Watertown, Massachusetts Boasts Two Unique Malls

West of Boston is a suburb that boasts two malls, right across the street from each other and within easy walking distance, proving that small malls are not the way of the dinosaur.

While many of us have seen new lifestyle centers are anchored by non-traditional type stores, here in Watertown on Arsenal Street these same stores are in the comfort of one-level climate controlled shopping malls.

While the Watertown Mall is a typical small shopping mall, the Arsenal Mall is a historic building which used to house a Civil-War era arsenal complex and as a result has a lot of unique features.

According to the Labelscar Web site, in October 1975, the 250,000 square foot L-shaped Watertown Mall opened and was anchored by a Bradlees Department Store and a Stop and Shop Supermarket.

Stop and Shop was soon converted into an Omni Foods before closing completely in 1999.

In 2000, Omni Foods was replaced by a Best Buy, which features both a mall entrance and an outside entrance into the parking lot.

Bradlees, the mall's other anchor, closed in 2001 after the discount chain closed permanently.

While this created serious problems for small enclosed centers throughout the northeast, this did not happen at Watertown Mall.

In 2002, the space was filled by Target Department Stores, which also has an entrance into the mall and outside.

The mall space between the two anchors has been kept alive by customers wishing to go between the two anchor stores without having to walk outside or drive around the small mall.

According to the Boston Globe, the future of the mall will include less space for small retail as Target seeks to expand its store into the mall itself.

This might not be too problematic since there are several empty storefronts in the mall and the Target expansion could possibly decrease that amount.

The article cited that commission members cited the importance of Target to maintain its mall entrance to avoid having shoppers walk all the way around.