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07/05/2024 10:07 AMThe property owner and developers behind the proposed redevelopment of the Westbrook Outlets will hold a public information session on the latest plan for the property on Thursday, July 18, at 6:30 p.m. in the Westbrook High School gym.
Town Planner Peter Gillespie said the event will be hosted by Lexington Partners, LLC, a Harford-based development company, and T Westbrook Center, LLC, the owners of the Westbrook Outlets property.
While the meeting details were still being worked out at press time, Gillespie said he had a general idea of what would happen at the meeting.
“The developer will present the latest plan for the site, explain the status of the project, [and] a potential timeline. The developer will bring along his design team to present the details and answer questions,” Gillespie said.
In early 2024, Westbrook residents were intrigued when the potential development team attended a Zoning Commission meeting to announce preliminary plans for a major redevelopment of the outlet’s property.
The plans call for a mix of residential, commercial, townhomes, and amenity space, as well as potentially a hotel and amphitheater built over two phases as part of a new development dubbed Westbrook Commons.
According to the January presentation, the development would feature 30 studio apartments, 209 one-bedrooms, 306 two-bedrooms, and 50 three-bedrooms, for a total of 595 units. At that time, Patrick Kenny, the vice president of Lexington Partners, said the hotel and amphitheater were not central to the project and may not be included in the final proposal.
Under the proposed plan, the outlet mall and movie theater would be completely replaced. The project would feature about 75,000 square feet of retail space, less than what is currently on the property.
T Westbrook Center purchased the property in 2017 and first talked with the town about this project about a year ago.
Following the announcement of the potential redevelopment in January, zoning officials suggested the developers hold an information session to help explain the proposal to residents.
“The Town has encouraged this meeting in order to correct any misinformation about the details of the proposal and to allow for a Q and A with the public before the final details are submitted to the town and the boards and Commissions. We realize that there are community concerns about the potential impacts of the project, so we wanted to provide a public opportunity to get some of these items on the table before too much more time moves along,” Gillespie said.
The July 18 meeting is not the only meeting concerning the potential redevelopment coming up. The Zoning Commission will also hold a public hearing on July 22 at 7:00 at Town Hall over an application for a regulation amendment from the developers that would allow for buildings with a height of 60 feet in the Turnpike Interchange Zone.
In the winter, an attorney for the developers said the regulation change would be the first application filed so that some of the proposed features of the redevelopment would be allowed on the property.