Chelsea's Mystic Mall

[nowyano]

I went to the Chelsea Market Basket for the first time today and saw the remnants of what in my younger years was the Mystic Mall. The machines were hauling away rocks and what not so I started trying to figure out what was going on. Being as I could not find any person on site within talking distance I went home and looked at the Chelsea website. The site said that the area was bought by Market Basket to turn into a bigger Market Basket.

Now this would not seem odd if it was only part of the mall, but from my reading of the document it is the entire mall that will be turned into a Market Basket. To me that seems ridiculous because (a) you have a Commuter rail line running directly by it (b) the MGH Chelsea campus is across the street as is Chelsea High, you are just a few short blocks from Chelsea Square and (d) that whole area seems to be up and coming with the influx of people who can no longer afford Cambridge and Somerville.

So does anyone know if it is only the Market Basket, or if something else (maybe more akin to Somerville's Assembly Square) is going to happen to the Mystic Mall?

[tabslate]

It is just going to be a massive Market Basket with over 40 registers, and about 3 times the size of the current store, with wider aisles and more parking. It will probably also have a prepared foods area/sub shop which is in the newer Market Basket stores, as well as a bakery.