Falmouth (Maine) Shopping Center to be sold

[retailisking]

The center, built in 1962 (there's that year again!), is anchored by a Shaw's Supermarket (which relocated within the center to the former Rich's/Ames space) and has a very high vacancy rate, including the previous, smaller Shaw's space and a former Rite Aid (moved to an adjacent freestanding location.) IMHO the FSC has real potential as a power center, at least on its Route 1-facing side.

The Town of Falmouth commissioned a study about possible redevelopment of the center two years ago:
http://www.town.falmouth.me.us/Pages/FalmouthME_BComm/RouteOneFolder/Council_FSC_20100331_signed.pdf

A little history: The Rich's got an early reprieve from the announced November 1996 closures but only a month later it was announced that Falmouth would be shuttered along with all remaining locations. The K-Mart up the street (which opened in 1972) closed at about the same time (the only other Kmart in Southern Maine, located in Scarborough, closed the previous year.) Ames was announced as a new tenant for the Rich's space in February 1997 (in a $2.7 million lease purchase deal that also included the former Rich's in West Lebanon, NH and St. Johnsbury, VT) and opened later that year. Ominously, Wal-Mart was announced as the new tenant for the vacant K-Mart in August 1997 and opened in 1998. The Ames closed in 2001 (along with the Sanford location) in the next-to-last wave of store closures before they liquidated the entire chain. Contrary to the linked Forecaster story, I don't think K-Mart ever operated at the Falmouth Shopping Center but I could be wrong - my ProQuest access only goes back to the 1990s.

http://www.theforecaster.net/news/print/2012/07/11/route-1-shopping-center-falmouth-be-sold/129442

[retailisking]

The potential new owner of the shopping center is at odds with the town over proposed anti-big-box regulations.
www.theforecaster.net/node/132291

[retailisking]

Falmouth has enacted an anti-big-box limit; only the old 52K Shaw's space will be exempt.
http://www.pressherald.com/news/maine-business-Falmouth-limits-size-stores-big-box-walmart-zoning.html