When Downtown Is in the Suburbs

New York Times ^ | September 30, 2007 | Lisa Sellin Davis

[Lorianne]

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.

[TLI]

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.

Here in Dallas you ustacould (hey, it is a Texas word) do the same thing at the Mrs. Baird's Bread plant at Central and Mockingbird. It had been there literally generations. To drive by and smell the fresh bread was a tradition in Dallas.

TACB and EPA shut them down because the "odor of baking bread was hazardous."

ISYN.

[JamesP81]

bttt

[libertarian27]

I lived near Natick when I was a kid - the aroma around the Wonder Bread plant was heavenly.

Even took a tour, hot Wonder Bread off the line - the best dough-ball I ever made...yummy.

[mowowie]

Same here, never took the tour though. Didn’t they once build Buicks or Oldsmobiles next door or close by?

[libertarian27]

Didn’t they once build Buicks or Oldsmobiles next door or close by?
************************************************
I don’t remember, my mother did work at the GM plant in Framingham for awhile. Didn’t smell as nice near that plant...LOL

If you bought a GM car produced there in the spring of 75 and the back window leaked - That’s my Mom!

[LibFreeOrDie]

Some of us older folks remember Shopper’s World, built before (October, 1951) and near what would be the Natick Mall.

It was one of the first big suburban malls.

(As a little girl, I loved visiting the perfume fountain in the Jordan Marsh store.)

http://www.framingham.com/history/aerial97/shopwrld.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoppers_World_%28Framingham%29

Here’s a video (~30 minutes) by a local guy, done shortly before the mall was demolished in 1994. It’s very detailed... Starting at about 23:00, there’s a good look at the courtyard and some old photos.

http://fpac.wordpress.com/2007/04/24/shoppers-world-a-look-back/

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

ustacould is not a Texas phenomenon. I think it’s a Southern thing.