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NORTHBOROUGH, MA-Northborough officials have given the greenlight to a one-million-sf, mixed-use project that will create anopen-air shopping plaza with a Main Street-style town center at thejunction of Route 9 and 20. Tom Wilder, a principal with the WilderCos. of Boston, which is developing the project with BrendonProperties of Southborough, tells GlobeSt.com that theLoop-Northborough will be the largest project of its type in theregion. The project calls for 575,000 sf of retail, restaurant andentertainment space along with 350 residential units and officesset on a 157 acres.

"It's a great market with solid demographics and high householdincomes but it truly lacks a gathering place that combines therestaurants, the retail and the outdoor strolling environment thatthe Loop does," Wilder says. The project won the unanimous approvalof the town's Zoning Board of Appeals Wednesday night.