| New England Development recently completed one of the few new shopping centers to be built in Boston metro in the past two years, the 650k SF Northborough Crossing. We snapped NED?s Paul Cincotta and Deb Black who say that the new center, which NED developed with Brendon Properties, fills a retail gap that has existed between Framingham and Worcester. Its anchors are Kohl?s, BJ?s Wholesale Club, and Wegmans' first supermarket in New England. The junior anchors include TJ Maxx, Michaels, Dick?s Sporting Goods, and Golf Town. Paul says that with so few new centers, tenants were ?clamoring to get in.? |
| NED?s Armen Aftandilian and Goulston & Storrs? attorney Nancy Davids tell us that the center, which opened in September, is 99% leased. They say Wegmans, a supermarket known for its service, variety and low prices, had a record first week when it opened Oct. 16. Its opening day was ?madness,? says Nancy who, along with Goulston colelagues, worked with the developer on permitting, leasing, and securing financing from Sovereign Bank. Overall, she tells us, construction and leasing called for ?minimal gnashing of teeth.? For instance, NED delivered to Wegmans a 145k SF pad in August 2010. Wegman's completed construction in 14 months, even though supermarkets are relatively complex structures with all the refrigeration, food prep/caf seating areas, and large loading docks. |
| NED?s Ryan Leeming and Kurt Sjostedt say Wegmans was key in attracting other tenants to Northborough. (Must be the free samples.) Now, NED is looking ahead to its next projects. It's developing shopping centers in West Palm Beach and Chestnut Hill, which is 340k SF with retail, residential, and medical office. Also this spring, NED plans to start construction on a 356-unit multifamily rental building on Pier 4 at the Boston waterfront next to Vertex Pharmaceutical?s $900M Fan Peir office/lab buildings now under construction. |
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