FRAMINGHAM MALL
Cochituate Road and Whittier Street
Framingham, Massachusetts
A third GOLDEN TRIANGLE mini-mall was developed by Framingham Arbor, Incorporated and built on a 14.2-acre site, at the intersection of Cochituate Road (State Route 30) and Whittier Street. The tentative name of the nineteen-store complex was WHITTIER MALL. However, by the time of its February 1979 completion, the official name of the shopping hub had morphed into FRAMINGHAM MALL.
The single-level shopping venue was comprised of around 162,400 leasable square feet. Its original anchors were a 1-level (63,400 square foot), Woburn, Massachusetts-based Lechmere ["leech-meer"] and 1-level (33,400 square foot), Burlington, Massachusetts-based Filene's Basement.
Charter inline stores included Fanny Farmer Candies, B. Dalton Bookseller, Dimensions In Fashions, Frederick's of Hollywood, Tobacco Shack, Popcorn Records, Baldwin Piano & Organ and a New England Telephone Phone Center Store.
Other community-class retail centers in the vicinity included ROUTE 30 MALL (1971) {.25 mile southwest, in Framingham} and NATICK TOWNE MALL (1979) {.82 mile east, in Natick}. FRAMINGHAM MALL did well until the redevelopment of the adjacent SHOPPERS' WORLD and NATICK MALL complexes, in the mid-1990s. The shuttering of the FRAMINGHAM MALL Lechmere, in November 1997, was the beginning of the end.
To counter the mall's decline, a face lift renovation was done in 1998, but was too little and too late. Moreover, a deal to sign Home Depot-owned, Expo Design Center as a new tenant for the vacant Lechmere space fell through.
The mini-mall was sold to the Minnesota-based Dayton Hudson (Target) Corporation in August 1999. The new owners razed the mall in mid-2000, leaving only its Filene's Basement structure standing. This store had closed earlier in the year. It was renovated into a Framingham-based HomeGoods, which opened August 13, 2000.
The remainder of the site was taken by a 1-level (143,000 square foot) Target Grand and three smaller inline stores. Target held its grand opening on October 14, 2001. The adjoining, 173,600 square foot shopping center was fully-leased by 2004.
Sources:
The Boston Globe
Framingham Natick Retail / Justin Tardiff webmaster
Town of Framingham, Massachusetts online database
"Home Goods", "Lechmere" and "Filene's Basement articles on Wikipedia
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