Intoccia brings ‘lifestyle mall’ plan to FinCom
By James Lindsay/Correspondent for the Sharon Advocate on TownOnline.com
Friday, January 26, 2007l

Monday’s Financial Committee meeting began with a discussion between the committee and representatives of Michael Intoccia, who is proposing to develop a “lifestyle mall” between South Main Street, Old Post Road, South Walpole Street and Interstate 95.

Intoccia’s first objective is to rezone the land — now zoned for residential use — to allow commercial development. A special Town Meeting is scheduled for March to approve the rezoning, which is supported by both the Board of Selectmen and the Economic Development Committee.

“We’ve met with the Conservation Commission, the Economic Development Committee, the Water Department and the Board of Selectman,” said Intoccia representative Robert Shelmerdine. “We’re meeting with the Board of Health next week.”

At the Financial Committee, Shelmerdine said he and his partners came to “review what we believe to be an economic impact, a positive impact we hope.”

Kenneth J. Caputo, of Coler and Colantonio, Inc., an engineering firm working on behalf on Intoccia, wanted to explain to the town “the team’s understanding of the town’s desire of what this can become.”

Voting to approve the zoning change, Caputo said, “really kicks us off on our mission” to go forward and address “traffic, storm water, and waste water treatment” concerns. As to what the “lifestyle mall” (also called a “lifestyle center”) will look like, Caputo stressed that it will not be a “big box center,” but “more of a village.”

Dean Stratouly co-founder and president of the Congress Group in Boston, also representing Intoccia, expanded on Caputo’s point. Home Depot, Wal-Mart, and Target are just a few “big-box” stores which Stratouly stressed are not the types of tenants that the development would be seeking.

The commerce “will draw from the highway,” Caputo said, “but also serve the community’s retail needs,” by making available “things residents have to go out of town for.”

Caputo said that the developed space will be roughly 400,000 square feet and that “a development that size will have a regional impact,” which is why he thinks the highway location is so ideal. If such a development were built in Sharon center, said Caputo, it would create more traffic than the streets and abutting neighborhoods could handle.

If, however, the development is only accessible from the highway, as is planned, he contended that the traffic “will easily flow” in and out of the development, without disturbing local residents.
Caputo said that the only access to the road will be from Old Post Road off South Main Street, though the developers “could create access off South Walpole Street,” if traffic demands it.

“Laurel Road would turn into dead-end street instead of connecting to Old Post Road,” Caputo said, citing an example of how traffic impacts to the abutting communities would be limited.

Other streets, which connected to the parking lots and other parts of the development, would be gated and only accessible in the event of emergency.

In regards to direct benefits to Sharon, Robert Shelmerdine said that the “town is going to do some testing for a well site. If the zoning goes through my client would be more than happy to donate the site to the town.”

“People want to know what’s a ‘lifestyle center’ as opposed to a mall or a ‘power center,’” said Stratouly, citing the South Bay Mall as an example of a “power center.”

With stores like Target, Home Depot and a Super Stop and Shop, the South Bay Mall was the “first grocery-centered urban retail center,” said Stratouly. It was called a “power center” because it was very efficient and very profitable. But Stratouly argued that power centers are also “ugly” and “not very hospitable.”

More pleasant, he said, are the “controlled atmosphere” malls, such as the South Shore Mall or the Emerald Square Mall in North Attleboro. Stratouly’s problem with these developments, however, is that they are completely indoors, and also have some of the ‘big-box’ stores associated with power centers.

The “lifestyle mall,” Stratouly said, is on a “much more human scale,” with smaller stores, predominantly outdoors, and can include such varied tenants as restaurants and municipal offices.

The proposed development, according to Stratouly, would be a place where customers “park [their] car once,” and are “encouraged to get out and walk around.”

He cited Mashpee Commons as “the best one in this region” because that development includes “a street grid, a town green, a merry-go-round, small shops, and a small movie theater.”

Stratouly said the “concept” is to have businesses like “a post office, a dentist, an accountant” and other small professional businesses like them, along with two or three “anchor stores,” which would attract a larger clientele. The “anchor stores” (such as a grocery store, a bookstore, or a sporting goods store) could be anywhere from 50,000 to 75,000 square feet while the smaller shops will be between 5,000 and 15,000 square feet, Stratouly said.

He also said that the plan includes “two bigger restaurants” and “quick stops” such as an ice cream parlor, a sandwich shop, a pizza shop, or a coffee shop.

Stratouly’s “rough estimate” was that the town would profit $3.1 million annually from the development.

Financial Committee Chairman Ira Miller asked, “How would this be different from Cobb’s Corner?”

“The architecture would be different,” said Robert Shelmerdine.

“It would be similar in tenancy to Cobb’s Corner but completely different in style and feel,” said Caputo. “You going to drive to the main road, you have on street parking with decent size parking fields. Like a lot of downtowns there will be parking behind buildings as opposed to one big parking lot in the center of the development.”

“(The buildings will also have) actual real rooftops,” Caputo said, adding, “Very few neighbors will see new development and those that do will see something similar to their homes.”

He also mentioned that the developers can “set the sight elevation, set it down from the local community while remaining visible from 95.”

Stratouly claimed that the developers will take care of their own trash, security, and plowing. He also mentioned that, with a commercial development, there would be “no added school children” to Sharon.

“We think it’s pretty close to a zero load” financially on the town, said Stratouly.

Committee member Laura Nelson whether revenues would drop in the wintertime for an outside mall.

Stratouly didn’t seem to think so.

“These lifestyle centers are meant to capture people within 10-mile radius. We’re trying to prevent people from having to go all the way to South Shore Mall or Emerald Square Mall,” he said.

He also added that facilities will be “all handicap access.”

Caputo said that while the “traffic is segregated” between local and highway traffic, the developers want the mall to be “very walkable for neighbors.”

Finally, Nelson asked the developers, “Are you contributing to the cost of special Town Meeting?”

Shelmerdine said they would be “happy do it” but so far have not been approached on the issue.