Business & Tech

Lord's: Who's Moving In?

After Lord's closes on Feb. 28, everyone wants to know, "Who's moving in?"

 

When people heard that Lord's Department Store is closing after 73 years in business, the first question (often accompanied by a sorrowful look) was, "Why?" 

The second question was inevitably, "Who's moving in?"

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Nancy Kelly-Lavin, who runs Lord's with her brother Tom Kelly, said they don't know who the next tenant might be and the developer might not either.

"I don't have a clue, nor does my brother," said Kelly-Lavin." We don't think they have anything lined up. They just said this was a premium spot."  

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"We tried to control it at the beginning," she said about who might next occupy the space, "but it's a developer, we can't."

On Dec. 31, the building was sold to a local developer . Last summer, Salvatore Capital Partners started the process of converting the former Mobil gas station into a Starbucks coffeehouse.

Selectman Osler "Pete" Peterson said in his personal blog, Medfield02052, on Tuesday that: 

The new owner of the Lord’s site reportedly told town officials, while the deal to buy the Lord’s site was still in the works, that

  1. they had no actual new tenant(s) lined up for the site,
  2. they were thinking of wrapping the building’s exterior façade in brick so as to match and continue the brick fronts of the adjoining buildings right on around the corner onto South Street, and
  3. they were thinking of dividing the space to make three separate stores.

Some Patch readers have suggested the new tenant keep the historic "Lord's" neon sign in place and call the building "Lord's Plaza" or "Lord's Shops." What do you think of the idea? 

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