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CHICOPEE, MA-CBL and Associates Properties Inc. closed on its purchase of the former Fairfield Mall site. The Chattanooga, TN-based shopping center developer bought the 23-acre property for $4.3 million from Fairfield Mall LP.

According to Spaulding & Slye Colliers senior vice president Jim Koury, who represented the seller and procured the buyer in the transaction, the property came under agreement with CBL more than four years ago, after the seller had permitted the property for the 180,000-sf strip mall. At the time the mall was nearly fully vacant and CBL spent the past four years preleasing the retail spaces for the new mall and negotiating easements with Wal-Mart and Home Depot, both of whom own their buildings. The previous mall was demolished last year. Koury says the location at the intersection of Route 33 and Exit 5 of the Massachusetts Turnpike makes it "ideal for a retail power center."

The Fairfield Mall was built in 1973 and was flanked by two shadow anchors, Bradlees and Caldor. The enclosed mall was renovated in 1987. When the Caldor store closed in 1998 and the Bradlees store shortly thereafter, plans began to redevelop the interior 220,000-sf portion of the mall as a strip power center. The anchors were re-leased to a 137,000-sf Home Depot in 2002 and 150,000-sf Wal-Mart last year. The interior mall was then demolished in 2003 for redevelopment as an 180,000-sf strip center which will be called the Chicopee Marketplace. The property is approximately 75% preleased to tenants such as Marshalls, Staples, I-Party and Sleepy's.