The renovation of the 35,000-sf store was done in just under eight weeks. "We needed to get it done," Quirino Salvati, vice president with IBEX, which built the store for H&M, tells GlobeSt.com. "H&M feels it's a fairly great market and a great town."

"Downtown Crossing is changing," Jeff Brown, president of Dyer/Brown & Associates, architect for the project, tells GlobeSt.com. TJ Maxx, another retailer, will be opening a store above H&M and Millennium Place, the new Ritz-Carlton Towers, will be opening shortly. The $500 million complex will include two hotels, the Sports Club/LA, a 19-screen Loews Cineplex movie theater and 300 luxury condo units. Emerson College and Suffolk University have also recently expanded into this area.