After almost 30 years, Emerald Square in North Attleboro is becoming something other than an enclosed mall. A commercial real estate firm has started marketing its upper floor, all 75,000 square feet of it, as suburban office space.
No one should be surprised to see this happening across the region. It’s well-underway in Rhode Island, where the future of the mall may well be a mixed-use development.
The decision by Simon Property Group, which is the nation’s largest mall operator, isn’t at all surprising, said P. David Bramble, managing partner at MCB Real Estate of Baltimore, the new owner of the former interior spaces at Warwick’s Rhode Island Mall.
“That’s the trend now,” Bramble said. “What people need to be focused on, and what developers are focused on, is what is the highest and best use? Not what it was, but what it can be.”
Garden City Center in Cranston has continued to grow, spreading into new phases that are dominated by restaurants and retailers that promise experiences and events, as much as shopping.
Providence Place, faced with the departure of J.C. Penney and unable to lease its anchor space to another national retailer, decided to cut up two floors of the anchor and create more parking. The renovations were completed in 2016.
Rhode Island Mall has taken another path in its ongoing renovations. The interior of the mall has been gutted and remade to accommodate a series of “junior box” stores by MCB Real Estate.
In that location, central Warwick, retail remains the highest and best use, said Bramble. But in MCB’s other mall locations, mixed uses, including office and residential, are being introduced.
“You can’t think with blinders on anymore,” he said.
At the Warwick site, the confluence of a strong retail market and road network led the company to keep the focus on retail, although one of the new tenants, a Planet Fitness, is an experiential retail choice.
Burlington Coat Factory was the first retailer to sign on to newly configured space, opening last year. The next tenants will be Planet Fitness, which will occupy its newly constructed space by the end of 2017. Dick’s Sporting Goods will relocate from another retail site on Bald Hill Road to the shopping center in 2018, according to Bramble.
Only about 25,000 square feet now remains available.
The new owner has invested millions in renovations to help secure new tenants at the former mall interior. Bramble said he would like to see the entire mall renamed, to signify its new identity. To do so, he will need the support of the anchors, now Kohl’s and Walmart. Sears recently closed. For now, the former interior space controlled by MCB is called 650 Bald Hill.
“We’re trying to convince our co-owners to get involved with us in rebranding the shopping center,” Bramble said. “Because it’s not a mall anymore.”
