While strip malls in the Cook’s Corner area of Brunswick continue to flounder in the wake of a Naval base closure and economic downturn, another shopping center just 10 minutes away has seen a remarkable level of vitality: The Topsham Fair Mall.
The biggest reason for the mall’s success is its proximity to Interstate 295 and Route 196, according to Topsham Selectman Don Russell. It also helps to have a mall that is locally owned with a diversity of stores.
“You’ve got to work as a team,” Russell said. “When both sides of the table are working together you get something accomplished. And when they’re not, you sit there and stagnate.”
Thanks in large part to the mall, the town’s commercial and industrial-borne portion of the tax base increased from about 9 percent to between 28 and 30 percent.
The mall was built in 1985, according to John Larson, who, with his wife, June, owns much of the property.
Many people generically refer to the whole area as the Topsham Fair Mall — including the area beyond the original structure where The Home Depot, Best Buy, Target, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Bed Bath and Beyond and Petco big box stores loom. The fact that it is referred to as a singular unit helps, Larson said.
Larson said he is not terribly concerned about the couple of vacancies at the mall.
“We have been very fortunate in the last year or two in terms of new tenants,” Larson said.
He added that there is a “high level of interest” from potential new tenants.
Topsham Fair Mall has continued to thrive despite the one-two punch of the 2008 economic collapse and the 2011 closure of the nearby Brunswick Naval Air Station. Despite the economic uncertainty, Topsham Fair Mall retained a remarkable degree of vitality. Larson said he couldn’t think of a single year since 2003 when there wasn’t some major or new construction at the mall.
What draws people to the mall is a matter of consumer preference and convenience, Larson believes. The Hannaford Supermarket, Renys and, to some degree, Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft are serving as anchoring stores within the original mall, drawing customers that stay to shop at other stores.
With roughly 750,000 square feet of retail space and one road in and one road out, Topsham Fair Mall isn’t a regional mall such as the Maine Mall which is a giant enclosed one-stop shopping center, “but it effectively operates like one,” Larson said.
The Coastal Connector linking Route 196 directly to Route 1 in Brunswick changed the traveling and tourist patterns in the area significantly, Larson said, creating a shift in the center of gravity from a retail perspective. Target and The Home Depot cemented this shift when they arrived in Topsham, creating a huge critical mass.
Local developer Dan Catlin, whose projects at Topsham Fair Mall stated in 1999 with a Wendy’s, said the Connector was a gamechanger. The road allows shoppers to get off Route 1 in Topsham instead of Pleasant Street in Brunswick. And it also redirects a lot of I-295 coastalbound traffic from the Brunswick exit to the Topsham exit.
And, he noted, Route 196 is one of the state’s busiest roads.
With its big box stores, the mall now pulls shoppers as far away as Bath and Wiscasset. Freeport and Falmouth shoppers may even decide to travel to Topsham instead of getting snarled in South Portland traffic around The Maine Mall.
Developers like Catlin are drawn to the mall, in part, because of its local ownership. Unlike Merrymeeting Plaza and Cook’s Corner Shopping Mall in Brunswick, the Larson family are at the mall to take care of potential issues that may arise, such as a leaky roof or power outage. A few weeks ago, a tenant walked over to the office to tell Larson they had a backed up toilet, which was fixed that same day.
And Larson doesn’t think there is another shopping center in Maine with as many Maine-owned or managed companies as the Topsham Fair Mall, where more than 70 percent of businesses are Maine-owned or Maine-based.
“We like dealing with local companies,” Larson said. “They pay attention to what they’re doing and understand what local customers are looking for and we feel that deserves special attention and those are the type of people we’re trying to provide a home for.”
It is very difficult to convince national chains to look at the mall since the Midcoast market is still considered unproven from their perspective.
“Retail is less sophisticated than people think,” Larson said. “Retail decision making often operates on what I can call the herd instinct. … If my competitor is there, I need to be there too.”
Catlin noted that not all businesses make it at Topsham Fair Mall, and the advent of online shopping has had an impact. “But you know what? You can’t get a haircut online,” Catlin said.
When it comes to drawing businesses to the region, Catlin said developers want to know about signage and how much of a hassle permitting is.
Catlin said tenants aren’t asking for old space either but want new energy-efficient space, “and that makes a big difference to a tenant.”
Design standards have changed, and renovations often lead to unanticipated costs.
“Buildings have an economic life they run and then it becomes harder to lease out,” Catlin said.
A renovation happened to be just what Smitty’s Cinema was looking for, when it opened its fourth Maine cinema in part of the former Village Candle building in Topsham Fair Mall in June.
“We’ve been pretty happy with everything so far,” said Smitty’s General Manager Tucker Smith. “It’s been a great community and we feel very welcomed.”
As yet more new projects sit on the horizon in Topsham Fair Mall requiring growing use entrances without traffic signals amidst increased pedestrian access, town officials are looking at traffic management on Topsham Fair Mall.
“The future of the mall is going to be interesting,” said Topsham Economic and Community Development Director John Shattuck, “because one of the things we’re looking at really hard right now is how do we make sure we don’t choke on our own success.”
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 TODAY: The recent success of Topsham Fair Mall Thursday: The challenges facing the Cook’s Corner and Merrymeeting Plaza malls Friday: An eye to the future and discussing potential opportunities that await Brunswick’s malls
Two new projects at mall approved by Topsham Planning Board, story A2
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