Certain Walmart restrictions on Swansea Mall property to be removed

Swansea Selectmen Christopher Carreiro issued an update Thursday on the progress being made concerning the old Swansea Mall property.

“The Swansea Redevelopment Authority (SRA) voted on Monday, November 29, 2021 to bring its Swansea Mall Demonstration Plan to fruition by signing an Order of Taking. The Order will amend and remove certain easements, covenants, restrictions and other rights (referred to as “ECRs”) that encumber the Swansea Mall property and have prevented the Mall owners from redeveloping the property to productive use. The ERCs primarily affect two main portions of the Swansea mall – the portion having an address of 262 Swansea Mall, which contains 65 acres and has been closed since March of 2019, and the portion at 54 Cousineau Drive, which contains about 21 acres, and is occupied by Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart, as the holder of the ECRs, has the right to control the use of the Mall owner’s parcel, and has resisted the Mall owners’ efforts to transform this area into an attractive and bustling residential neighborhood, even though the area residents may shop at Wal-Mart and bring it more business. The SRA’s interest lies not in favoring the Mall owners over Wal-Mart, as Wal-Mart is an important part of this community. Rather, the SRA’s goal is to remove specific ECRs that will allow the Mall owners to revitalize this area and prevent the concrete blight of closed shops and vandalized buildings, which is an unfortunately increasing occurrence in this era of online transactions, from depressing this important part of our Town. The SRA has given Walmart and the Mall owners two weeks within which to resolve this matter amicably, but the SRA will record the Order of Taking at the end of the two-week period to bring this project and its Demonstration Plan to successful completion.”

In November of 2019, a Swansea bylaw passed to place an overlay district over the commercial zoning of the property to allow Anagnost Companies the ability to build two 72 unit complexes to be part of a “Lifestyle Center”.

Richard Anagnost had previously outlined the plan for the famous property in 2019.

According to Anagnost, the Lifestyle Center would create a synergy of components that would feed off of each other.

Component 1: Storage
• A 100,000 square foot facility at the Old Apex location with 800 climate-controlled storage units.

Component 2: Retail
• 110,000 square feet of retail
• Some former tenants along with some new ones would fill the space.
• There would be Medical, 3 restaurants, 7 retail spots, a fitness center, banking, education, and entertainment. It would turn what used to be an inside mall into an outside mall with entry from all outside locations.

Component 3: Housing
• (2) 72 unit housing complexes
• (16) 1 bedroom, (96) 2 bedroom, and (32) 3 bedroom.
• All market-rate housing.