Arsenal Yards: From cannon factory to mall to mixed-use

As far back as 2013, Thomas Wilder saw tremendous opportunity in the run-down Arsenal Mall, just outside Boston, in Watertown’s East End. “We saw this center with a great location and great bones,” said Wilder, founder of the Boston-based Wilder Cos., a real estate development, management and leasing firm specializing in the repositioning of retail properties. “What an amazing opportunity to create a neighborhood: utilizing the historic buildings and building on that.”

Andrew LaGrega saw lots of potential there too. “The original mall was perceived as this small regional center with a small regional draw, and it suffered as a result,” said LaGrega, a Wilder founding principal who heads the firm’s leasing. “But as we looked at it, the demographics were amazing because we really were now on the urban edge of Boston and Cambridge, and then Watertown has been going through a growth spurt.”

In partnership with Boston-based Boylston Properties, Wilder has been redeveloping the old mall site as Arsenal Yards, a $400 million mixed-use neighborhood along the Charles River. The development will comprise 250,000 square feet of retail, a 150-room Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton hotel and 300 apartments.

As far as Wilder is concerned, mixed-use was the only solution for this site. “We think about two things when building great neighborhoods,” LaGrega said. “We think about relevance, and we think about vibrancy.” This perspective informed the retail leasing team’s merchandising strategy. The team studied the area’s demographics to determine the true trade area and measured the customer visits to strong neighboring retailers.
Focus groups gathered additional local consumer insights. The team then opted for boutique concepts plus a mix of personal-services providers and a curated food-and-beverage program. At the top of the prospective tenant list was a grocery store, and nearly every major supermarket chain brought a proposal for a large store. “As much as we had interest from the big guys, we thought we would really want something that was much more unique and fit the neighborhood,” said LaGrega. The company chose local chain Roche Bros., which has 22 stores and is celebrated locally for outstanding customer service. The movie theater, too, will be on the smaller side, comparatively speaking: a seven-screen venue from Majestic Cinemas. “We didn’t want to overwhelm the project with any one major tenant that would eat it up like a big theater or health club,” said LaGrega.

About 20 percent of the project’s retail space is devoted to food-and-beverage. “We have over 30 other centers,” said LaGrega, “and we had done a lot of the national tenants and the chain restaurants, and we said, ‘Here, we want this to be different and special.’ We have specialty restaurants that are chef-driven and are much smaller, with 2,500 to 3,500 square feet. They are not overwhelming.”

Two of the Arsenal Yards buildings date back to the mid-1860s, part of a plant that assembled cannons and, later, tanks and trucks. Wilder worked with Cambridge, Mass.–based architecture firm Prellwitz Chilinski Associates on the new uses there. One of the restaurants, the 8,500-square-foot City Works, will boast a 47-foot-high ceiling and will feature exposed steel beams and brick as well as polished concrete.

Green space has been an essential part of Arsenal Yards’ design too. “In our other shopping centers, we are trying to increase our green space and play areas for families and kids,” said Wilder. “Here, we have the city’s 16-acre park, which is part and parcel to our development and including the access to the Charles River.”

Working with the city of Watertown was important. As part of a three-year comprehensive plan, the city knew it needed to boost its tax base, but officials also wanted to preserve the neighborhoods. “They designated our area as the commercial zone, and so we actually worked with them hand in hand to develop the criteria for that zone,” said Wilder. “They didn’t want just another shopping center and we didn’t want to do just another shopping center, so it started out on the right foot that we all had a kind of agreement in terms of the direction.”

To celebrate the project’s place in the community, Wilder’s marketing team named main thoroughfare Eldridge Avenue after Abby Eldridge, a Civil War–era advocate for better wages, treatment and workplace conditions for women. It also named Bond Street after William Bond, considered one of the founders of Watertown.