People have been asking about recent construction activity about the Zombie Mall. Yes, the New York City-based RD Management is putting some money into the property and has landed two new tenants. Who are they?
According to this document, Planet Fitness and Big Lots are moving in.
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Oh boy! A gym and a downmarket discounter! Hooray, hooray! Billerica Center is on the comeback trail!
Er, I don’t know if either of these two tenants helps anyone. We already have our share of gyms in town, including the nearby, still-new Fit Results, which is a clever re-use of a building a few steps away from the end of Tower Farm Road.
And the Big Lots does make you scratch your head, doesn’t it? What do you suppose KMart and the Dollar Tree think about a fellow tenant in the Zombie stealing their Billerica downmarket discount dry goods market share? If you have some cheap junk to buy, which of these three stores would you choose? You can throw Burlington Coat Factory on that pile, too, which has a little merchandise overlap as well.
And doesn’t it make you wonder, that if all of these stores can survive in the same mall, that WalMart — the downest of all downmarket discounters — is keeping a close watch on this market? How close might they be to making a play for a property in the area?
This, folks, is what worries me. The stores you attract is a reflection of what you are as a town, like looking in the mirror. And junk begets junk. Just look at Route 1 in Suagus. Or to a lesser degree, Route 38 in Wilmington. This is the direction our historic town center is going, and it will keep going that way unless we take control.
We better hurry.
