Tuesday, September 22, 2015

If You Don't Like the Store Layout in Bedford Marketplace, Just Wait a Few Weeks

An overview on the ongoing changes at Bedford Marketplace. As you may know, Bedford Marketplace is constructing three new buildings. These include:

The new building located adjacent to Marshall's also know as Building A. This building has space for three tenants and is just about complete.

The second new building is located on the west edge of the shopping center (behind the old Cafe Luigi's building). This is know as building B. Construction on this building is expected to be completed this fall.

The third building will located near where Brookline Bank is located. This new building will be located a little closer to the road and is known as building C. Construction on this building has not yet started and is expected to be completed next Spring.

Before construction can start on building C, the two old front buildings need to be knocked down. As part of this process, the retailers need to be relocated.

The first building was emptied last month, with Bank of America moving to a trailer along with the temporary closure of Cafe Luigi's and b.good. The stores in the second building are now in the process of moving out. Both building should soon be demolished.

Here are some of the changes:

Building A
Red Heat Tavern has taken one of three spaces in building A. Work on Red Heat Tavern is almost complete. They expect to open on Monday November 9th. For the first week or so they plan to be open for dinner only.

The second tenant in Building A is Lincoln Liquors. They are in the process of moving from their current location and should be opening soon. The new location will be around 7,500 square feet which is much larger than their current location.

Building B
Bruegger's Bagels will temporarily close and then should re-open shortly in Building B along with Bank of America and b.good. The Subway is now closed and should also re-open in Building B. Expected new tenants include a Hair Cuttery Salon and Sleepy's.

Building C
Brookline Bank will be closing it's current location on Friday October 2nd and open a temporary branch on Monday October 5th in Building A in the remaining space between Red Heat Tavern and the new location for Lincoln Liquors. The Bank expects to move in to a permanent location in Building C sometime in the spring at which point the retail space in Building A will become available again.

Cafe Luigi's is expected to re-open in Building C along with a new Learning Express Toys.

Other Changes
Within the next week the Post Office retail store is expected to move to two temporary trailers that are located near the back of the shopping center behind the new building under construction. It's likely that the Post Office will move to either building B or C. No news yet on if a mail distribution facility will return to Bedford. Bedford mail is currently being distributed from a mail distribution facility in Burlington.

KB Jewelers has moved out of it's existing space. It's expected they will reopen on the Blake Block in the Spring.

The Ka-noon Thai Cuisine restaurant has closed and will not be returning to Bedford Marketplace.

Comment:
Including Sparta, the number of restaurants in Bedford will soon be down by six although only for a short while.



Monday, September 7, 2015

When One Store Closes, Another Two Opens

One store closes. The Ka-noon Thai Cuisine restaurant at 168 Great Road in Bedford Marketplace has permanently closed. The building they are in is expected to be demolished soon and it appears they did not reach an agreement with the shopping center to reopen in one of the new buildings being constructed.

Two new stores will be opening soon at the Great Road Shopping Center. As earlier reported, Ocean State Job Lot has moved in to the old Staples location. Renovations are under way and the store is expected to open in the next few weeks.



The second store is Pet Life which is coming in at the old Mattress World location at 307 Great Road. Pet Life is a premium pet food and supplies store. The company opened it's first store in Maine and expanded first to New Hampshire and then in to Massachusetts. The closest existing store to Bedford is in Stoneham. The exact opening of the Bedford store is not yet known but they are already hiring.

Pet Life is looking to fill a large number of positions in Bedford. The Bedford store will be the 17th location for Pet Life.


Ocean State Job Lot is also hiring. The old Sparta Restaurant is being used as a temporary hiring office.

Stay tuned for more details on Ocean State Job Lot and Pet Life.