Great Barrington — A Marshall’s store going into the current Kmart location in Barrington Plaza as early as fall 2017 may attract as many as two more chain stores in the former Kmart complex that had included retail and garden center operations.
Chris Ciminiello, Associate Director of Development for Plaza owner KIMCO Realty, came to the Planning Board last night (November 9) as part of the special permit process, and presented the company’s plans to divide the current Kmart building into as many as three stores.
The board voted unanimously to give a positive recommendation for KIMCO’s November 28 special permit hearing before the Selectboard, with more discussions to be had over landscaping and lighting at the Planning Board’s upcoming site plan review.
The Kmart building in the Barrington Plaza. The proposed Marshall’s store would occupy the area to the right of the Kmart insignia. Photo: David Scribner
KIMCO has a lease signed with Marshall’s for about 24,000 square feet of the building, nearest Olympia Sports, due Kmart’s financial struggles, and those of its parent company Sears. But that leaves around 28,000 square feet in the rest of the building that KIMCO hopes will be filled by at least one more retailer.
KIMCO, which bought the Plaza in 1994, plans to renovate and freshen up the façade not only to Marshall’s specifications, but also in a way that will allow for the two possible options. But Marshall’s, a TJX company, will be built first no matter what, and Ciminiello says his company is confident the popular discount store will attract at least one more big store.
Getting Marshall’s to sign a lease took some time, Ciminiello said. “We were only able to find one tenant. Marshall’s is a great tenant to have…it serves all our shopping centers very well, it generates traffic.”
He and KIMCO architect Scott Rodenbaugh of Vocon.:Strategy Design Architecture said there will be no more of this 1970s and 80s shingle look presently donned by Kmart, whose lease ends January 31, 2017.
Rodenbaugh said he did a bit of research around town to get a feel for what materials and palette would fit into the Great Barrington aesthetic. He’ll be using “natural” looking materials, “stone veneers, earth tones, browns —hearty materials that will retain their look.”
From left, Chris Ciminiello of KIMCO Realty, owner of Barrington Plaza on Stockbridge Road; KIMCO attorney Nicholas Arienti; and Planning Board members Pedro Pachano and Jeremy Higa. Photo: Heather Bellow
Rodenbaugh said Marshall’s has a “standard prototype” for its look, but is allowing KIMCO to “do something a little nicer than the usual Marshall’s,” though there are some colors, like the blues, that Marshall’s always insists upon.
“We had to meet Marshall’s in the middle,” Ciminiello said, adding that the retailer chose the inside corner space because it didn’t like the shape of the other space on the northern side.
Board Chair Brandee Nelson said the Plaza was a “mish mash of styles.” Nelson’s greater concern was what might happen if the Marshall’s goes in, and the rest of the building is one long façade, possibly derelict after the existing façade was removed, with no activity.
Ciminiello said KIMCO was asking for “flexibility” in construction for possible retailers next to Marshall’s, and to allow the board to decide how much intervening time it will let go by. In the end, the board decided that January 2019 was the upper limit, “the worst case scenario,” Ciminiello said, since Marshall’s won’t likely open until fall 2017.
Herein lies the risk to all, and KIMCO attorney Nicholas Arienti spelled it out. “Marshall’s could break the lease if it isn’t done this way,” he said.
Nelson was insistent. “We just want to know what it will look like after Marshall’s opens” without other tenants next door.
Ciminiello said the façade would be finished with either one, or two “pop-out” entrances for new retailers, and Arienti explained that permitting it now allows KIMCO to avoid coming back to the town every time a new tenant wants to lease those spaces.
After a bit of hand-wringing among board members about the risk of having an empty 24,000 square foot space next to Marshall’s, Town Planner Chris Rembold jumped in. “If you don’t want the option with just the blank façade, then don’t let them do it,” he told the board.
By the end Ciminiello and Arienti conceded this was a real threat and told the board KIMCO would build one of the two options — one or two extra storefronts — with or without tenant commitments.
“KIMCO is willing to take the risk,” Ciminiello said. “And do it within a specified time.”
Then it was on to signage. KIMCO is asking for a Marshall’s sign that is slightly larger sign than is permitted, given the surface area on the storefront. But no one was particularly worried.
“It’s certainly not going to be offensive to anyone driving down Route 7,” said board member Jonathan Hankin, grinning. “And once you’re in the parking lot, the whole thing is offensive.”
Jokes aside, it perturbed Nelson that KIMCO and Marshall’s weren’t going to do anything else to fix the place up, particularly in the parking area, which she said was “sad.”
“I struggle,” Nelson said. “Some significant site improvements like landscaping could be made with very little investment.”
Most board members said they also would like to see better lighting.
Ciminiello explained that just like for everyone else, the budget is “tight.”
“I’m not sure we should hold them up over landscaping,” said board member Jeremy Higa.
Then Hankin wondered about the January 2019 deadline to get one or two more tenants in next to Marshall’s. “What if it’s not done in two years,” he said. “What is the remedy.”
“Let the Selectboard hash that out,” Rembold said.
And Rembold reminded everyone, perhaps to comfort them, that this isn’t the first time a strip mall has been upgraded around here. “Ames became Staples, Big Y got bigger, Petco…”
“You’ve seen this happen before.”