Plans eyed for Filene's building

The space at the Natick Mall that will be vacated by the closing of Filene's could be broken into smaller spaces, and the new tenants could include a hotel, a movie theater, or a restaurant, a mall official said last week.

''I see it as an opportunity," said Jim Grant, vice president of development for General Growth Properties Inc., the Chicago-based company that owns the mall. ''I don't see the loss of a department store as a significantly bad thing. . . . This business doesn't depend as strongly today on department stores as much as it did even 10 years ago."

''Specifically, in Natick, I think what we have a shortage of is a good upscale restaurant," he said, speculating that a restaurant such as a McCormick and Schmick's, P.F. Chang's, or Maggiano's could fit in well.

Federated Department Stores Inc., which owns Macy's, is merging with May Department Stores Co., which owns Filene's. Natick Mall, which has both department stores, is one of several sites across the country that will lose its Filene's as a result.

The merged company will inherit a lease on the Macy's store at Natick Mall but will own the Filene's building, Grant said. Federated can use it for ''any valid retail use," he said, but he also considers it likely that the company will offer to sell it to the mall owners, who could then subdivide the space.

The changes at Filene's occur at the same time that the mall is planning a major addition that will be anchored by the high-end department stores, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. The addition is expected to open in 2007.

Restaurants can now serve as big draws to a mall, taking the traditional place of the department store, said Grace Zimmerman, an adjunct professor of marketing at Brandeis University's International Business School. She cited The Cheesecake Factory at the Atrium Mall in Chestnut Hill, which has no traditional department store anchors, as an example.

''Department stores are struggling to find their place within the retail environment" because of the success of ''big-box" retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target, Zimmerman said. ''I think the whole character of malls is changing and in flux. . . . It's an opportunity and a challenge -- the opportunity to figure out what will excite people to come into the mall and continue to frequent the mall."

The mall has one clear advantage over some other shopping venues, Zimmerman said: It is also a place to socialize, and not just for teenagers.

''You see moms with baby carriages together with other moms," she said. ''You see older people there walking and shopping and eating. They brought movie theaters into malls. . . . Some of these malls are also part of an office complex."

And the social aspect will only become more pronounced as more malls add residences, which Natick already plans to do after it completes its new addition.

''Twenty years from now," Zimmerman said, ''you're going to be looking at a different kind of mall than the one you grew up on."

One new type of mall, known as a ''lifestyle center," places stores outside in a ''Main Street"-style setting. The Filene's space might be a place to add an outdoor component to the Natick Mall, Grant said.

Of course, it is still possible that Filene's simply will be swapped for a traditional tenant.

Milton Gilbert was on the Natick Planning Board for 25 years and helped engineer the so-called ''Golden Triangle" in Natick and Framingham, which provided consistent zoning for eight malls and shopping centers in the two towns. He noted that future high-end tenants could have an effect on what goes into the Filene's space. ''It's possible that with Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus that some other upscale [store] could go in there."

The Filene's name is set to disappear next year. By then, in Natick, the future already should be taking shape. This week, site work was scheduled to start on the old Wonder Bread factory site, where the Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and 100 smaller stores will stand, Grant said.

Plans call for a second phase to add a permanent connection between the existing mall and the addition -- which will be connected to it only by a pedestrian walkway at first -- as well as condominiums and possibly a hotel.

Lisa Kocian can be reached at 508-820-4231 and lkocian@globe.com.