Cell Phone Store Closes, Plaza Remains 'Above-Average'

Changes continue at the city’s largest shopping plaza, with the recent closure of a cell phone store.

North Beverly Plaza still has an occupancy rate that’s higher than the national average and there’s continued interest in the shopping center’s empty retail space.

In June, T-Mobile closed its store at the Dodge Street plaza. The company decided not to renew its lease, said T-Mobile spokesman Glenn Zaccara. He did not say why the decision was made to close the store, but said T-Mobile still has several other locations on the North Shore, including two stores in Saugus, a store in Peabody and another in Swampscott.

The store’s former location is “very good space” that’s on a corner near the street that can be seen from two sides, said Tom DeSimone, executive vice president for S.R. Weiner, the newton-based company that owns the plaza.

“We’ll have a lot of interest in that space,” he said.

T-Mobile replaced Baja Fresh, a Mexican food chain that withdrew from New England, in 2009.

DeSimone said T-Mobile is still paying rent on its lease, that has not ended but the company “does not like vacant space, whether someone is paying rent or not” and will work to fill it now. There’s no new stores or restaurants he could publicly announce right now, he said.

There’s also empty space a few doors down from the former T-Mobile space, where half of the former Blockbuster Video store remains empty. There’s also empty space where FYE record store used to be located next to Modell’s.

DeSimone called the plaza an “above-average center” noting that the typical vacancy rate nationwide for similar shopping centers is in the 8-10 percent range, while there’s less than 10,000 square feet empty in the 197,000 square-foot plaza, meaning the vacancy is under 5 percent.