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40 Worcester Business Journal | December 23, 2024 | wbjournal.com Making big boxes fun again ECONOMIC FORECAST 2023 Real Estate Report: Retail As large retail spaces become vacant, landlords are finding immersive businesses like mini golf and pickleball can keep the crowds coming in BY MICA KANNER-MASCOLO WBJ Staff Writer B en Minsk had been in retire- ment for five years when he decided he needed to find something to do with the rest of his life. His answer? Rt. 12 Pickle, an indoor pickleball club in West Boylston he opened on Feb. 1. Situated at Wachusett Plaza in a 30,000-square-foot space formerly occu- pied by long-term tenant Salter College, Minsk was drawn to the location's high ceilings and lack of obstructive columns to interfere with his courts. Minsk had viewed a number of both commercial retail facilities and indus- trial warehouses before finally settling on the 184 West Boylston St. location, and it wasn't a straightforward path to closing a deal for the facility's owner Andy Surabian either. In fact, Surabian had gutted the site in an effort to find a tenant for the space previously filled with offices and classrooms. While the act of converting big-box retail spaces into creative businesses can present a number of logistical challenges, those challenges can lead to innovative solutions that have become increasingly necessary as digital retail impacts the need for large physical retail spaces. A study published in 2024 by Cambridge research and advisory firm Forrester found 20% of global retail sales in 2023, totaling $4.4 trillion, were conducted online, a number pro- jected to increase to $6.8 trillion by 2028. As physical retail faces chal- lenges, owners of Central Massa- chusetts big-box retail locations are pivoting part of their business models to focus on creative and immersive experiences to get cus- tomers out of their homes and reaching for their wallets. Reimagining retail When looking for a tenant for his space that would later be filled by Rt. 12 Pickle, Surabian had considered doing office deals with the Town of West Boylston for schools or Town offices, as well as with retailers including Big Lots, Ocean State Job Lot, and Ollie's Bargain Outlet, said Tom Bodden, commercial real estate broker at Worcester-based Kelleher & Sad- owsky, who repre- sented Surabian. Since the space had been filled with offices and classrooms, those deals fizzled out as the unique space did not lend itself to a smooth office-to-office conversion. Converting to another use was cost prohibitive. "So then, we kind of had to go back to the drawing board and get creative on our approach," said Bodden. Ben Minsk, owner of Rt. 12 Pickle Tom Bodden, com- mercial real estate broker at Kelleher & Sadowsky While Puttshack aims to have a new and fresh appeal, the Natick Mall's older status didn't deter the company from moving in. The site's closeness to popular staples such as the Cheesecake Factory was a major motivator. PHOTO | COURTESY OF PUTTSHACK PHOTO | COURTESY OF RT. 12 PICKLE When considering where to open Rt. 12 Pickle, Owner Ben Minsk was drawn to West Boylston's proximity to Worcester's approximately 35,000 college students, a largely untapped market he's excited to infiltrate.