- Worcester Common Outlets
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Worcester Common Outlets 
Front Street Entrance, February 19, 2005Location Worcester, Massachusetts, USA Coordinates 42°15′44″N 71°47′55″W / 42.262225°N 71.79851°WCoordinates: 42°15′44″N 71°47′55″W / 42.262225°N 71.79851°W Address 100 Front Street Opening date July 29, 1971 Closing date April 2006 Developer Worcester Center Associates Architect Welton Becket and Associates No. of stores and services 126 Total retail floor area 1,000,000 sq ft Parking 4,300 space garage No. of floors 2 The Worcester Common Outlets, located off Interstate 290 in Downtown Worcester, Massachusetts, is a vacant two level shopping mall which originally opened on July 29, 1971 as the Worcester Center Galleria. Before its closure, it contained 126 outlets and currently sits as a dead mall awaiting redevelopment.
Contents
History
1971–1993: Beginnings
The Worcester Common Outlets opened on July 29, 1971 as the Worcester Center Galleria.[1] To be built, a large swath of Worcester's downtown was demolished to make room for the 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m2) mall and two connected skyscrapers. The Galleria had a large open area with an arched roof that was supposedly modeled after the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, Italy.[1][2] The design for the mall also included a 4,300-space parking garage, which, at the time, was the largest parking structure in the world.[2][3] Two construction experts from New York and California had called the original mall "the finest shopping center they had ever seen in the United States."[1] The original anchor stores included Filene's, Jordan Marsh, and Kennedy's.[2] By the late 1980s, two of the major anchors, Filene's and Jordan Marsh, had moved out, while other area malls such as the Auburn Mall and Greendale Mall began drawing away customers.[4]
1994–2003: Revitalization
In 1994, Worcester Center Associates sold the Galleria to New England Development which slowly shut down the remaining stores with plans to revitalize the mall.[4] On October 29, 1994, the Galleria reopened as the Worcester Common Fashion Outlets, with Judith Light taking the role of spokesperson, appearing in a large publicity campaign for the mall.[1][5] With the reopening, there were drastic changes to the stores housed in the mall and the look and layout of it. The original anchors were gone and replaced with Sports Authority, Bed Bath and Beyond, Saks Off Fifth Avenue Outlet, Media Play, and Filene's Basement (later VF Factory Outlet).[3] After the re-opening, the mall contained a total of 126 outlet stores.[6]
As time went on, this re-marketing of the mall did not help. In 1996 the name was changed another time to simply Worcester Common Outlets,[6] and in 1997, a larger outlet mall, the Wrentham Village Premium Outlets, opened off nearby Interstate 495 in Wrentham, Massachusetts drawing from the Common Outlets' customer base.[3]
2004–present: Closure and redevelopment
Business at the mall slowly died down until June 22, 2004, when Berkeley Investments, along with its capital partner, Starwood Capital of Greenwich, Connecticut announced that they would buy the Worcester Common Outlets.[6] After the announcement of the acquisition, leases in the mall were not renewed and it slowly emptied. The mall closed for good in April 2006.[3] Berkeley will demolish a large portion of the mall and turn it into a mixed-use development named CitySquare where a combination of retail, housing and office space will replace the outlets.[6] For the future CitySquare development, Berkeley investments plans on keeping the parking garages and Worcester Foothills Theatre, which called a section of the basement of the mall home,[7] until it "suspended operations"[8] on May 10, 2009 due to lack of funding.[9] The project is an example of transit oriented development because of its proximity to public transportation and major arterial roadways.[6]
The $563 million project to construct CitySquare stalled for years as Berkeley Investments struggled to secure tenants.[10][11] The first phase of the project received city approval in May 2008.[12] In March 2009, it was announced that Unum Group, an insurance company, would lease more than 175,000 square feet (16,300 m2) in the future CitySquare development. This allowed $25 million in state demolition funding to flow.[13] On September 13, 2010, demolition of portions of the former mall started and on May 18, 2011, visible exterior demolition began.
Anchor Stores
As the Worcester Center Galeria
- Filene's
- Jordan Marsh
- Kennedy's
As the Worcester Common Fashion Outlets
- Sports Authority
- Bed Bath and Beyond
- Saks Off Fifth Avenue Outlet
- Media Play
- Filene's Basement (later VF Factory Outlet)
See also
References
- ^ a b c d Goslow, Brian (2003-04-04). "Mall rat memories". Worcester Magazine. http://www.worcestermag.com/archives/2004/03-04-04/lead_continued.shtml. Retrieved 2008-12-02.[dead link]
- ^ a b c d Woolhouse, Megan (2006-10-01). "Worcester's $1 billion bet". The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/realestate/news/articles/2006/10/01/worcesters_1_billion_bet/. Retrieved 2008-12-02.
- ^ a b c d e "Worcester Common Outlets; Worcester, Massachusetts". Labelscar. 2006-09-14. http://www.labelscar.com/massachusetts/worcester-common. Retrieved 2008-12-02.
- ^ a b Palmer Jr., Thomas C. (2004-06-30). "Waking up Worcester: Officials, investors hope $300m plan sparks a revival". The Boston Globe. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-118795409.html. Retrieved 2008-12-05.
- ^ "Judith Light Set Free By Role of Cancer Patient". Telegram & Gazette. 2000-02-04. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=WO&p_theme=wo&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EADE459A9BDB946&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 2008-12-02.
- ^ a b c d e "Berkeley Investments, Inc. Announces Acquisition of Worcester Common Outlets; Redevelopment Plans Will Revitalize Downtown Area". Worcester, Massachusetts. 2004-06-22. http://www.ci.worcester.ma.us/pressrel/OutletsAcquisition.htm. Retrieved 2008-12-02.[dead link]
- ^ "Foothills to be in CitySquare future". Telegram & Gazette. 2005-04-21. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=WO&p_theme=wo&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=109A450011BBBFEB&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 2008-12-02.
- ^ http://www.playbill.com/news/article/128821.html
- ^ foothillstheatre.com
- ^ Foster, Tom (2008-11-14). "Downtown Worcester office rentals hold steady". Telegram & Gazette. http://www.telegram.com/article/20081114/NEWS/811140692/0/FRONTPAGE. Retrieved 2008-12-02.
- ^ Kotsopoulos, Nick (2007-08-23). "CitySquare gets second extension". Telegram & Gazette. http://www.telegram.com/article/20070823/NEWS/708230738. Retrieved 2008-12-05.
- ^ Kotsopoulos, Nick (2008-05-21). "Council OKs Plan to Start Project". Telegram & Gazette. http://www.newcitysquare.com/news/read_news.cfm?news=36. Retrieved 2008-12-05.[dead link]
- ^ "Progress for major Worcester development". Boston Globe. 2009-03-31. http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2009/03/progress_for_ma.html. Retrieved 2009-04-01.
External links
Categories:- Abandoned shopping malls in the United States
- Buildings and structures in Worcester, Massachusetts
- Shopping malls in Massachusetts
- Shopping malls established in 1971
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