Something new is coming to the interior of Steeplegate Mall, which explains the confusion over whether Hatbox Theatre was getting evicted.
It turns out the eight-year-old theater and a few other businesses can stay, but five other tenants that can be entered only from inside the mall are being told to vacate the mostly-empty retail complex. Hatbox Theatre is one of six businesses that have an entrance on the exterior of the mall.
“Management did recently ultimately make the decision to close its interiors in pursuit of an exciting potential project that would include the space currently leased to in-line tenants,” Jelson Santos, director of operations at Namdar Realty Group, the New York-based firm that owns the mall, said in a statement. “Those with public access will continue to operate as usual while we explore the future of Steeplegate Mall from within.
Exactly what is in store for Concord’s largest retail space isn’t clear yet.
“Unfortunately, we cannot share more details or specifics at this stage, but we look forward to doing so down the line,” Santos wrote.
The news came as a shock to Blue Sky Hair Studio owner Carrie Foote Foote and Becky Carr, who rents a booth at Blue Sky. The salon had two and a half years left on its lease.
“They sent it to Carrie’s home address. They didn’t even tell us in person,” Carr said. “They’re just a bunch of jerks.”
Foote received a letter on Tuesday notifying her that her business would have to leave its space inside the mall.
Carr said Blue Sky had always paid its full rent on time, including when the salon was forced by the state to shut down during the early days of the pandemic. Foote had invested $6,000 into the mall location, replacing the floors and painting. “Our roof was leaking constantly for the first few months we were here,” Carr said.
“It’s really sad that this is how they treat people who paid their rent, always paid on time and when we could’ve just not paid our rent when they shut us down,” she added. “It’s just really poor business.”
The Jeweler’s Workbench must also vacate the mall, after 15 years inside Steeplegate. Owner Gregg Mezzapelle said he still hasn’t received a notice from Namdar. “Maybe they don’t think I’m important,” he said.
“It’s pretty heartbreaking,” Mezzapelle said. “This has been my home for 15 years.”
He wants to find a new location along Loudon Road, avoiding the competition of downtown jewelers, and he is hopeful that his loyal clientele will carry his business past this hurdle.
“This is kind of the last thing I would’ve expected, I know the mall has been crazy and ghost owners but I didn’t think that they were going to throw out the stores inside the mall,” Mezzapelle said.
In total, five businesses – Jeweler’s Workbench, Blue Sky Hair Studio, Mt. Everest Goods, The Arch Threading and Spa and Wireless Zone – are on the mall’s interior. While six others, including The Hatbox, Zoo health club, Altitude trampoline park, Chico’s, Talbots and JCPenny, the last anchor store, have exterior doors.
The 480,000-square-foot mall opened in 1990 with space for about 60 stores. More than half of the spaces have been empty for years, and three of the four anchor stores are now unoccupied.
On Monday, Hatbox founder Andrew Pinard said he had received a letter telling him to vacate by March 23. On Tuesday, that order was rescinded in a phone call with Namdar officials, he said.
It appears that Hatbox received the notice about the coming changes earlier than some other stores, several of whom said they had heard nothing Wednesday, as well as mistakenly.
The theater will lose access to an adjoining interior space, formerly occupied by Radio Shack, that it uses for storage and rehearsal.
The announcement come less than a week after the Monitor ran a story about the city’s exasperation with the mall’s owners. Deputy City Manager Carlos Baía said that they have been unwilling to deal with city proposals to redevelop the property.
Namdar had not contacted any city staff before the announcement, Baía said on Wednesday. “I don’t know what they’re thinking relative to whatever action,” he said. Baía said the city administration can help ousted businesses find available commercial properties, which the city already does for business owners who request help.
During a discussion of council priorities last week, city councilors raised concerns about the mall’s maintenance. Baia suggested Concord was examining whether the owners had complied with code and site plan requirements for the property.
“As a commercial property owner, they have a responsibility to make sure their site is up to code, their site plan is up to the approvals, those are obligations that they have. If they have code issues and they have site issues th ose are concerns that we’ re going to take a good look at,” he said Wednesday.
