Historic Textile Mill Turned Mall in Lowell Set to Close in January

Chaiel Schaffel

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Many and Lowell are crushed with the news that Mill
Number five, the path Breaking mall set inside an old mill,
and the Merrimack is shutting down. Doug with the Purple
Carrot Downtown says his bakery has roots in the novel project.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
I think it's devastating to the community. We basically built
our whole brand out of there until we were able
to expand to a storefront.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
The owner of the property says the mall is underwater,
taking on six figure losses this year. Laura is the
co owner of Laala Books and knows a lot of
people at the mall.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
The shop owners over there have been doing herculean work
to create great events and bring people in, so that
made this closing a surprise.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
She's a Lowell native too, and she says this is
more a blip than a symptom of backsliding.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
You see peaks and valleys, and I don't really see
this as a valley. There's a lot of energy still downtown.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
The city tells me it's been working with the affected
businesses around the clock trying to find them space. Downtown.
Kyle schaffeld WBZ, Boston's news radio