Only in the Burbs o' Boston

[lsanderson]

When Downtown Is in the Suburbs
By LISA SELIN DAVIS

EVERY time she ventured to downtown Boston during her 16 years in the suburb of Wayland, Mass., Claire Sandell drove past the old Wonder Bread factory in Natick, next to the Natick Mall. “All you could smell was the bread baking,” she said.

But when the factory was razed in 2004, the dusty smell of construction rose instead. On the site of the factory and a former Filene’s department store, once part of Natick Mall, 215 condominiums are under construction and set to be completed next year. Known as Nouvelle at Natick, they are believed to be the first built within an older enclosed shopping mall, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers; the original Natick Mall was built in 1965, then razed and rebuilt in 1994.

The transformation of the mall is less revolutionary than evolutionary. Almost no one builds malls anymore, or even calls them that. Only one enclosed shopping mall was built in 2006, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, and none are planned for this year. Many old malls, meanwhile, have added hotels, or residential developments have sprung up around them.

But General Growth Properties, a mall developer based in Chicago, believes the old paradigm for a mall can be transformed further. Applying the lifestyle-center model, where upscale retailers, sit-down restaurants and condos are built around what looks like a city street, General Growth Properties has embarked on a $370 million Natick Mall expansion and makeover.

Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Betsey Johnson are among several retailers that have set up shop there, along with restaurants like Prime Blue and Sel de la Terre, according to John Bucksbaum, the chief executive of General Growth.

Using the old mall as a place to redevelop has its advantages. “Malls were always placed at highway interchanges,” said Thomas J. D’Alesandro IV, a senior vice president of General Growth. “They’re the best regional transportation access of anything in the suburbs.”

What was once a lonely regional mall is now prime real estate. “The mall is the modern town square in most of America,” said Joel Kotkin, the author of “The City: A Global History” (Modern Library, 2006) and a presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University. More