Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Bedford Shopping Center Looking to Expand

Bedford Shopping Center is now over 40 years old and in need of a renovation.

The Bedford Shopping Center at 160 Great Road was purchased a little over 2 years ago by Salvatore Capital Partners for around $15 million. It was originally built in the 1960's. There is currently just over 100,000 square feet of retail space of which about 80% is equally split between Marshalls and Whole Foods. The remainder is taken up by smaller businesses like The Post Office and Cafe Luigi's. Salvatore Capital Partners is planning to make updates to the existing buildings and add an additional 65,000 square feet of retail space.

The preliminary plans are to
  • Add a building adjacent to Whole Foods
  • Add several additional buildings adjacent to Marshalls.
  • Demolish the Post Office mail sorting building (the USPS would move next to Marshalls).
  • Rebuild the building containing Bank Of America and Luigi's closer to where the USPS mail sorting building is currently located
  • Add an additional small building near Great Road
  • Add a small amount of retail space to the front of Whole Foods for a Florist or similar type store
A sketch outlining the preliminary plans for the Bedford Shopping Center expansion/renovation. Please click on the image for a larger picture.


In addition, the current plans include replacing the facades of the current buildings to give it a more updated look and more of a feel of a town center type of area by differentiating the look of each store. There are also listed changes to improve pedestrian access and also to help traffic flow such as widening the center entrance.

The parking lot would also include some landscaping to break down the scale of the parking lot.

As far as what stores would go in the new space, there has been interest expressed by restaurants (with possible outdoor seating facing near Great Road) as well as Banks with a drive-thru.

While the plans are preliminary and no date has been set for construction to begin, the landlord is currently advertising 40,000 square feet being available Summer of 2008. At this stage of the game the owner has just begun getting feedback from the town departments and residents.

One of the interesting things about the two large shopping centers in Bedford is that most residents don't refer to them by their actually names (Bedford Shopping Center and Great Road Shopping Center) but rather by the anchor stores Marshalls/Whole Foods and Stop and Shop/TJ Maxx. This is something that Salvatore Capital Partners mentioned as well. I recommend coming up with a new name for Bedford Shopping Center. Actually I am proposing that Salvatore Capital Partners hold a contest for town residents to come up with the new name. This would get more Bedford residents involved in the planning process and in the long run help build support to move this project forward.


The current Marshalls does have the now dated late 1960's look.

There is currently plenty of parking available as long as you don't mind parking in Saskatchewan. The expansion will result in a shorter walk from the furthest parking spots.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is exciting! I never realized how much room they have down there...between this and the Blake Block Bedford's Great Road is going to be much more visually appealing!
My thoughts for what the town needs: Burrito Bar (a healthy version), classic butcher, bakery/independant coffee shop. Anything else that is not part of a chain....specialty retail etc!
By the way this site is excellent and informative...I just listed you in my nbeighborhood newsletter that goes to about 800 homes in my area. Thanks for doing this!!

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