What's the future for the Christmas Tree Shops property in Shrewsbury?
SHREWSBURY ― Town Manager Kevin J. Mizikar says Shrewsbury hates to see the Christmas Tree Shops go, and there is no word on the future of the spot that has been the local home of the retail chain store for more than 35 years.
“Obviously, the closing of the Christmas Tree Shop is going to make a huge impact because of the tenure of the store there and just, in general, the notoriety,” Mizikar said. “But we haven’t heard anything (about the parcel) from the company, directly or indirectly, at this point.”
After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May, Christmas Tree Shops is in the midst of liquidating its remaining stores.
The assessed value of Olde Shrewsbury Village, the shopping center where Christmas Tree Shops is located in town, is estimated to be $15,943,200, while the annual real-estate tax generated from the full 161,000-square-foot development is $209,175.
Christmas Tree Shops' economic impact in Shrewsbury
The 68,758-square-foot parcel that is the home of the Christmas Tree Shops is valued at $6,774,003, while the annual real-estate tax is $88,875.
“It’s an important business component of the community,” Mizikar said. “It will definitely be an economic loss for the community.”
Christmas Tree Shops employs 120 workers at its Shrewsbury location.
“A store like that definitely provides a meaningful number of jobs for the community,” Mizikar said. “It’s definitely not something we want to see go away.”
Built on 22 acres on the Shrewsbury-Northborough line at Routes 9 and 20, the Olde Shrewsbury Village shopping center, at 1000 Boston Turnpike, opened with 40 stores and two anchors, Christmas Tree Shops and Calverts.
How Christmas Tree Shops took ownership of Olde Shrewsbury Village
Opened in mid-1987, Olde Shrewsbury Village went through a succession of management companies.
It was built by John M. Collins, David J. Adams and James A. Smith as Olde Shrewsbury Village Limited Partnership. Adams, president of C.K. Smith & Co., a Worcester oil business, was a general partner. Smith, vice president of C.K. Smith & Co., and Collins, a Shrewsbury lawyer, were limited partners.
A combination of lenders, with Bank of New England as lead bank, held mortgages on the 175,000-square-foot, 23-acre shopping center. Bank of New England held a $17 million mortgage on the center. Adams and Smith, the two other principals in Olde Shrewsbury Village Limited Partnership, also held an $800,000 mortgage on the property, before foreclosure proceedings against the partnership began.
In February 1990, after the owners defaulted on their mortgage, Bank of New England assumed financial control and began foreclosure proceedings. After Bank of New England failed and was taken over by Fleet Bank in January 1991, Olde Shrewsbury Village became the property of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
In 1992, Christmas Tree Shops Inc. bought the mall for $4 million from Recoll Management, a Fleet subsidiary that was formed to dispose of nonperforming assets of the failed Bank of New England for the FDIC.
Renovations to Olde Shrewsbury Village
Christmas Tree Shops Inc. began an extensive remake of Olde Shrewsbury Village with an investment that was substantially more than the original purchase price. When it attained ownership, Christmas Tree Shops demolished about 27 retail stores to give the shopping center a more open look and constructed additional parking.
In March 1993, Edward J. Mullin, director of administration and finance for Christmas Tree Shops, based in South Yarmouth, told the Telegram & Gazette that the purchase was a defensive measure, "because we have a retail store there that was doing very well. When we made the commitment to purchase the center, we also committed ourselves to return the shopping center to a center of excellence."
Buildings were torn down along Route 9 to give the center more visibility and a more inviting appearance. These buildings, with about 21,000 square feet of retail space, also were taken down to create 125 additional parking spaces closer to the stores, Mullin said.
In addition, an 18,000-square-foot enlargement of the main building that houses the Christmas Tree Shops was done.
Bilezikian family ownership
In the 1950s, Mark and Alice Matthews opened The Christmas Tree Gift Shop in Yarmouth Port. It ran from May to October each year. In 1970, Charles and Doreen Bilezikian bought the store and expanded it over the next three decades, opening 24 more locations in New England and New York.
In 2003, Bed Bath & Beyond bought Christmas Tree Shops for $200 million and further expanded the retailer's footprint. Bed Bath & Beyond, which itself filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, sold Christmas Tree Shops to the Middleborough-based Handhil Holdings LLC, a private company, in November 2020 for an undisclosed amount of money.
Under the name Turtle Rock LLC, the Bilezikian family owns the Olde Shrewsbury Village property.
As for what will happen to the Olde Shrewsbury Village after the Christmas Tree Shops leave, Gregory C. Bilezikian, manager for Turtle Rock LLC, said it's "a work in progress."
"There is a lot of interest and a lot of excitement around the property. But we're not in a position where we can say who will move in," Gregory Bilezikian said. " "There's no reason for it to stay vacant very long but certainly we want to make the right decision."
Vincent Albanese, a commercial broker and advisor for the Bilezikian family as part of Eastern Retail Properties Inc., said they still have to get possession of the Christmas Tree Shops space in Shrewsbury before getting a new tenant for the spot.
“We don’t have anybody yet to take the space,” Albanese said. “There has been a lot of availability with big box space with Bed Bath & Beyond, with Christmas Tree Shops, with Buy Buy Baby (a retailer owned by Bed Bath & Beyond) going out. But based on the response that we have had so far, I think that we will get a tenant for that space in a reasonable time frame.
“Christmas Tree Shops filed Chapter 11 and then they were supposed to reorganize, then they decided to liquidate and go out of business, but they haven’t changed to Chapter 7,” Albanese said. “So there’s still a little bit of a gray area as to exactly what’s happening, but we suspect that they won’t reemerge.”
Albanese, who represents nine properties with Christmas Tree Shops locations, said Olde Shrewsbury Village is fully leased except for the spot soon to be vacated by the Christmas Tree Shops.
“They’re not going anywhere,” Albanese said of the shopping mall’s other tenants.
Shrewsbury town manager optimistic about growth
Despite Christmas Tree Shops leaving Shrewsbury, Mizikar is optimistic that the town will quickly bounce back.
“We’ve definitely have had a lot of growth over the past five, six years, a lot of new investment and development,” Mizikar said. “Even when we’ve had major retailers like Bed Bath & Beyond, places like that close up, they have been reoccupied very quickly, in comparison to other retail spaces in the region. So we have been very fortunate.”
Mizikar said he has not received a tentative end date for the business. A person who answered the phone at Christmas Tree Shops' corporate office said a date has not been set for when the Shrewsbury location will close for good.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Future of Christmas Tree Shops property in Shrewsbury unknown
