New downtown thrives; awaits neighborhoods

Developers pursue their 12-year dream of building a town. New urbanist (NU) developments, with their interconnected streets and mix of uses are unusual by conventional development standards. Even by NU standards, Mashpee Commons occupies a world unto itself. The project began with a 1960s era conventional strip mall in Mashpee, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Buff Chace and Douglas Storrs, the development partners, flipped the project around, creating a new main street district on the back of the strip mall. They hired Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Andres Duany in 1988 to plan surrounding neighborhoods, which were featured in Peter Katz’ book, The New Urbanism. Due to zoning regulations and to a lesser extent the early 1990s recession, the neighborhoods have remained mostly unbuilt — while Chace and Storrs have incrementally built the commercial core of Mashpee Commons, which is now 50 percent complete. This has resulted in a town center but not a town; a downtown core without surrounding neighborhoods — the opposite development pattern of most early-stage NU projects. Nearly all NU developers start with residential blocks until they create a market for the retail stores. Or, if they build retail early, it is usually subsidized. Mashpee Commons not only is one of the largest NU town centers — with more than 280,000 square feet of commercial space and 13 residential units over retail — but the project has outperformed most suburban shopping centers in terms of rent and sales per square foot, according to industry surveys. Still, without the surrounding neighborhoods, Mash-pee Commons would remain a successful curiosity. However, a recent zoning approv-al, which allows Chace and Storrs to move forward with four new villages surround-ing the downtown core, represents a significant turning point in the history of this unique project. The new neighborhoods, totaling 132 acres, will add 515,000 square feet of retail/office space, a 120-room hotel, 20 bed and breakfast rooms, 330 housing units of various types and 26 accessory apartments. The planning for these new phases is being done by Chace, Storrs and their architects, Imai/Keller Inc., with on-going design input and review from Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ). The street layout of the neighborhoods is based largely on the 1988 DPZ plan. These new phases will complete Mashpee Commons, making it a town. Meanwhile, the project offers evidence that main street retail can compete successfully with malls and suburban strip commercial developments. Mashpee Commons points to an alternative model of new urbanist development, appropriate for locations near high volume traffic arterials, where the commercial district can be built first. Also, the project is one of the earliest and best examples of retrofitting suburbia to create a traditional neighborhood. History The Mashpee Commons story began with the development of the New Seabury Shopping Center in the mid-1960s, with 74,000 square feet of retail space owned by Chace’s family. This center was at a five points traffic circle, where Routes 28 and 151 converged — both significant two-lane regional roadways on Cape Cod. In the mid-1980s when Cape Cod was rapidly developing in a suburban form, Chace and his development partner, Storrs, decided to expand and renovate the shopping center, but to do it in the form of a traditional neighborhood. In the process, they hoped to set a new development example for the Cape. The developers received a special permit from the town in 1986 to build 261,000 additional square feet of commercial space. In addition, the first phase included a post office, a church, police and fire stations, a public library, an elderly housing facility and a town square — clearly a new shopping center paradigm. Chace and Storrs also were granted permission to build up to 100 dwelling units above the shops. Because the zero setbacks and relatively narrow streets of the downtown were not permitted under Mashpee zoning regulations, Chace and Storrs maintained private ownership of streets — in a legal sense, treating them as internal access travel lanes. They created a traditional system of blocks and streets with on-street parking and buildings fronting on 10-foot sidewalks. Permitting The developers could have built the project far more quickly if they had opted for conventional big box stores and strip commercial buildings — specified under the existing zoning. Instead, they waged a difficult and expensive legal, political and public relations battle that has continued for more than 10 years in order to pursue the dream of building a traditional New England town. Zoning regulations in the town continue to mandate residential development and densities of one unit per 40,000 to 80,000 square foot lots, automobile-oriented commercial buildings on 40,000 square foot lots with 200-foot frontage and strict separation of uses. Nothing that Chace and Storrs were proposing bore any resemblance to that template. The least dense section of Mashpee Commons, Whitings Road — the only neighborhood with detached single homes — is made up of lots ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 square feet (one eighth to one quarter acre). The mix of uses, street dimensions, setbacks and parking requirements also run counter to zoning codes. The 1996 permitting took more than 11 months and cost over $100,000 in consulting fees. The next phase, the North Market Street neighborhood, the first of the DPZ-designed neighborhoods to begin construction, went through a labyrinthian two-year process to gain approvals. More than 20 public meetings were held. Permitting for the future phases has been even more difficult. Chace and Storrs began seeking zoning approvals in 1996 to move forward with the plan, which were approved by two-thirds majority at Town Meeting in October, 1998. Specific permits from local, county and state officials will take two more years. Financial Performance Mashpee Commons’ performance has steadily improved since the early 1990s, as reflected in the gross sales of tenants. Since 1992, individual store revenues have consistently risen 10 percent to 35 percent annually. The developers share in that sales growth through percentage clauses in leases. Consequently, Mashpee Commons’ net income has risen steadily on a year to year basis since 1992, Storrs says. Comparing Mashpee Commons to other shopping centers (using Urban Land Institute surveys), Mashpee Commons generally falls in the top 10 percent of community shopping centers in rent and sales per square foot. Average yearly rents in the core of Mashpee commons exceed $30/square foot, and exceed $20/square foot in the North Market Street neighborhood. Retail operators surveyed indicate that stores in Mashpee Commons have relatively high sales. A manager of Puritan Clothing, a well established regional chain, states that the Mashpee store has the highest sales per square foot of any Puritan Clothing store. A manager of the project’s Blockbuster video store reports that revenues are better than demographic studies predicted. The GAP, Talbots and Banana Republic have all exceeded their annual sales goals for 1998. Office space at Mashpee Commons leases for $10 to $12 per square foot, significantly higher than the average for the region. Office tenants cite Mashpee Commons’ design as justification for their willingness to pay the premium. Demand has been surprisingly strong for Mashpee Commons’ first 13 apartments above retail shops. Rents were priced at $550 to $1300 for units ranging from studios to 2-bedroom apartments. Demand has been so strong that the developers had to institute a lottery to pick tenants. Mashpee Commons’ tenant mix includes a full range of national, regional, and local merchants. It has specialty stores (Gap, Talbots, Starbucks and Banana Republic) as well as regional stores and community-based “mom and pop” establishments. Mashpee Commons’ 92 businesses include two supermarkets, a pharmacy, the video store, a liquor store, a 6-screen cinema, 16 apparel and accessory shops, 13 specialty shops, 8 restaurants, and 13 service businesses. Looking Ahead As Chace and Storrs seek specific local, county and state permits, construction will continue on the build-out of the downtown core with new mixed-use buildings. “Our current plans call for the construction of two new mixed-use buildings in Mashpee Commons, the renovation of two buildings, and the construction of a series of liner buildings over the 9-12 month period beginning in the spring of 1999,” Storrs says. “In addition, we will be building two new retail buildings in the North Market Street neighborhood. This keeps the momentum of our original plan going while the permitting process for the new neighborhoods proceeds.” In more than a decade, Chace and Storrs have overcome their share of obstacles and faced a lot of skepticism in developing Mashpee Commons. In the 1980s, their dream of building a human-scale town at the site of a former strip mall and heavily traveled traffic circle may have seemed far-fetched. It is becoming more of a reality every year. u