A mall grows in Natick

Before workers could begin building the new Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom department stores that will be the cornerstones of the retail expansion at the Natick Mall, they had to dig a gigantic hole.

They had to truck out a half-million cubic yards of dirt. And they had to drill special rods -- described by the construction manager as ``steel tendons" -- into the soil to hold the pit's walls in place.

The hole was crucial. With only a limited amount of property to work with, some of the mall's parking will have to be put underground. The new mall will extend vertically, rather than sprawl horizontally like other suburban shopping centers, many of which are surrounded by seas of parking lots.

It's a necessity when you're trying to pack about 1 million square feet of new space onto less than 15 acres of land.

``This is almost like you're dealing with downtown New York or Boston," said Jim Grant, vice president of development for General Growth Properties, which owns the mall.

``This is an urban construction project in the suburbs," added James Young, the company's director of construction management.

The men were speaking inside a spacious air-conditioned trailer that sits near the building recently vacated by Macy's and opens onto the construction site. A makeshift sign on the wall counted down the number of days until the mall's grand opening on Sept. 7, 2007. Outside, a series of cranes towered overhead. Each crane can put as many as 40 pieces of steel -- three truckloads -- in place a day, Young said.

The expanded mall is taking over the site of the former Wonder Bread factory. The steel skeleton of a corridor of about 100 new stores that will link the existing mall with the two new anchor stores is in the works. The project will also include a hotel and more than 200 condominiums in buildings as high as 14 stories that are expected to open in spring 2008.

About 250 workers are busy on the site, and Young expects as many as 500 once work on the interior begins. While piles of dirt and construction detritus still litter the site, the structure is starting to take shape. A series of enormous oval-shaped frames have already been installed to carry the skylights over the mall's main walkways.

In 1994, the Natick Mall underwent major renovations that increased its size from 725,000 square feet to its current 1.1 million square feet. The latest round of construction will increase it to 2.1 million square feet.

It will also transform the space into a haven for luxury shoppers. Developers are hoping to attract tenants similar to those in its Ala Moana Center in Honolulu -- which include Louis Vuitton, Prada, and Chanel -- to sit alongside the state's first Nordstrom.

Shoppers will be welcomed into another retail icon, Neiman Marcus, through a dramatic golden facade, meant to resemble the folds of a skirt, on Speen Street.

The arrival of the new ritzier mall says a lot about the way the area has changed over the past few decades. When the original one-story mall opened in 1966, the town was a working-class community. Now, the shopping mecca will sit in the middle of the second-most-affluent suburban market in the country, based on household incomes within a 10- mile radius, according to the mall's promotional materials.

The mall expansion represents one of the biggest changes that Selectman John Connolly has seen in his hometown. Connolly, 43, said he misses the fading blue-collar vibe he grew up with.

``With all the change it seems like we're losing a lot of the flavor that once was Natick," he said. ``To be honest, it is very sad. It bugs the hell out of me."

He said he doesn't have any particular beef with the mall but rather with the fast pace of change that the huge shopping center represents.

He noted that Natick is surrounded by some of the wealthiest communities in the state. According to data from the mall owners, the bordering communities of Weston and Dover have average household incomes of $245,000 and $211,000, respectively.

Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom may seem a far cry from the department stores in the existing mall: Sears, Lord & Taylor, Macy's, and an expected JC Penney. Developers say they are concerned about creating the appearance of two separate malls, and say they will try to meld the two by incorporating the same types of railings, floors, and landscaping on both sides. A teardrop-shaped court with a large fountain will join the old mall with the new.

``We wanted it to look as seamless as it could," Grant said.

The mall's new elegant, upscale attitude will be reflected in its new logo, a large script ``N." The ``mark," as Cathie Bryant , a General Growth vice president, calls it, was designed by a California firm and is meant to play off the mall's alliterative elements: Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Nouvelle (the name for the residential project), and, of course, Natick.

The shopping center also will no longer officially be called a ``mall," just ``Natick," owners said, in part because of the addition of the condos. ``It's almost like its own community," Bryant said.

Despite the recent trend toward ``lifestyle centers" -- open-air malls built to resemble small villages -- the International Council of Shopping Centers reports that traditional, enclosed malls are alive and well. Although the Natick Mall expansion has been in the works for several years, council spokeswoman Patrice Duker said, the recent merger of Federated Department Stores and May Department Stores Co. , which led to the closing of most of the Filene's stores, has given malls a chance to reinvent themselves.

``They really have an opportunity to look at what that space can be used for," said Duker.