After 7 Years, Retail Hub Comes To Wayland
Town of Wayland
Wayland Town Center, a mixed-use development project, is close to completion. The first store, an energy-efficient Stop & Shop, is slated to open Nov. 16.
A mixed-use development center seven years in the making is finally on the brink of opening, and Wayland Town Planner Sarkis Sarkisian thinks it's a sign that businesses are regaining an appetite for expansion.
Wayland Town Center was designed to be a hub for residential, retail and office space, mixed with small parks and a town green that provides space for shoppers to enjoy the outdoors.
With facades designed to blend with the town's semi-rural suburban character, it's a far cry from the former Raytheon office building that closed on the site years ago.
A Redevelopment Opportunity
"It was an opportunity to see a 52-acre parcel get redeveloped," Sarkisian said.
The town approved a mixed-use overlay district to make way for commercial and residential development between routes 20 and 27 in downtown Wayland in 2008, though planning began in 2005. But when the economy took a turn for the worse, Sarkisian said some in the community feared it would never be built out.
Eventually, a developer stepped up. Providence-base KGI Properties, a division of The Koffler Group, committed to building a 372,500 square-foot shopping and dining retail center. In a second phase, the KGI hopes to find a partner developer 88 townhouses and 12 affordable housing apartments will be built, according to Sarkisian.
KGI's first tenant, Stop & Shop, will open an energy-efficient prototype store, anchoring Wayland Town Center, on Nov. 16.
And according to Sarkisian and a statement by KGI, several other tenants plan to open there soon. They include a Panera Bread, Bertucci's, Anton's Cleaners, Subway, Supercuts, Middlesex Savings Bank, an orthodontics office and a liquor store. Sarkisian said those stores will probably open in 2013.
Affluent Wayland Ready For Development?
The economy may be on the upswing, but KGI said in a statement that affluent Wayland, which has limited retail options to date, is particularly ripe for development.
"More than 21,000 people live within 3 miles of the site, with an average household income topping $170,000," said Joseph Harnan, director of Leasing and Marketing for KGI. "Within 5 miles, the demographics increase to over 85,000 and $153,000, respectively. Retailers are taking notice of these numbers."
Medical centers are, too. A major Boston hospital is interested in opening a 16,000 square-foot medical building on the site, though that would happen during the second phase of the project sometime later on, said Sarkisian, who declined to name the hospital.
All this new commerce will likely be a boon for Wayland. Sarkisian said the town estimates it will generate about $500,000 in new tax revenue annually for the town. That number could increase, depending on the success of residential development at Wayland Town Center.
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