I hope its market basket, marshalls was a pleasant surprise, but I don't think we need any more sports bars sheesh

That sounds Wonderful!!!!, I can hardly wait till then.
We have a Great City, and a Wonderful Mayor

I like the restaurants but not thrilled about Marshall's... can we get something a bit nicer? How about some local tenants as well...

Should be bigger, like legacy place in Dedham. People may hate sports bars but remember there are relatively no restaurants up in that area, and for the amount of people that work along 128 in Waltham that's a bad thing. Burlington has the mall, so we need something to compete and keep businesses in Waltham.

I wish they would do direct access from 128/95 to aid city traffic

I'd like to see a Roche Brothers instead of a Market Basket! Weston, Wellesley , Sudbury just around the bend!

What, no Christmas Tree Shop?

How about a Woolworths, Sambo's, A&P, Caldors, Tower Records, EJ Korvette, HoJo's, Shraffts, Sam Goody, Circuit City and Grover Cronin?

BigW50s Theme Park - woo woo!!

Marshall's is listed twice in the article. Is that just a typo, or is there a sixth business?

I'll be disappointed if Marshall's goes in there.
Not exactly upscale.
Would've been a better fit for River St. - where Ocean State Job Lot went in.

Wonderful.news....All.new,jobs,food...,Major.did.good...Wh
at,.about.,Bagels.???...Great.2.live.in.Waltham

We need some decent department stores in this city! This is the opportunity for Waltham to shine with higher end retail... and how about a Whole Foods? I love Waltham, but Hannaford's is frightening.

What does the Mayor have to do with this? Why is she even making this announcement? Is she the new spokesperson for the developer? Where are the traffic improvements to the Rt128/Rt20 interchange that she said MUST happen before she would go along with any development up there? Is all of this traffic going through the Ravenswood neighborhood?

I think khols would be a better fit than Marshalls

From what I understand, there WILL be traffic improvements on Rte 128 but keep in mind that they're still in the demolition process right now. I agree that a Kohls, JC Penny, Sears (highly unlikely), or some other department store is great needed in this area. Wouldn't be great to see a King's Bowling Place or 5Wits Adventure entertainment-type place in this development? Okay, now I'm dreaming! I must come back to reality!!

OK. So the question about traffic. There is some traffic improvements proposed for this first phase. The ramp coming off 128 NB onto Route 20 EB will be extended for better merging of traffic and Route 20 will be widened to 4 Lanes from the Route 20 Rotary to Stow Street (Most of that is 4-Lanes now so not much work there), The entire rotary will have new pavement markings and signs. Traffic will then go down Stow Street and onto Main Street. The Main entrance into the complex will be across from Steve's Pizza which will be 4-lanes with a new traffic signal. Main Street will be widened to 4-Lanes from the new entrance to Stow Street.

Now for the future phase of the development (Phase 2 Office/Retail/Hotel Etc.) there are plans of redoing the Route 20 Rotary and making a direct access ramp from Route 128 NB into the development. There are many other plans (Connector Roads, New ramps Etc.) but all that is in the early planning phases.

Stow street cannot handle all that traffic. I live off Stow Street and walk my dog around there and have to dodge cars at the cross walk. I am excited about the new stores but funneling all of the traffic down a single lane road(stow) which is a primary access road to towns like Weston, Lincoln, Sudbury, Maynard and Stow seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

When were the public hearings on this and why weren't any abutters notified. Surely they needed variances for these changes and i feel we have been denied due process to have our opinions heard. Widening route 20 seems like a waste of money. Legacy place has a two lane road and it handles the traffic fine. The money would be better spent adding a new direct exit. It should have its own exit 26B past 117.
Also we dont need a marshalls... why not just put a TJ MAX and payless...Dunkin and we can call it WALEX 2.

I also think the fact that the mayor is making this announcement is very calculated. Let them eat Bread! Oh thank you madame Mayor...She never misses a photo op. I remember her and Deval surveying the flood damage...

Grande Pike Please!

I'm liking all of this debate on here, as a prospective tenant I agree that we should not put a Marshall's, pay less and a dunkins... It needs to be something special not something that everyone else has...the parts of Waltham along 128 are really getting a big boost in development with this new site going up as well as a smaller development on the corner of Lexington st and Trapelo rd. I am very excited to see all of this but at the same time it can't turn into Moody st. either. These new sites need to be able to sustain themselves by having a diverse and UNIQUE mixture of stores. Personally I'd love to have it be a female fashion oriented lifestyle center with a Lululemon, anthropology, madewell and an abercrombie,Betsy Johnson etc etc a nice cosmetics store. I would be opening a jewelry store so that is covered and then some type of a high tech store like an apple store and then a nice mens store. I'd love to see a good mixture of food as well which I think we're getting but we also need something higher end and I think Flemming's would do really well here. This place should be somewhere that people can come to have fun day and night, bring a date, bring some friends hang out for a little while and have fun at an outdoor type of a setting.
- As far as traffic goes, I heard they might be making a connection from third ave into the site so I wouldn't even have to get on the high way and people coming south can get off on winter st instead of rt 20.

How about a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's?

Nothing wrong with a Marshall's going in there. Lots of people cannot afford to patronize high end specialty clothing stores. Have you seen the crowds at the new Job Lot in Waltham? We also need a real dollar store like The Dollar Tree in Burlington where everything really is one dollar.

you can put a marshal's at the ford dealer site we need nicer stores off the high way to draw people. You can go to TJ Maxx on Lexington st its the same company.

BTW Daniel what is the business you may want to install in this shopping center? Just curious.

I too am confused by the rumors about traffic improvements. A City official told me that none of these "improvements" have been approved by the City, yet Sam Park is turning an abandoned parking lot into a massive main entrance. How can this be done, when were the public hearings? Why doesn't the Mayor hold a press conference with Councilor Giordano to tell us how the Ravenswood/Stow area is going to be protected from this massive traffic addition? Why is the City blocking a connection to Fifth Av that would take pressure off of Main ST? I guess it's more important to announce that Marshall's is going in while the traffic remediation remains a secret.

I think some of the stores may be waiting to see what grocery store is going to be the anchor. If it is a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, then I think we'll see some higher end tenants interested. If it is Market Basket, we'll probably get more affordable stores interested. Right now I go to Burlington for Old Navy and the Apple store. Either way, I'd rather spend my money here.

This discussion here has been really interesting. Consider me disappointed with the news of Marshall's coming in. It makes me feel like I'm living in bland southern New Hampshire all over again.

If it adds anything, here are some fun links though.

Project Blog: http://1265main.wordpress.com/

Retail Development Group (hmm..look at all those market baskets!): http://rmd-inc.net/

A promotional flier stating 140,000 SF of committed retail/restaurant tenants, not to mention branding the site as one of the most stunning views east of the Mississippi...which is probably a bit of a stretch: http://t.co/ojfmAOj9

The stunning view is of Prospect Hills Park, a bit less stunning than before since they blasted away the buffer area along the park boundary. The stunning view of the park, however, will probably be ruined for the tenants by the soon-to-be-relocated high voltage transmission lines. If they notice that kind of thing.

I have from a reliable source that Market Basket is definitely the grocery store unless something strange happens. Retail Management & Development (RMD), who is doing the rentals at Polaroid, is the real estate development arm of DeMoulas Supermarkets Inc (Market Basket).
It's also rumored that RMD, Market Basket and/or the DeMoulas family is helping to finance the project. Given all of this, it's a mystery to me that they won't publicly announce that they are the 100 sq ft grocery store anchor.

I'm disappointed as well but well see what else will go in.. when I originally called the leasing agents about this site they informed me that MB owned or is part owner of this development. I was also expecting something nicer given the design and big rent of the plaza 40-80$ per square foot plus NNN. Not sure sgIII they will attract other then regionals with that kind of money.

Does anyone know of any town hall meetings coming up that will have this site as one of its topics?

I think my favorite part about all of this is the $250 Market Basket gift card to whomever 'wins' the 'site naming contest.'

The Marshalls announcement is right in line with other current tenants of RMD-inc properties. Each one more underwhelming than the next.

T.J. Maxx..CVS..Citizens Bank..Fashion Bug..CardSmart..Radio Shack..Olympia Sports..GNC (who are likely already going in at the Main Street Market Place)..Anton's Cleaners..Benjamin Moore..Beauty Terrace..Game Stop

Starting to think I should just move back to Nashua, given they have three Market Baskets all on the same stretch of road.

Also, no wonder they were so quick to take down the Lease Plan at 1265main.com when people started to notice it existed. At least that document looked promising, and people seemed excited. However, that was when Marshall's wasn't part of that plan.

Where did you hear about all of those stores? I heard they were looking into am Apple store, Jos A. Bank, Sprint or verizon wireless.

Hey Daniel, the stores I listed off are just examples of the types of places RDM-inc often works with, aka the types of stores that end up in thier developments. So while I can't be sure what exactly is going in there, the Marshalls (which has been announced) seems to fit right in with the RDM-inc brand.

At one point 1265Main.com had a "lease plan" (here it is http://i.imgur.com/kpW9W.jpg) it listed the higher end stores as an idea of what the development is looking to attract. Looks like the resteraunts are on par with some of the ideas they had listed, but notice how the Market Basket (in green on the left) isn't listed and there's no Marshalls either.

So are we going to see these higher end places? Or just RDM-inc's typical boring brand (as we've already seen with the Marshall's announcement).

Last thoughts. When you combine the fact that RMD-inc is a self-proclaimed "Value oriented retailer/developer" and that Sam park and RMD-inc have worked together on projects like Gloucester Crossing, which opened in 2009 (http://bo.st/QAyO3V), you get an idea of where the former Polaroid site is headed. Hey, Park even wanted to open a hotel at Gloucester Crossing. The hotel there was denied so, sadly, guests will never get the chance to enjoy such attractive Gloucester Crossing shopping options such as Market Basket..Marshalls..Ace Hardware..Petco..Dollar Tree..Olympia Sports..GameStop..Five Guy's (which just closed)..Cape Anne Liquors..Verizon Wireless..Sally Beauty..and Great Clips.

Maybe I'm wrong. The the restaurants that signed on seem to be true to the original "higher end" vision. RMD-inc has yet to formally annouce the Market Basket, maybe they don't want to scare away some higher end retailers who wouldn't normally share space in a Market Basket anchored plaza?

too bad there is not more main st places that exist... all of these places are the same, their styles might vary but its all the same stores but with ridiculously high rent... with the triple net for example at the new main st strip it is over 50$ a sq/ft... how can any small business survive with that kind of rent... I really hope that they find a decent mixture of stores for this development because from the way it looks now its going to be a hoe-hum type of a place. I went to city hall this morning but as of now there are no city meetings regarding the 1265 main development.

Hi Guys just an update if anyone is still following this thread, bone fish grill 2 ovens starbucks, CVS , grand lux cafe and Z gallerie are all very close to signing. Per one of the leasing agents. Also it is going to be more female oriented but there will be some mens stores like Jos A bank, a mens hair cutting place as well as a nike store.

This is all very interesting to follow. As a resident who will be directly affected by the new site I am also dissapointed to see that there are no proposed traffic solutions being taken into serious consideration this far into the development. Day after day, night after night, living with all the banging and loud sounds of machinery, you think the city/developer would have the respect to let the residents in on what the heck is going on! In regards to the actual shops and restaurants, I would hope that they would try to emulate what magnificent complexes Legacy Place and Patriots Place have become for those respective cities. Do they want to improve the city and draw the 128 business crowd, etc. in or keep it contained to only the people who live in it?

Hi all just got some more new on the site today, looks like they are going to be downsizing the office section and adding for retail to the other side of M.B. as well.

This commentary is very interesting to follow. As a homeowner in Waltham, I would LOVE to see something like Legacy Place happen in Waltham. I usually drive to Natick Mall/Route 9 or Legacy Place, or shop Newbury and Boylston Streets when I'm at work.

This development should be a mix of upscale and mid-range offerings, to appeal to a more diverse demographic. I personally would love to see something like a Kohl's there, and agree that the Marshal's would be disappointing - that is a standard strip mall type place.

LOFT, Sephora, Bath & Body Works and Kohl's are all huge draws for most women across many age ranges and socioeconomic backgrounds.

They are proposing these stores as follows: Z Gallerie, Anthropologie, Versona,Sephora, Loft, Grand Luxe cafe, Jcrew Chico's, J.Jill, Jos A.Bank, Nike, Bonefish grill, two ovens, jake and joes, pinkberry and roosters. Obviously we know the Market Basket is going to anchor it and then there is going to be another 35,480 sq ft of retail on the other side of MB. If you guys want to see something really nice check out the Lynnfield Market place that is going to be opening in 2013.

I can't believe that there are no plans for traffic. How are all those cars getting into and out of this mall from 128?