The mall's 2007 expansion two days after its opening. |
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| Location | Natick, Massachusetts, USA |
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| Address | 1245 Worcester Street Natick, Massachusetts 01760-1553 |
| Opening date | 1965 (original Natick Mall) 1994 (rebuilt Natick Mall) 2007 (Natick Collection) |
| Owner | General Growth Properties |
| Architect | Beyer Blinder Belle (addition)[1] |
| No. of stores and services | 231[2] |
| No. of anchor tenants | 7 |
| Total retail floor area | 1,860,000 sq ft (173,000 m2)[3][4] |
| Parking | 8,000 spaces |
| No. of floors | 2 |
| Website | natickmall.com |
The Natick Mall, named the Natick Collection from February 2007 to July 2011, is a large shopping mall owned by General Growth Properties (GGP). It is located between routes 9 and 30 in Natick, Massachusetts and is adjacent to Shoppers World in Framingham, Massachusetts. Along with Shopper's World, the Natick Mall helps form the heart of the regional shopping district known as the Golden Triangle. The 7 sq mi (18 km2) area is the second largest shopping district in Massachusetts outside of Downtown Crossing in the Financial District area of Boston.
After the mall's expansions in 2007 and 2009, it has just under 1,900,000 sq ft (180,000 m2) leasable area and over 275 retailers. It is the largest mall located in New England in terms of total number of stores.
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The location was originally two separate stand-alone stores, Sears and Filene's, separated by a parking lot. The mall was constructed between the two locations beginning in 1964. The first Natick Mall opened on April 27, 1965, with 25 stores as a one-story mall, becoming the second enclosed mall in the Boston metropolitan area. It included two smaller anchors located on the north side of the mall, Woolworth's and Boston Baby, and had a large fountain/entertainment area in front of the new Sears mall entrances.
When the Boston Baby store closed in the early eighties, the structure was remodeled into a retail wing with a dozen smaller stores such as Gap, and now featured a small food court. The former York Steak House near Sears underwent a similar transformation when the restaurant closed in 1985, becoming home to several national retailers such as J. Jill and Land's End. The mall eventually became the home to over fifty stores and restaurants.
By the 1990s, the mall's owners decided to renovate the facility, as it was undersized and had seen virtually no change since opening in the 1960s. In 1991, the owners began to add a third anchor location, Lord & Taylor, on the front of the mall off the main entrance in the center as well as a second floor. Construction began with the citing of the footings for the new structure, but came to a halt in 1992 when the mall was sold to the Sears real estate division, Homart Development Company. Homart, who also purchased the adjacent Shopper's World property, canceled the expansion plans for both complexes, instead developing two new concepts for a completely rebuilt, enclosed mall on the larger Shopper's World property and a power center at the Natick Mall location. However, one of the Natick Mall's major tenants, Filene's, had completely remodeled and expanded its location as part of the mall's expansion plans and was unwilling to spend more capital on constructing a new Shopper's World building. In response, Homart reversed the plans and developed the concepts that became the new Natick Mall and Shoppers' World. The original mall's tenants were moved in to the Shopper's World complex in 1993, and the mall was torn down. A new, modern two-story structure with over 200 stores was built and opened in late 1994. The facility included a new Sears, a Lord & Taylor and relocated Jordan Marsh.
In late 2006, the mall began a large scale renovation and expansion and also re-branded its image, beginning by attempting to change its name to simply "Natick". However, after resistance from the town, the mall was instead renamed the "Natick Collection."[3] The first phase of the expansion included the renovation the original mall and the addition of a new wing on the site of the former Wonder Bread/Hostess baking factory adjacent to the mall property on the north-east side. With this expansion, approximately 100 new stores and two new anchors, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus, were added to the mall. This phase was opened to the public on September 7, 2007, though not all stores were ready for business, instead planning to open through winter 2007 to spring 2008. This addition, along with a new eight-story parking facility, makes Natick Mall the twenty-third largest mall in the country, fourth largest on the East Coast, and the largest in New England.[5]
In October 2009, the second phase of expansion called The Promenade at Natick Collection opened on the south-western section of the mall along Route 9. The construction of a Cheesecake Factory finished shortly after the completion of north side addition and work on a new, two story Crate and Barrel store, a relocated California Pizza Kitchen and the American Girl Boutique and Bistro began construction in April 2008, with an original completion time frame of early Spring 2009.[6] The south-west mall entrance was moved approximately 100 ft (30 m), placing it between the new Crate and Barrel and a new California Pizza Kitchen restaurant, across from the north-west wing housing J.C.Penney. The new 30,000 sq ft (2,800 m2) Crate and Barrel facility replaced the original 10,000 sq ft (930 m2) store with a new 1-level store (with 2-story facade) that occupies parts of the original location.[7] Additional stores in the new street scape area have yet to be leased as of July 2009.
The third phase, the construction of the condominiums, which originally had a projected completion of summer 2008, finished construction during spring 2009. The final phase, the addition of a ten to twelve story luxury hotel adjacent to the new wing and across from J.C. Penney, is still in the planning phases with a projected start of 2011 at the earliest. Initial site work has been completed and is awaiting finished designs.[8] However the financial difficulties of mall parent General Growth has put the final phase's construction into doubt.
As with the rest of the United States, the late-2000s recession cast a serious pall over the mall expansion. By December 2008, condominium sales in Nouvelle at Natick were behind projections, with only 34 of the 215 units sold or under contract. Real estate agents in the Metrowest area have stated that the prices of the units, ranging from $379,900 to over $1 million, combined with the timing of the opening of the facility have seriously hampered sales. Several real estate agencies have stated that General Growth, or its successor pending its bankruptcy case, will need to lower its prices for the units to attract consumers in tight economic times. Additionally, home sales in the Natick and Framingham area are traditionally oriented towards single family homes which are also working against the residences.[9] On September 10, 2009, The Boston Globe reported that Nouvelle at Natick would auction off 42 of the 215 units, with bids starting as low as $160,000.[10]
In July 2011, General Growth Properties reverted to the original name "Natick Mall". In a statement released by GGP, the company stated that many local residents and businesses preferred the old name, and that it decided to honor that tradition in changing back to that name.[5]