Two sides of the Cape Cod Canal
by Plmyouth County Business StaffLocation, location, location – that oft-repeated mantra was never truer than on the shores of the Cape Cod Canal.
Consider the fate of two commercial projects within miles of each other, but separated by the canal. One is hung up by years of costly regulatory actions that have forced repeated revisions and downsizing. The other has been able to open large anchor stores within a year of groundbreaking – after a relatively rapid-fire planning and review process.
On the Cape Cod side in Bourne is CanalSide Commons, once planned as a $100,000 million mixed-use development including retail, but now reduced in scope and expected to become the site of about 300 Chapter 40B residential units and some shopping.
On the Plymouth side is the 75-acre, 675,000 square-foot Wareham Crossing – adjacent to Route 28 at the intersection of Route 195 and Route 495 and home to Target, Best Buy, Petco, Michael’s, Lowe’s, American Eagle, Linens n’ Things, Ann Taylor, among others.
Many on Cape Cod would argue that major commercial development is more appropriate for Wareham, lest the Cape’s distinctive quality of life be jeopardized. Let the traffic and infrastructure costs be absorbed in Plymouth County, they say.
At the same time, municipalities on the Cape and throughout the state are feeling growing financial pressure due in part to an overreliance on residential property taxes. It is becoming increasingly necessary to attract clean retail and commercial development to expand and diversify the tax base.
Wareham now can expect about $1 million in annual tax revenues along with about 1,200 jobs, according to a spokesman for the new shopping plaza.
In contrast, Bourne can expect the arrival of 300 new homes on land once planned for a far more mixed-use development. The housing could actually put more pressure on the infrastructure, particularly the schools – without the benefit of offsetting retail and commercial activity.
At the same time, Cape Codders who might have frequented CanalSide Commons will be lured over the canal not only to Wareham Crossing, but also to the Village Green at Pinehills and up Route 3 to the Shops at Five and Colony Place in Plymouth. That transfers retail sales dollars from Barnstable County to Plymouth County.
Besides Cape Cod, Wareham Crossing should attract shoppers from Plymouth, Marion, Mattapoisett, Middleborough and Rochester.
Some three years ago, Wareham Crossing developer W/S Development-SR Weiner & Associates of Chestnut Hill bought the former NStar office building in West Wareham and added contiguous parcels, totaling 75 acres.
“What we [saw] was the ability to draw towns along [Route] 195. A lot of towns don’t have access to a first-class shopping center. The confluence of [routes] 25, 495 and 195 is such a hub,” said Louis Masiello, who headed the design and permitting process for W/S-Weiner’s project.
The complex has a design that “blends a traditional shopping center with a portion that has an intimate atmosphere, where stores are turned into one another so that they resemble a more traditional village shopping center,” said David Fleming, W/S-Weiner’s director of corporate marketing. This design was developed through extensive negotiations with the Wareham planning board to minimize the big-box look.
Despite the predominance of the big nationals, an effort was made to slot in local businesses as well. “We’re being very thoughtful of our tenant mix to not overrepresent any merchant category,” said Masiello. “We try to create a mix of stores that will hit every consumer. With a project of this size, we really do feel we can achieve something for everybody.”
The project should somewhat alter the employment profile of the area. “The retail asset class is very unique in its employment profile. It tends to create jobs for those who may not be otherwise employed, like retirees, college students, non-bread-winning spouses who want to supplement their income,” said Masiello.
The Wareham planning board required W/S-Weiner to take a hard look at what Wareham Crossing will mean to the town. It hired a UMass planner to perform an objective fiscal analysis. In addition to $1 million in new revenue after the first year, Masiello noted there will be more than $2 million in traffic improvements to create access and traffic flow around the site.
A stretch of Route 28 is being upgraded. “It’s our front door, but it’s also many residents’ primary means to get around town,” said Masiello. Turn lanes are being added and four new traffic lights installed on Route 28. Local roads on the other three sides of the project will get improvements but not traffic signals.
Wareham Crossing is akin to another W/S-Wiener development, Derby Street Shops in Duxbury. Both are called life centers – open-air plazas with restaurants, streetscapes and high-end specialty stores. It’s much the same philosophy as Colony Place, developed by the Saxon Partners.
Published in Plymouth County Business January 2008
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