Big changes are coming to a busy block in Cambridge.
After months of rumours swirling around the Southworks Outlet Mall, its future was made official Thursday.
It, along with the former Tiger Brand factory next door, will be the focus of a $100-million redevelopment project to create what’s being called Cambridge’s ‘gaslight district.’
“It is a destination spot … and we’re going to augment that,” says Scott Higgins of HIP Developments, one of the partners in the project.
The plans for the property call for two residential buildings with 400 condo or rental units, as well as a public square that Higgins touts as having a similar feel to Toronto’s Distillery District or Liberty Village.
Conestoga College is also part of the redevelopment, with plans to create a campus for advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity and electronics recycling at the site.
At Southworks, it will be business as usual for now. The developers say they hope to have the mall empty by the end of 2017.
Doug Harding, who owns Nostalgia and Southworks Antiques, says the redevelopment might force him to move, but it won’t put him out of business.
He says he’s already picked out a new location in Cambridge for whenever he may have to move his operations.
“We can do some really nifty things that we’ve never been able to do before,” he says.
With reporting by Allison Tanner
