Arrowstreet Develops Village Square for Freeport, Me.

Arrowstreet, a multidisciplinary firm in Sommerset, Mass., recently received a commission to design Village Square, a $45 million, 113,000-square-foot “lifestyle” retail complex with 550 parking spaces in Freeport, Me. The square represents the first step in the town’s “2010 Vision” plan to recreate Freeport as a leisure destination town. Arrowstreet, which currently is developing the project’s schematic design, plans to capitalize on the site’s grade change to build a two-level garage—Freeport’s first—underneath a retail plaza that will be at grade level with Main Street. The retail spaces, which in the town historically have been small, will be larger to attract new tenants to the complex owned by L.L. Bean and being developed by Berenson Associates. Arrowstreet’s plan calls for open plazas that can be used by carts, in addition to a central pavilion that the town councilors liken to Faneuil Hall. The historic Mallet Market will serve as one of the complex’s main entrances.