TOPSHAM — About 15 months after Best Buy closed its Topsham Fair Mall store, plans are underway for three medical and professional offices to fill the space.
The offices are expected to open in June, according to developer Nathan Bateman, vice president of Portland-based Bateman Partners.
Bateman, in a recent interview, declined to identify the three tenants who hired his firm to develop the space. Allied Cook Construction will handle the renovation.
The strip mall at 105 Topsham Fair Mall Road is about 47,000 square feet. Buffalo Wild Wings remains in business. The new offices will occupy approximately 40,000 square feet occupied by Best Buy and Dollar Tree, Bateman said.
Dollar Tree is moving to 131 Topsham Fair Mall Road, which was vacated in October 2016 by Bed, Bath & Beyond. Best Buy shut its doors later that month.
The new developments are “really a win-win for the community, as well as filling a vacant building,” Bateman said.
The facade of the building, with its blue, wing-shaped Best Buy design, will “change dramatically” through the redevelopment, and be more uniform and “very attractive,” he added.
The Planning Board granted the project site plan approval last November. More landscaping and reconfiguration of sidewalks were part of that approval, “really giving a softer feel” to the lot, Bateman said. He described the process as “changing it from a retail (use) – getting as many people in as possible – to a professional medical complex where people are going with ailments.”
John Shattuck, Topsham’s economic and community development director, expressed his pleasure with the new developments.
“Not only is it a plus to re-establish a premier tenancy in an area where we had lost tenants, but I think it speaks very well for the flexibility in future development of the mall in terms of mixed uses being compatible in an area that’s built to accommodate quick access and high traffic,” he said.
Medical and professional offices are due to move into vacant spaces at 105 Topsham Fair Mall Road in Topsham this summer. Buffalo Wild Wings, which recently opened, will remain while three suites will open in spaces formerly occupied by Dollar Tree and Best Buy. (Courtesy Bateman Partners)
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