By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
Developers want to replace a vacant shopping mall in Fall River near the Rhode Island border and a proposed new casino with a $50 million shopping center with 25-30 stores and a movie theater employing up to 1,000 people.
CEA Group principal Steve Cohen and Ron Golub, principal of The Stonewood Companies said Tuesday they would redevelop the 350,000 square foot New Harbour Mall, which has been largely vacant since an anchor WalMart store moved out in 2013. A Kmart store remains as the lone anchor, and few stores populate the mall interior, where the city’s lone movie theater was shuttered in 2007.
“One of the key elements will be eliminating the indoor mall,” said Cohen. “It’s simply not what shoppers want nowadays, it’s not what retailers want nowadays. So, the whole concept is going to be different.”
Cohen said he is in talks with 25 to 30 retailers, refusing to identify any of them. There had been speculation that a supermarket would move into the vacant mall. He dismissed suggestions that deed restrictions would not allow for a supermarket on the property, which includes a free-standing Staples Office Supply store and a bank. A nearby Burger King restaurant is adjacent to, but not part of the mall property.
Cohen and Golub said they had been planning the South Coast Plaza development since WalMart vacated the mall, and that recent plans by Twin River Group to relocate the Newport Grand Casino to property right over the state line in Tiverton, Rhode Island was never a factor in their plans.
“Whether the Twin River project happens or doesn’t would never make, or not make this project,” said Golub. “It would be great to have them, but it was never part of our original formulation as a generator.”
Cohen said construction of the shopping plaza could begin in mid-2016, employing up to 700 construction workers. Work could be finished by mid-2017.
City officials said that, subject to local approval, Fall River would extend Tax Increment Financing, but no financial backing to the project.
“This, along with the Amazon project is the second major development for Fall River this fall,” said Mayor Sam Sutter, The online retail giant recently broke ground for a distribution and fulfillment center in an industrial park on the Fall River – Freetown line.
“Both followed the same formula. We identified a major asset that hadn’t reached its full potential, and brought folks together from the public and private sectors, who could help us implement a vision for improvement,” said Sutter.
