Retail

SALEM, N.H. — Chestnut Hill, Mass.-based WS Development has begun the redevelopment of Stateline Shopping Center, a 230,000-square-foot retail property located in Salem. The primary focus of the project will be the construction of a new anchor location for Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse. The retailer’s new building will contain 102,000 square feet as well as a 29,000-square-foot outdoor garden center. It is expected to open in the fourth quarter of 2010. Other components of the shopping center redevelopment will include architectural updates to existing buildings, stormwater drainage improvement and roadway improvements on the center’s Route 28 frontage. Current tenants Namco and Sovereign Bank will remain open during construction.

GLASSBORO, N.J. — Construction is underway on Glassboro’s new, $300 million Rowan Boulevard retail corridor. The Rowan Boulevard project is the heart of a downtown revitalization, which is forming a new 26-acre, 100-foot wide corridor stretching a third of a mile from the foot of the Rowan University campus to the center of downtown. The new boulevard will feature broad tree-lined sidewalks, dozens of stores, restaurants featuring café-style sidewalk dining, residential condos and town homes, a new student housing campus, a hotel-conference center, pedestrian plazas and a town square. The new corridor will feature several mixed-use buildings that will offer 185,000 square feet of retail space, 307,000 square feet of residential space and 40,000 square feet of office space. The project will also include a 107-room Holiday Inn Express & Suites hotel/conference center, with an adjacent 5,000-square-foot restaurant. Construction is set to begin in July on a 36,000-square-foot Barnes & Noble self-standing bookstore, complete with a Starbucks Café. The first phase of a new apartment-style housing complex for 884 Rowan University students is slated for completion in September, and site work for the second phase is already underway. Completion of the entire project is set for 2012. The project is …

BURLINGTON, MASS. — Burlington, Mass.-based retailer Filene’s Basement has been purchased at a bankruptcy auction by K&G Acquisition Corp., an affiliate of retailer Men’s Wearhouse, for $67 million. K&G will acquire 17 of the retailer’s 20 store leases; inventory from all 25 existing Filene’s Basement locations; the leases for the company’s Burlington headquarters and Auburn, Mass., distribution center; and the Filene’s Basement trade name. The purchase price also includes approximately $5 million for potential litigation associated with the retailer’s lease at Downtown Crossing, a currently inactive redevelopment project located in Boston. Stores that were not acquired as part of the auction are expected to be closed by mid-June.

PELHAM MANOR, N.Y., AND WOODBRIDGE, N.J. — Renovations continue at two shopping centers located in New York and New Jersey. Post Road Plaza is a 268,000-square-foot center located in Pelham Manor. Renovations at the property include the gutting and redesign of existing buildings; the replacement of windows, façades and storefronts; new signage, lighting, paving and landscaping; and the reconfiguration of the shopping center’s second floor. At the beginning of construction, Fairway Market signed a new 75,000-square-foot lease for an anchor space at the property. In addition, current tenants Modell’s, Dress Barn and AJ Wright are using the renovation as an opportunity to renovate and expand their existing stores. St. Georges Crossing is a 317,471-square-foot shopping center located in Woodbridge. Construction here primarily consists of the repositioning of a freestanding building that had previously been occupied by a movie theater. The Shannon Rose signed a lease for the majority of the structure, but the rest is being renovated and marketed for additional tenants. A new landscaping plan is also being developed. Previous renovations at St. Georges Crossing included the repositioning of the two-story space previously occupied by Caldor. Both shopping centers are managed and leased by Levin Management.