After years of stalled progress, plans to bring new life to the site of the defunct Swansea Mall are once again picking up now that developers have reached an agreement with Walmart Inc., which abuts the former mall and maintains property rights.
Though no tenants have filled the mall since its closure in 2019, the site has not been without activity – property owners Anagnost Cos. and Brady Sullivan Properties have gutted the inside of the structure to make way for a planned “lifestyle center,” with plans for tenants that range from retailers and restaurants to fitness and health centers.
Nearby on the property, the developers envision two new residential buildings with a total of 144 market-rate apartments.
Since the developers purchased the property in 2019, “a laundry list” of restrictions set by Walmart has stymied these plans, said Dick Anagnost, president of the New Hampshire-based Anagnost Investments Inc., part of Anagnost Cos.
But a new easements with covenants and restrictions, or ECR, agreement reached with Walmart in February has opened the door to the wide range of tenants the developers have envisioned, Anagnost said.
The property owners and the town of Swansea have both been eager to see the former commercial center remodeled.
“This is a significant piece of our economic vitality,” said Swansea Town Administrator Mallory Aronstein. “It’s a commerce area and without development there, it’s just a concrete jungle, underutilized space.”
Though the redevelopment is privately funded, the town has pushed to prime the area for the planned lifestyle center. In 2019, voters elected to authorize the site as the “Swansea Mall Redevelopment Area,” and to establish the Swansea Redevelopment Authority, which has overseen the contentious process.
“It’s exciting,” Aronstein said of the redevelopment. “I think it does hearken back to when the mall came in the ’70s. I think Swansea is ready for this kind of development [that] they can frequent right here in this community.”
Once a vibrant shopping center, the Swansea Mall opened in 1975, and over its 40-plus year history hosted a movie theater, restaurants and various big-box retailers, including Walmart, which was housed in the mall from 2001 until it moved to its adjacent location in 2013.
Over the next few years, a string of other large retailers, including Sears, Toys R Us and Macy’s, shut down in a wave of nationwide closures. In early 2019, on the heels of Macy’s announcing its upcoming closure, then-owner Carlyle Partners announced the mall would shutter in early spring.
The developers aren’t chasing the early success of the shopping mall, Anagnost said, calling malls “a thing of the past.”
“The way a mall used to work is a lot of stores would be located in one place and feed off each other,” Anagnost said. “Now, you need to bring in traffic generators.”
The concept of a lifestyle center, which has gained traction around the country in recent decades, holds that adding in a mix of nonretail vendors will draw in these customers.
While some have questioned whether a lifestyle center bears a significant difference to a traditional shopping mall, the concept has garnered its own designation from the International Council of Shopping Centers, which defines a “lifestyle” shopping center as “upscale national-chain specialty stores with dining and entertainment in an outdoor setting.”
A regional mall, meanwhile, focuses on “general merchandise or fashion-oriented offerings,” according to the ICSC.
The developers in Swansea also plan to host a gym and at least one medical office, Anagnost said, further expanding the range of tenants, while the apartment units will provide a steady customer base for businesses.
“You create a new product mix,” Anagnost said. “A lifestyle center has people who live there all the time and take advantage of things that are there,” in addition to customers who travel in from surrounding areas.
The two apartment buildings have already been approved but will not be constructed until the final phase of the project. The 144 market-rate units will comprise one- and two-bedroom apartments.
Aronstein is eager to see the new apartments become available in town.
In Swansea’s current real estate market, “it’s more the housing type that needs to change,” Aronstein said. “We’re predominantly single-family homes, and residents who are looking to downsize don’t really have a lot of options.”
“It’s a nice option to have,” Aronstein added. “I think that really, statewide … that type of housing availability needs to be more diverse, and I think that answers that call.”
A spokesperson for Walmart said the company is working with the property owners “to pay a portion to assist them in meeting their responsibility to repair and maintain the surrounding road” but declined to provide further comment.
The developers will begin repaving the site’s parking lot and surrounding ring road in April or May, depending on contract approval and weather allowances. Anagnost anticipates that the project’s completion will take at least three years.
Jacquelyn Voghel is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Voghel@PBN.com.
