Worcester Business Journal

BY SAM BONACCI Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer How much can China's woes affect Mass.? 9 Experts see some impact on business – but also opportunities. WBJ >> To Subscribe Central Massachusetts' Source for Business News September 14, 2015 Volume 26 Number 20 www.wbjournal.com $2.00 FOCUS Banking & Finance Why can't Central Mass. get more VC love? 12 Downtown businesses question how Main St. spiff-up can help The Natick Mall, top left, is adding a Wegmans. At Worcester 's Greendale Mall, top right, and Auburn Mall, size, as well as shifts toward open-air shopping centers are creating challenges. Lessons from 3 Central Mass. retail meccas show how location – and innovation – can pump up sales Q&A with Debra Petke, executive director of Danforth Art, Framingham Shopping mall survival A mid heightened compe- tition from larger, more sprawling outdoor retail developments, two indoor shopping malls in Worcester and Auburn have been backed into a corner where experts say innovation is the only path toward continued viability. But their struggles stand in stark contrast to the continued success of the Natick Mall, in a community that con- tinues to be a shopping destination in Central Massachusetts. While the Natick Mall recently signed on growing supermarket chain Wegmans to move into one of its anchor store loca- tions, the Auburn Mall and Worcester's Greendale Mall have been struggling for some time. What makes them so different? Size, for one, according to Rob Robledo, vice president of retail tenant services at CBRE New England. While the Greendale Mall has a relatively pal- try 300,000 square feet of retail space, the Natick Mall sprawls at 1.7 million square feet. When it comes to shopping centers, size allows for a deep retail mix that creates the kind of "find anything for anyone" shopping experience malls have been built on. In the case of the Greendale Mall, which, like Auburn Mall and Solomon Pond Mall in Marlborough, is operated by Simon Malls, it's simply too small to truly sup- W alk down Worcester's Main Street and you'll see crum- bling and sometimes cramped sidewalks, incongruent styles of lighting, and crater-sized potholes that reveal the brick foundation underlying it all. Cars jockey for position across four travel lanes – two heading north, two south - only to get trapped at a red light on a clear street, with a green signal tan- talizingly close, yet a block away. This is the downtown Worcester of today. But it will not be the Worcester downtown of tomorrow if the city completes its plan to rip up and reengineer Main Street between the federal and Worcester County courthouses. The streetscape plan is estimated to cost $7.5 million, with most of that — $4.5 million — coming from the federal government. It will cut in half the num- ber of travel lanes, adding a turning lane in the median and bicycle paths along the sides. Nine of the 11 traffic lights along the stretch would be synchronized to improve traffic flow, and the side- walks would be ripped up and replaced to make them more accommodating to handicapped pedestrians. Meanwhile, there will be less on-street parking with the loss of 22 spaces. But will these changes help boost a downtown business community in an area where — some business owners say — activity slows down after 4 p.m.? And, can the new look help pull in additional businesses? BY SAM BONACCI AND RICK SAIA Worcester Business Journal Staff Writers Troy Siebels of the Hanover Theatre is "psyched" about streetscape plans for Main Street, but says it won't solve all issues in the area. >> Continued on Page 19 >> Continued on Page 10 Shop Talk 8 Natick Mall Square footage: 1.71M Number of stores: 230 Number of parking spaces: 7,522 Greendale Mall, Worcester Square footage: 309,000 Number of stores: 39 Number of parking spaces: 1,514 Auburn Mall Square footage: 575,000 Number of stores: 58 Number of parking spaces: 2,431 P H O T O / F I L E P H O T O / M A T T V O L P I N I P H O T O / M A T T V O L P I N I

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