Jan 22, 2011

A retail revival in eastern MassachusettsBy Steve AdamsEnterpriseNews.com

Pembroke, MA – Retail vacancy rates are falling across eastern Massachusetts and boosting prospects for new shopping plazas planned for towns such as Pembroke and Sharon.

Retail vacancies in the region peaked at 9.8 percent last March but have since fallen below 9 percent, said Robert Sheehan, director of research for KeyPoint Partners, a commercial real estate company in Burlington.

“That’s a pretty dramatic drop and a lot of that is because the vacant (big) boxes have been absorbed, which eats up the vacant square-footage in a hurry,” Sheehan said.

Patriot Place in Foxboro has the region’s highest vacancy rate at 19 percent, according to KeyPoint Partners research. Vacancies include a former Circuit City space and a group of storefronts that have not been filled since the shopping center opened in 2007. In contrast, Hingham’s Derby Street Shoppes currently has no vacant storefronts following the December opening of the Athenaeum skateboard shop.

Construction of major retail malls came to a virtual halt in most places following the economic meltdown in 2008, but remained active south of Boston. Dedham’s Legacy Place was one of just two regional shopping centers to open in the U.S. in 2009, while Braintree’s South Shore Plaza added a new 241,000-square-foot wing anchored by a Nordstrom department store in 2010 and continues to fill it with tenants.

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