Sometimes a new restaurant (or two) is more than a place to eat. It's a part of placemaking, says National Development SVP and director of asset management Andrew Gallinaro, especially for suburban locations that need to be competitive with the urban core.

"Integrating food destinations that convey an authentic sense of place within a mixed-use environment is one way that a development can create value for its tenants and the surrounding communities," Andrew says. Such features attract people to a place and persuade them to stay.

This month, two new restaurants are coming to National Development's 1.3M SF The District Burlington mixed-use project in Burlington: Pressed Café and Island Creek Oyster Bar. The former is a more casual atmosphere that's in line with the District’s goal of providing flexible spaces to gather. The latter is a second location for the seafood concept, which has one in Kenmore Square.

Andrew says restaurants of this sort are all part of a well-rounded experience for the modern office user in which food, entertainment and hospitality coexist alongside collaborative workspaces and wellness programming. "Finding the right balance of uses will create a place that's dynamic well beyond the traditional 9-to-5 workday,” he notes.

Placemaking is also fostered by distinctive design elements. In the case of Oyster Creek, NY-based Bentel & Bentel (The Modern, Eleven Madison Park, Gramercy Tavern) conceptualized the design, and as the firm did with the Boston space, wove the natural attributes of Duxbury Bay and the Island Creek Oyster Farm into the physical elements of the restaurant. For instance, it will include Gabion cages filled with tens of thousands of cleaned oyster shells that make up a sizable wall in the restaurant.