A conceptual architect's rendering shows a proposal to redevelop the Westbrook Outlets mall into over 1 million square feet of housing. Image courtesy of JCJ Architecture
The owners of the Tanger Outlets mall in Westbrook want to make a big change to their hilltop property just off Interstate 95.
In a two-phase plan presented to the town Zoning Commission this week, developer Lexington Partners wants to tear down nearly all the W-shaped, 257,115-square-foot outdoor mall built in the mid-1990s and a neighboring movie theater built in 1999.
In their place, it would build over 1 million square feet of new housing and a new, 73,656-square-foot retail and entertainment building, plus a parking garage.
According to Lexington Partners’ presentation, 595 apartments would be included in several buildings arranged on a street grid, plus 100 townhome-style condominiums and 14,400 square feet of amenity buildings, including a pool. A 1,000-seat amphitheater and a 100-key hotel are also listed as “possible” in the company’s plans. Renderings in the presentation show the apartment buildings with ground-floor retail.
The company is billing the two-phase development as a “transit-oriented” project as the site is a three-minute drive from Westbrook’s station on the Shoreline East commuter rail line running between New London and New Haven. The line recently got upgraded, faster trains and has been adding new stations, but state officials finalized service cuts to the line last fall that will see only three morning rush hour trains leave Westbrook headed for New Haven on weekdays and four rush hour trains run the return trip during the evening rush hour, with comparable service levels in the other direction, giving less-than-hourly frequencies in both directions.
It was not immediately clear from Lexington Partners’ presentation slides whether the development would add private shuttle bus service to the Westbrook train station, local grocery stores or other destinations to supplement an hourly public bus route, or whether residents will be expected to drive and use the train station’s small parking lot.
