestyle center at Routes 128 and 95, says advanced planning, a good tenant mix and a relationship between the development firm and municipal and state officials also helped make the Reading center a reality.
Because the 480,000-sf lifestyle center was built on a former landfill, the firm, which purchased the site for $3 million from the town, worked closely with municipal officials and the state Department of Environmental Protection to close and cap the landfill. Once that was completed, development got under way on the project's first phase, which included a 140,000-sf Home Depot and Jordan's Furniture, which occupies 260,000 sf, including an IMAX theater. Both anchor stores opened in the fall of 2004 as part of Phase I, which also included an adjacent Chili's restaurant.
The project was developed by Dickinson along with Pinnacle Partners. Leasing was handled by the Wilder Cos.
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