Mansfield Marketplace, a 24,000 s/f high-end lifestyle center located on School St. directly across from the 380,000 s/f Mansfield Crossing lifestyle center, is estimated to be construction complete in the early summer of 2009. The developer, Hecht Development, assembled four parcels and managed an extensive permitting process in order to create a center that has synergy with neighboring Mansfield Crossing. When combined these two centers offer a critical mass of high quality retail development measuring 404,000 s/f.
Mansfield Marketplace is 50% pre-leased to AT&T, Chipotle and Sleepy's with a large number of other tenants undergoing lease negotiation. The center benefits from the proximity of tenants at Mansfield Crossing including LL Bean, Best Buy, Kohl's, Borders, Sports Authority, Michael's, Petco, Bertucci's, Friday's, American Eagle, Ann Taylor Loft, Coldwater Creek, Chico's, Papa Gino's, TD Bank, GNC, Jos A. Banks, Qdoba and Cold Stone Creamery.
Tenants at Mansfield Marketplace will have tremendous visibility as the development is located at the major traffic signal on School St. with projected traffic counts of 29,000 vehicles per day. This visibility is further enhanced as the center boasts two large aesthetically pleasing pylon signs. The center will be very customer friendly with 15 ft. wide streetscapes bordering all of the tenant spaces where outdoor seating, umbrellas, benches and landscape elements will create an inviting environment for customers.
The design and permitting team of Bohler Engineering, Jacobs Carter Burgess, and Greenman-Pedersen, Inc. created an outstanding design and a series of presentations which garnered unanimous support from the various boards in Mansfield and obtained the special permitting necessary to allow retail development on the site. Bohler Engineering solved a series of complex site-related problems throughout the process while Jacobs Carter Burgess did an excellent job of developing a master planned concept to match the Mansfield Crossing property. Greenman-Pedersen, Inc., the traffic engineers on the project, overcame a number of difficult traffic engineering issues in order to gain the votes needed for the project.
The construction for the project was delayed a number of months so that an historic dig could be completed. This dig was performed by the Mass. Historical Society due to the discovery of two historical industrial artifacts: a cracker factory and a mince meat factory from mid 19th century. During the dig, major portions of the buried factories were excavated and photographed. The underground structures were then reburied. Photo albums of the site, the dig and the history of the site will be given to the Mansfield Public Library, the Boston Public Library and the Boston University Library. A seminar on the history of the site is planned for the Mansfield Public Library during 2009 to benefit the citizens of the Town of Mansfield.
"Even in this challenging market, tenant demand and leasing has been excellent at Mansfield Marketplace due to its outstanding location in the middle of over 400,000 s/f of top notch retail development and its high quality design," said Ken Hecht of Hecht Development, the developer, owner and manager of the project. "Leasing activity has been consistently strong for the project since the conceptual stage and has remained strong throughout construction," said Andrew Bonica of Paramount Partners, the exclusive leasing agent for the project.
Mansfield Marketplace is scheduled to open with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the early summer of 2009.