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NORTH ATTLEBORO -- On a quiet night in early August of 1989, a section of Route 1 near Interstate 295 in North Attleboro glowed brighter than at any time in the past. Women decked out in fancy dresses and high heels and men in suits, including rented tuxedos, entered the largest structure ever built in the Attleboro area — Emerald Square, a three-story, 150-store shopping mall with 1 million square feet of retail space — for a private preview party. A path of yellow mums lined the mall’s five entrances, simulating the path to Emerald City from “The Wizard of Oz.

” The film classic was celebrating its 50th anniversary that summer with a traveling show of entertainers, and Emerald Square’s owners arranged for performances to align with the theme of the mall’s opening: “There’s no place like Emerald Square.” The 2,500 invited guests browsed the mall — it was still partially under construction — enjoying hors d’oeuvres and Oz performances. Many joked, “I don’t think we’re in North Attleboro anymore.



” The next day, Thursday, Aug. 10, 1989, at 10:12 a.m.

, representatives from the two developers, New England Development of Newton and the Pyramid Companies of Syracuse, N.Y., along with state and town officials, used gold scissors to cut the ribbon on the most anticipated retail opening in southern New England history.

The area had long been a “retail desert,” with the nearest full-sized mall at least a half hour’s drive away. Now, North Attleboro was home to one of New England’s largest malls. Before the weekend was over, more than 300,000 shoppers crowded Emerald Square, causing a traffic nightmare.

Twice, the mall’s parking lot had to be closed because all 4,700 spaces were occupied. “I’ve been waiting for this for years,” one shopper told The Sun Chronicle. “I just had to come see.

” Thirty-five years after the gold scissors were used to cut the ribbon, shoppers cannot make a right turn into Emerald Square’s parking lot, the result of repair work that has stagnated for months. A sewage pumping station built for the mall frequently fails and may be taken over by the town. Emerald Square was one of the first three-level malls and its escalators filled with shoppers became an iconic symbol of the bustling business the retail center generated.

Today, four of the eight escalators — three on the southern end and one on the northern end — are not functioning and blocked off. The first floor still largely consists of stores, well-known chains such as H&M and Foot Locker. But there are not many retailers on the second and third floors, replaced by such non-traditional tenants as a dental office, a collectibles store, an eyebrow threading spa as well as the National Black Doll Museum, formerly located in Mansfield.

Christmas Is For Kids operated its annual holiday gift drive from a third-floor storefront last year. Vacant storefronts abound, and town officials estimate occupancy at about 60 to 70 percent. One of the four anchor stores, Sears — once the nation’s largest retailer — is out of business, and there are no plans to fill the space once used to sell everything from clothing to lawnmowers to refrigerators.

Instead, the structure may be torn down and replaced by housing. The vast southern parking lot has weeds poking through cracks in the pavement, and vehicles are blocked from using it. Instead, the mall generates revenue by renting the lot out for RV sales, carnivals and circuses, and even a drive-in drag queen show.

In 2020, Emerald Square was placed in receivership, and two years later, was purchased by Kohan Retail Investment Group. The mall’s owners and management could not be reached for comment. Still, town officials are optimistic about the future of Emerald Square, or at least for the site it now occupies.

They envision a “mixed-use” site with less retail but a wider variety of stores, a supermarket, restaurants and, especially, housing. There could even be light manufacturing. “Clearly, it’s not going to be the thing it started out to be,” North Attleboro Town Manager Michael Borg said.

“It needs to change.” Asked what Emerald Square will look like in the future, North Attleboro Town Council President Justin Pare said, “I envision a thriving property that is growing in value and will look and feel vastly different from what is there today.” A shift on shopping Southdale Shopping Center, located in the Twin Cities suburb of Edina, Minn.

, was the first totally enclosed shopping center in the nation. In 1952, its developers, the Dayton family, long-established Minneapolis department store merchants, commissioned the architectural firm Victor Gruen & Associates to create a new form designed to reflect and serve changing patterns of suburban living. The master plan combined elements of the village green of European city centers, with elegant arcades and gallerias, in a temperature-controlled enclosure.

When Southdale opened in 1956, it included 72 stores and was anchored by two major department stores, all arranged in a two-level design around a brightly lighted center court. It offered free parking, and its 5,000 parking spaces were grouped into lots, well marked by clever symbols to aid in locating one’s car in the sea of automobiles. Not only did Southdale Shopping Center fulfill the vision of its creators as a center of commerce and of social life for suburban residents, it also fueled suburban growth and became a much-imitated model.

By the mid-1980s, there were approximately 2,500 malls in the United States. Today, about 700 indoor malls remain, and experts say the number will continue to decline. Ten years from now, there will be approximately 150 malls left in the United States, Nick Egelanian, president of retail consulting firm SiteWorks, told the Wall Street Journal.

According to Egelanian, the malls that will weather the storm will be premium locations with entertainment, dining and luxury stores. A longtime fixture of American culture, shopping malls have suffered for decades amid a rise in online shopping, a decline in visitors to department stores and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic, which fostered the idea that shoppers didn’t need to leave home to buy. Malls have also fallen out of favor as social centers.

Teens no longer hang out at the mall, and fewer shoppers simply browse as they once did. That’s apparent at Emerald Square. On a recent sunny weekday morning, a number of the people at the mall were seniors getting in a walk while avoiding the heat.

Most stores were empty or nearly so, with just one lone employee inside. “It’s always like this,” said Lynn Olsen, one of those senior walkers. The decline at Emerald Square can’t be blamed on the mall owners or the town, said Jack Lank, president of the United Regional Chamber of Commerce.

“I don’t think there is much more the town or the mall could have done between the growth and convenience of online shopping and the pandemic,” he said. “Both have severely affected this mall and retail shopping across the country. We are witnessing more and more retail shopping malls shifting their focus to housing (and) medical and professional office spaces.

” Revival plans Town officials see themselves as facilitators in the revival of Emerald Square. They hope to gather would-be developers around a meeting table to map out the future of the site. “What I like about the town’s efforts are that they are flexible enough to accommodate for the unknown,” said Pare, the town council president.

“What I mean is, we can’t predict exactly what the future is going to hold for the property, but we can set up a structure through mixed-use bylaws and new zoning, and upgrades to the wastewater infrastructure that will support the next generation of uses for this vital property. We are collaborating with state and federal officials, along with mall owners, to address this.” Borg, the town manager, sees great potential for a mixed-use development at the location, just as the first mall developers saw the promise of a giant retail center there.

“The mall sits on a key piece of real estate, right off 295 and close to 95,” he said. “And we’re in a great spot between Providence and Boston. There is a huge opportunity there.

” Town officials have had discussions with a housing developer to construct over 200 apartments at the Sears site. The hope is that the units will be appropriately priced for the local market, which would serve the dual purpose of reducing the shortage of affordable housing now available. While there is more than enough parking, Borg said a sewage pumping station owned by the mall and serving nearby stores and homes is in desperate need of repair.

He is negotiating with the mall for the town to take over ownership of the station and, with federal and state assistance, get the repairs needed to accommodate an increase in housing. “This needs to be done, and it needs to be done without an increase to existing ratepayers,” he said. Town officials have also met with other developers for a variety of uses.

They have even had discussions with Tesla about putting a supercharging facility at the site, capable of recharging a vehicle in 20 minutes. “It would just be a quick stop off the highway,” Borg said, adding that putting a Starbucks or other coffee shop nearby would be ideal. The town has a lot at stake.

Despite its decline, Emerald Square still generates nearly $1 million a year in tax revenue. If the mall were to close, that burden would be shifted to other taxpayers, something town officials desperately want to avoid. “In the event of the mall’s closure, this would shift the tax burden onto other property owners,” Pare said.

“We are dedicated to ensuring its viability to maintain a balanced tax structure.”.

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