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Pro-Mall Candidates Win Tewsbury Election

TEWSBURY, MA-Two board of selectmen candidates in favor of a proposed mall here beat the only openly anti-mall candidate on the ballot in a close race last weekend. The mall isn¹t a done deal yet, however.

By Dees Stribling | Updated on April 06, 2004

TEWSBURY, MA-Since last summer, this town of about 29,000 northwest of Boston has been bitterly divided by a 750,000-sf mall development proposed by Virginia-based Mills Corp., and when it came time last Saturday to fill two slots on the town’s five-member board of selectmen, most of the candidates had already taken sides, pro-mall or anti-mall. The only openly anti-mall candidate, Robert F. Kelley, garnered a respectable 1,346 votes, coming in third; but it wasn’t enough to beat the winners of the contest, Charles E. Coldwell and Joseph P. Gill Jr., who took 1,997 and 1,801 votes respectively. Both Coldwell and Gill, who went into the race as incumbents, are in favor of the new mall.

The mall would be built on a site near I-93, and would not only require rezoning by the town, but also the construction of a new interchange to service it, which would need state and federal approval.

Proponents of the mall argue that the town, which is facing a budget shortfall of about $800,000 in fiscal 2005, will need the revenue ultimately generated by the development. According to some estimates–disputed by the mall’s detractors–the mall will bring $1.6 million to $3.1 million annually to town coffers, the actual figure depending on how much the municipality spends on public safety for the mall. The mall would also generate construction jobs during its development, and retail jobs after that.

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