Braintree's Lord & Taylor To Become Lab Space

BRAINTREE, MA - Three dormant suburban locations of Lord & Taylor, America's oldest department store, are preparing for new life as potential homes for life science companies.

According to an article in The Boston Globe, the real estate arm of Hudson’s Bay Co., a retail holding company that also owns Saks Fifth Avenue, is converting the Lord & Taylor locations at the Natick Mall, the Burlington Mall and South Shore Plaza in Braintree into life-science ready space.

HBC Properties and Investments, the real estate arm, partnered with Streetworks Development to create what it called "transformative multiuse environments" in about 40 million square feet of gross leasable area across North America, some of which includes Lord & Taylor. The company is capitalizing on the growing trend of department store closures as people have turned toward online shopping, converting retail space into mixed-use developments and life science space.

“The viability of department stores as a ‘species’ of retail has been in question for many years, first with the advent of enclosed malls, more recently with the vast array of brands selling directly to shoppers,” said David Ian Gray, Principal and retail strategist at Vancouver-based DIG360.

The Lord & Taylor locations are ideal for life science entities because of their high ceilings, spacious parking lots, and high loading bays, according to the Boston Globe article.

By the end of next year, each of the locations will be remodeled to accommodate about 120,000 square feet of space suitable for biotech companies. The process is expected to take approximately 15 months.

The suburbs are becoming increasingly attractive to life science companies that are turning away from core industry communities such as Boston and Cambridge because of skyrocketing real estate prices. One example is Moderna, which is moving its headquarters from Cambridge to its expanding Norwood campus.

“Life-science companies are examining: where do we want to be, and what is the appropriate expense?” Boyle said. “As it relates to urban, walkable amenities that are affordable — it’s a short list.”

Office space is also a less likely use for vacant properties since the COVID-19 pandemic, as more people have shifted to working at home.

Of note is that Lord & Taylor's shuttered Back Bay location at the Prudential Center in Boston may become a location for Dick's Sporting Goods, according to a Boston Business Journal article. This hallmark location since the 1960s encompasses almost a city block on Boylston Street. Hudson's Bay Company does not own this location; it is owned by Boston Properties.