From the Boston Globe:
Twelve years ago, some said that luring shoppers to a hardscrabble part of Boston would be a battle. But the retail center is not only thriving, it’s expanding.
By Susan Diesenhouse, Globe Correspondent
In 1993, as South Bay Center rose in Boston’s old Newmarket industrial district, some doubted it could succeed. The shopping center, anchored by the first chain supermarket to open in central Boston in at least 20 years, would have to contend with high urban operating costs, heavy traffic, and the challenge of luring shoppers to a hardscrabble part of the city.
But South Bay has stood the test of time. Not only is it thriving, it’s expanding.
This week, on an adjacent tract on Massachusetts Avenue, construction got underway on a $40 million, 109,000-square-foot expansion of the 450,000-square-foot shopping center, which was originally developed for about $60 million. Four new buildings will showcase an expanded supermarket, among other things, signaling the financial viability of the location and the ongoing transformation of the district from old industrial to modern mixed-use.
