Commercial real estate development firm Irgens this week disclosed its redevelopment plans for the 16-acre former Boston Store site at Brookfield Square mall.
The firm seems to be sticking closely to a vision for the site that its CEO Mark Irgens first shared last November during BizTimes Media’s Commercial Real Estate and Development Conference last fall.
“That (site) is 16 acres, and we’ll have a mixed-use development on that location, consisting of office, perhaps medical office, and other complementary commercial uses,” he said, in November.
That focus on office space is clear in conceptual plans for the site that were shared by the firm with the news media this week. Those plans call for razing the former department store and using that land, along with a sizable chunk of its surrounding parking lots to construct between five and six buildings.
Those buildings include a parking structure with attached restaurant and a three-story medical office building that would be constructed roughly where the 200,000-square-foot Boston Store building now sits; a six-story, 165,000-square-foot office building that would be situated to the north of the parking structure and a smaller office building, and a site just to the east of the larger office building that could be the location of a five-story hotel.
The preliminary plans also envision an outlot for a smaller, single-story office or retail building east of the main development, as well as the potential for a five-story apartment building to the immediate east of the parking structure. Tom Irgens, executive vice president for Irgens Partners, LLC, emphasized on Wednesday, however, that multi-family isn’t something the company is actively pursuing at the site.
“I would say (the multi-family building) is the least defined,” Tom Irgens said. “Really what we have here is just one concept. It is very flexible at this time … We are very confident in corporate and medical office on the site, as well as the amenity green space that would help draw people into the mall.”
The site’s location – at the busy commercial intersection of Moorland and West Bluemound roads – makes it a perfect spot for an office development, Tom Irgens added, as does its close proximity to the mall with its many restaurants, and the Brookfield Conference Center.
“This site is uniquely positioned, right off an I-94 interchange with great visibility and great branding opportunities,” Irgens said, adding that demand for office space space in the area is strong.
He noted that the company had turn away some potential tenants interested in leasing space at its recently completed Brookfield office building, the 186,000-square-foot, six-story Golf Parkway Corporate Center, because there wasn’t enough space left there. The building is located in The Corridor mixed-use development, which is situated between I-94 and West Blue Mound Road, just west of Calhoun Road.
Interest is strongest for the medical office space, Tom Irgens said.
“We are most confident in the medical office building, we have received a number of inquiries,” he said.
No matter what the final plans for the site end up being, Steve Palec, chief marketing officer for Irgens, said interest in the property overall is “off the charts.”
“We have gotten so many calls about this,” Palec said. “We bought 16 acres at what we think is arguably the best intersection in the state – to have 16 acres on a corner like that … near the interstate is just phenomenal.”
The Boston Store at Brookfield Square closed in 2018 when parent company The Bon-Ton Stores Inc. went out of business and all of its stores closed.
