– A Bowen Associates rendering

–News about elsewhere covered by Quincy Quarry News with commentary added

What little was left of the old Hanover Mall during its transformation into Hanover Crossing
Image via Reddit

The Hanover Mall makeover is pretty much down to punch list time and but a few more move-iins by new tenants.

Hanover Mall opened in 1971, fully a decade after South Shore Plaza opened, and was redone in 1999.

As such, the Hanover Mall had no impact on the “Shopperstown” era of Quincy Center in the 1950’s, much less any role in the center’s decline.

The Hanover Mall itself later suffered a decline as did many suburban shopping malls over the past twenty-plus years as the nature of retailing has changed, including the dramatic rise in online shopping.

The future for oonsumer shopping?
Image via Walmart

Anchor department stores JC Penny’s and Sears, along with many specialty retailers, closed their Hanover Mall locations.

Things were so bad for the old Hanover Mall that a new owner took over via basically a store closing its doors discount fire sale a handful of years ago.

Subsequently, much of the then primarily indoor mall was then closed and demolished in 2020 so as to facilitate the mall’s makeover into a somewhat smaller outdoor style shopping mall. 

The Great Disruptor
Image vie the AP

Disruption inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic notwithstanding, considerable new retail space was built, remaining space renovated, new retail tenants lined up to open up shop, and almost three hundred new apartments were added into the mix.

New tenants include a Market Basket supermarket as well as a new cineplex operator with new theaters to replace the former cineplex operator, both of which are things Quincy residents can only wish were in Quincy. 

Hanover Crossing will soon also have an L.L. Bean store as well as Sullivan’s of Castle Island’s second branch smartly located near the new cineplex as well as already has a DIck’s Sporting Goods store, all of which are sorts of retail businesses Quincy residents can only hope against all hope might ever come to Quincy.

Hanover Crossing
Image via Bowen Associates

In fact, Quincy’s only upscale steakhouse opened up a second location nearby and per various accounts this second steakhouse is doing better business in Hanover than at its original location in Quincy.

The now no more Quincy Hospital
Image via Steward Medical

Granted, and as is the case for Quincy, Hanover has no hospital; however, it does have several hospitals within usually shorter driving times than Quincy residents typically face in the event of a medical emergency.

All in all, the new and renovated space at Hanover Crossing totals up to an arguable quarter or so of what has been touted as coming to the Quincy Center redevelopment district for over a dozen years and still counting. 

That and how the total acreage of the new Hanover Crossing mixed use complex is also greater than the Quincy Center redevelopment district.

Conversely, A City on the Move appears to be constipated
An iconic Quincy Quarry News exclusive file photo

In turn, all things thus duly considered, such is quite an accomplishment in what is a sleepy small bedroom community along the Route 3 corridor that has roughly but a tenth of the population of Quincy.

In particular, the three hundred new apartments built within the old Hanover Mall footprint are on the order of how many have been built in Quincy citywide over the same period of time on an only properly weighted and so duly adjusted local populations bases.

Even more impressive is that the Town of Hanover has spent relatively little local taxpayers’ money on infrastructure and such in support of the old mall’s transformation that has resulted in upwards of several hundred million in privately-funded development as weel as so also boast the local economy.

Burn rate, money to burn — whatever
Image via cheatsheet.com

Conversely, Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch has spent over $300 million in mostly local taxpayer funded debt proceeds on infrastructure projects and such within the Quincy Center redevelopment district in the hope that new development will come.

So far, however, a recent report noted that the center has seen roughly but $250 million in new private sector development to date.  In turn, sage observers know that roughly a bit over a billion in new development will be needed to provide sufficient local property and other local tax revenue to cover the local municipal debt service that free-spending Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch is looking to spend in total on public infrastructure within Quincy Center to see his pipe dream of a New Quincy Center perhaps actually happen,

A near new bridge in Quincy Center next to no one uses
A Quincy Quarry News file photo

Then again, surely he needs to spend well into eight figures to build a third large park within the Quincy Center redevelopment district in the hope that new as well as sufficient private development will come if he builds same so that consequential new development will actually as well as finally come to Quincy Center.

In any event, the Town of Hanover now has easily one of the nicest and smartly planned suburban commercial center for shopping, entertainment, dining, and residential developments in the county.

In short, it is amazing what can happen as well as quickly, all things considered, when a developer, local government officials, and lenders cooperate to see a positive outcome for all rather than conducting business as usual with the usual sorts of suspect suspects.

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