South Bay (previously South Bay Center) is a

shopping center A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...

in the Dorchester neighborhood of

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, Massachusetts. It is located off

I-93 Interstate 93 (I-93) is an Interstate Highway in the New England states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont in the United States. Spanning approximately along a north–south axis, it is one of three primary Interstate Highways ...

US 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway System, United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort ...

, Route 3, near the transition from the Southeast Expressway to the

Central Artery The Central Artery (officially the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway) is the concurrent section of Interstate 93, US 1 and Route 3 through Downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The modern-day Artery, built as part of the Big Dig from ...

traveling through

Downtown Boston Downtown Boston is the central business district of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Boston was founded in 1630. The largest of the city's commercial districts, Downtown is the location of many corporate or regional headquarters; city, c ...

. South Bay was established initially as a

strip-mall A strip mall, strip center, strip plaza or simply plaza is a type of shopping center common in North America and Australia where the stores are arranged in a row, with a footpath in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have l ...

shopping center in 1998.

History

South Bay was established as a

suburban A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

-style strip mall. The developer, having bought the center in 1998, expanded it eight years later. In 2015, the developer announced plans for implementation of a new,

urban Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

street grid In urban planning, the grid plan, grid street plan, or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at Angle#Types of angles, right angles to each other, forming a wikt:grid, grid. Two inherent characteristics of the grid plan, fr ...

, pedestrian orientation, mixed land uses, structured parking, and acute attention to the details of dynamic

public space A public space is a place that is open and accessible to the general public. Roads, pavements, public squares, parks, and beaches are typically considered public space. To a limited extent, government buildings which are open to the public, su ...

. The project called for 475 apartments, a 130-room hotel, 12-screen cinema, 113,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, and parking, plotted on a 9.9-

acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

residential and commercial development. The project encompasses 10 parcels on Allstate Road, West Howell and Enterprise streets, and Baker and Field courts — formerly largely vacant, commercial/industrial land and parking lots south of South Bay Center. However, Councilor Frank Baker had significant concerns for neighbors regarding managing

traffic Traffic is the movement of vehicles and pedestrians along land routes. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffic laws and informal rules that may have developed over time to facilitate the orderly an ...

around the expanded complex.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:South Bay (shopping center) Dorchester, Boston Shopping malls in Massachusetts Shopping malls established in 1994