BRUNSWICK-TOPSHAM

No one denies that the number of stores that have left Brunswick malls is worrisome. However, there is hope that things can turn around for the Cook’s Corner Shopping Mall and Merrymeeting Plaza.

Laurel Sibert of WS Development said the company is not ready to give up on Merrymeeting Plaza, the largely empty strip mall that it owns, which sits across from the former Brunswick Naval Air Station. WS owns and manages some 88 properties, boasting on their website the availability of 20 million square feet, mostly in New England. Some of its largest losses have been from corporate closures.

“Some of the tenants that have left the (shopping) center are tenants that have gone out of business entirely — Borders Bookstore, Coldwater Creek — those are all brands that are no longer in any market let alone just that market,” Sibert said.

“I can tell you that we have a lot of leasing activity going on in the property,” she said.

According to Sibert, the company is working on closing leases on a couple large spaces in the shopping center, but by company policy and sometimes by the choice of the potential tenant those negotiations are kept under wraps until after the lease is signed.

Sibert said WS Development expects it will be filling the center with the “right tenants” in the near future.

She also pointed to redevelopment of the former Brunswick Naval Air Station opposite the plaza off Bath Road as a project with promising rippling effects.

“Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority is really going to bring some energy to the area that is going to help the entire area and we’re excited about that,” she said. “We love this project. It’s a pretty center and we like it a lot, so we know there’s more to come.”

Brunswick Business Development Manager Linda Smith called Cook’s Corner Shopping Mall and Merrymeeting Plaza woes “chicken and the egg kind of stuff.”

“I think if people began to think there’s a reason to be somewhere, then they go there,” Smith said.

In other words, if you build it, they will come.

In what she refers to as “raw opportunity in the making,” Smith said the impending sale of Cook’s Corner Shopping Mall by DDR is a good opportunity to get out of defensive mode regarding the lack of activity, and bring in a new perspective and approach.

According to Smith, the flurry of activity and businesses locating at the former base — now called Brunswick Landing — creates further positive buzz which in turn, creates more business opportunities.

Conversely, a lack of positivity regarding the spaces at Cook’s Corner and Merrymeeting Plaza can perpetuate the current slump. Smith said a new management company can distance itself from the past.

“We think about these things as sort of discrete pieces, but they’re really not,” Smith said. “They’re literally right next door to each other. So the kinds of things that are going on with Brunswick Landing began to revitalize Cook’s Corner and also the Merrymeeting Plaza.”

Smith said Merrymeeting Plaza in particular has been looking toward more local businesses to solve its problems to increase foot traffic.

She also points to patterns in Internet sales for a decline in occupied retail space. Smith said the new owners of Cook’s Corner may have to rethink how they use their space, including medical offices.

Brunswick Town Councilor Dan Harris said he really doesn’t blame the economic slowdown for the decrease in Cook’s Corner, because the Topsham Fair Mall seems to have been growing right along.

“The closing of the Navy base was a big factor,” Harris said. “You had a lot of people working there. You had a lot of the military personnel there and they provided a good market for the stores here.”

Recently, Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, which is overseeing the transition of the former base to civilian use, released a report citing some 730 jobs that have been added to the former base since redevelopment began four years ago.

“The progress at Brunswick Landing the MRRA has been spearheading, I think has been very, very promising,” Harris said. “Those are pretty good jobs — people who have buying power work there. I think that as MRRA grows … you will see more of a market for a place like Cook’s Corner.”

Some, like Harris, appear hopeful that a local buyer with a stake in the future of the community may yet save Cook’s Corner.

Such a buyer could make aesthetic improvements necessary to attract more businesses and please existing tenants.

Don Spann of RE/MAX Riverside Commercial said it is encouraging that it appears there has been interest expressed by potential local buyers in the Cook’s Corner mall.

Maine has always struggled to compete economically against the national demographic because its population is more sparse. Yet twothirds of the state’s population is within 35 miles of Topsham. The critical mass at Topsham Fair Mall, in turn, draws more business.

Meanwhile, the vacancies at Cook’s Corner is akin to unfurnished house, in that it creates a more negative impression than the same house were it furnished.

“The flip side is it’s not all doom and gloom,” Spann said. “If we watch what is happening at Brunswick Landing, there is a critical mass being created out there, which, in my opinion, has every ability moving forward to help the issues at Cook’s Corner.”

Spann has commercial listings at the former base, and is calling for a road to connect Cook’s Corner Shopping Mall and Gurnet Road to Admiral Fitch Avenue on Brunswick Landing. Such a road could become an extension of the very positive activity taking place at Brunswick Landing, said Spann.

The future depends on who buys Cook’s Corner Shopping Mall and what they do with it. There is, Spann said, potential for multi-use development beyond retail that includes apartments and condominiums.

Smith said the new owner of the Cook’s Corner Shopping Mall will, by definition, generate a new perspective and vision for the mall.

Jim Howard of Topshambased Priority Real Estate Group LLC has developed or is developing 14 different lots at Brunswick Landing.

Aside from an Irving gas station and convenience store, development at Brunswick Landing is not retail-based, Howard said. Rather, it is professional and medical buildings and manufacturing companies — uses that don’t compete with Cook’s Corner. That sort of development should increase demand for retail in the area.

Howard recently said his company was still gathering information to help determine if it would make a bid for Cook’s Corner Shopping Mall.

“I think that it’s an opportunity for someone — whether local to Brunswick or the state of Maine — to come in with some fresh money, fresh ideas and fresh investment and work with the community to make investments,” Howard said.

Howard continued: “My first thoughts when I think about whether I want to make the investment into it is I need to sit down with the town and say, ‘What, collectively, are we going to do to improve Cook’s Corner?’ I don’t want to purchase another multimillion dollar property and not have a plan in place.”

With the demand for retail space decreasing, mixed uses need to be looked at in Cook’s Corner, Howard agreed. The success of commercial real estate is only as good as the health of the business in one’s building.

Howard said he looks at Topsham and Brunswick as one market.

That sentiment is echoed by Spann, who said he looks for a “Brunswick and Topsham solution, (that) brings developers and experts in the field and town staff together and look at the overall region. That would be a good place for us to go.”

Meanwhile, others are likewise optimistic about the future of the Cook’s Corner area.

“I think the future — and it might be a few years ahead — the future ought to be OK for Cook’s Corner. When you get some new stores in there, people will come,” Harris said.

dmoore@timesrecord.com dmcintire@timesrecord.com

About the series

THE TIMES RECORD is presenting a four-part series taking a closer look at activity at two malls at Cook’s Corner in Brunswick and the Topsham Fair Mall, and discussing the successes and challenges each face and what the future may hold in an ever-changing retail market.

Tuesday: An overview of Brunswick’s two malls and Topsham Fair Mall Wednesday: The recent success of Topsham Fair Mall Thursday: The challenges facing the Cook’s Corner and Merrymeeting Plaza malls TODAY: An eye to the future and discussing potential opportunities that await Brunswick’s malls