A long-planned renovation at The Street Chestnut Hill will finally come to fruition later this spring.
WS Development announced Monday that the developer has locked nearly 25 retailers and restaurants at 27 Boylston St., a long-vacant structure that formerly housed an AMC theater. It marks a major move for the building at the center of the longstanding mall, comprising over 40 storefronts along Route 9 near the Newton-Brookline line.
On the docket is a collection of national brands such as Reformation, Skin Laundry, Alo Yoga, and Marine Layer, as well as solidcore, a pilates studio, and SweatHouz — a sauna and cold plunge brand.
A handful of local businesses are also on the list: Pink Carrot, a healthy fast-casual spot in the North End, is expanding into The Street with a 2,000-square-foot storefront. Owner JoAnn Bertolino said the location will offer smoothie bowls and power toast in “more of a neighborhood, rather than right in the city.”
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And Ted Winston of Winston Flowers said his business’ shift to The Street is a homecoming of sorts.
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“We’re going back to our roots,” he said. The Newton outpost of the 70-year-old florist initially lived in a mall on Route 9 before moving to a standalone store on Florence Street in 2000. Now the Winston’s collection of bouquets, orchids, and candles will be in the heart of a bustling shopping center, with additional areas for monthly classes and consultations for weddings and private events.
Todd Norley, vice president of leasing at WS Development, called the 90,000-square-foot project — a combination of shopping, offices, and community gathering spaces — an anomaly in our time. Malls have been in decline for the past decade as consumers shift to online retail, and “there’s not much new construction at this scale taking place right now” because of the high cost of building materials,” Norley said. “But the community in Chestnut Hill is already super engaged, and we’ve always had the desire to expand our presence here.”
In a release, WS executives said the renovation will pay homage to the existing building. “The curvature and brickwork … will remain while the building is reimagined with masonry, metal, wood, enlarged windows, and lush greenery crawling up, around, and above,” it read.
An elevated walkway will wrap around three sides of the building and connect to a 64-foot bridge and tree canopy that leads to the property’s southern side.
27 Boylston Street; www.thestreetchestnuthill.com
Health care with a twist
Two new Back Bay businesses are approaching health care a tad untraditionally. Five Journeys claims to meld primary care with functional medicine, especially for those who are getting up there in age. And Human Powered Health is a high-tech running performance lab.
Here is what that means, according to both business’ founders.
Doctors Wendie Trubow and Edward Levitan at Five Journeys said the physicians at their 2,600-square-foot facility evaluate patients’ health through five categories: physical, chemical, emotional, social, and spiritual. They provide everything from a routine checkup to wellness treatments — think vitamin boosters, brain taps, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and performance coaching with TB12-trained coaches — at one location.
The goal? “To make you feel freaking amazing at any age,” Trubow said.
The membership-based medical practice charges between $129 and $699 a month. But the benefit, Levitan said, is in receiving a comprehensive look at your well-being.
“Some people just need a doctor to look into their biochemistry,” he said. “They need someone to treat their Lyme Disease or mold. Some people just don’t know what they’re waking up for — they’re 80 years old,” he said. “We’re looking to connect the whole person — not just exercise, or meditation, or any one thing.”
A few blocks away, Human Powered Health is looking to get a big-picture view of everyone too, “whether they’re looking to compete or get off their couch,” said chief executive Dan Cohen. But the Back Bay location — located above the running store Tracksmith Trackhouse — is focused on runners and endurance athletes. It offers treadmill and bike-based assessments of customers’ gait, hydration, resting metabolic rates, and even lactate blood testing. Analyzing those metrics, Cohen added, can help people “understand how efficient an individual is” and “how well they move through space.”
HPH also partnered with the multidisciplinary practice Wellness in Motion on Newbury. The pair plans to open another 8,000-square-foot facility in Wellesley this spring.
Five Journeys, 425 Boylston Street, Boston, www.fivejourneys.com; Human Powered Health, 285 Newbury Street, Boston, www.humanpoweredhealth.com
Creating signature scents
Newbury Street will be graced with a “custom fragrance destination” next month. Olfactory NYC is upgrading its Seaport pop-up with a 1,100-square-foot storefront between Clarendon and Dartmouth. (The Seaport outpost at 85G Seaport Blvd will close in April.)
The spot will give customers the opportunity to concoct their own fragrant creations using oils on hand at the store, said chief executive JJ Vittoria. Also for sale? Travel sprays, lotions, and soy-blend candles.
What Olfactory hopes to do is make the “sense of luxury more fun and accessible,” Vittoria said. “The price point has made the fragrance experience more senile, and department stores tend to have a lot of celebrity imagery. That’s not what fragrances are. It’s an art form.”
133 Newbury Street, Boston; www.olfactorynyc.com
Cookies for all
Chip City Cookies, the New York-based purveyor of jumbo-sized cookies, opened in Arsenal Yards in Watertown earlier this month.
The outpost boasts 5.5 ounce desserts that are “crispy on the outside, and gooey on the inside,” said cofounder Teddy Gailas. It rotates its menu weekly between 40-some classic and seasonal flavors, but don’t worry, there are always chocolate chip cookies. A second location of Chip Cookies in Boston will open early next year.
104 Bond Square, Watertown; www.chipcitycookies.com