Town and area officials have been studying the future of the Enfield Square Mall, and will share results of a traffic impact study based on redevelopment scenarios at a public meeting this week.
The 787,000-square-foot shopping center is owned by Namdar Realty Group, which will ultimately determine the future of the underutilized property.
Officials from Enfield and the Capitol Region Council of Governments have coordinated with the property owner to study any area traffic impacts from potential redevelopment.
Nelson Tereso, Enfield’s deputy director of economic and community development, said the traffic study includes the mall site and 15 surrounding intersections that will be evaluated and assessed.
“This project is not about dictating or even suggesting what future redevelopment of the mall could look like, which would be proposed by the developer,” said Caitlin Palmer, a senior community development planner with CRCOG. “Instead, this project identifies what the traffic impacts would be on surrounding roadways, which are under town and state control, if the mall were to be redeveloped.”
In Nov. 2021, owners sold a 136,000-square-foot anchor store leased by Target at 90 Elm St., for $8.9 million to 90 Enfield Square Holdings LLC and commercial investor Steven Dubler.
Target is the only anchor store operating, and less than two dozen storefronts are listed on the mall directory.
Palmer said CRCOG officials completed a market study in 2021 that identified several market-feasible uses for the underutilized mall.
Multifamily residential was identified as a primary opportunity, along with mixed-use residential, office, retail and entertainment space.
The study showed that under a “maximum buildout” scenario, the site could support approximately 138 market-rate rental units per year for five years, totaling 690 units; 30 townhomes per year for five years, or 150 units total; 100,000 to 150,000 square feet of mixed-use retail with residential; two restaurants, 38,000 square feet of medical office, and 65,000 square feet of an entertainment use.
The results of this study, Palmer said, will give all parties involved insight into understanding what changes are necessary to make future redevelopment work, whether a “maximum buildout” is pursued or something on a smaller scale. No redevelopment project is also a possibility.
“Even if the mall isn’t redeveloped, future traffic scenarios for that ‘no build’ condition suggest that traffic mitigation will be needed regardless,” CRCOG officials said.
The meeting Thursday – at 6 p.m. in the Scitico Room of Town Hall, 820 Enfield St. – will review the traffic study and site access alternatives.
“Making some roadways and intersections function more safely and efficiently might require changes to how people access the site. We want to understand their preferences on this before the town makes a decision about what access changes should be analyzed,” Palmer said.
The municipal team is also looking at other modes of travel for that area, such as bicyclists and pedestrians, particularly along Elm Street, where there is higher cyclist traffic.
The next step after the meeting will be determining if those changes have the desired impact.
CRCOG and town officials studied other mall redevelopment projects such as the Worcester Center Galleria Redevelopment, Cloverleaf Mall in Richmond, VA, and Eastern Hills Mall in Clarence, N.Y.
“In the end, our goal is to identify viable options so that the town can ensure that any future redevelopment of the mall is successful for the community,” Palmer said.
The full market study can be found at https://crcog.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Updated-Report-Market-Analysis-CRCOG-CDM-Smith.pdf
