The downtown Burlington L.L. Bean store will be relocating to Williston come summer 2022.
The store — which was the first L.L. Bean outlet to set up shop in Vermont when it arrived in 2014 — will be moving its operations to Finney Crossing, an apartment and mixed-used development complex that touts green, walkable living.
It’s leaving behind another empty storefront in the continually depleting Burlington Town Center Mall properties, owned by developer Don Sinex. The BTC storefronts only have one tenant remaining — a Starbucks.
Sinex said in an email to VTDigger that it hurts to see L.L. Bean leaving but that he knew about the move for some time. He said the years of delays to the CityPlace construction project, which originally was going to feature a retail complex next to the L.L. Bean location but has since been simplified to primarily apartments, partially led to the exit of the L.L. Bean store.
Sinex said he also suspects that the store’s operators were unhappy with “unusually high theft” it saw in its Burlington store compared to others in the chain and “general problems related to homelessness.”
“As for the impact to BTC, the LL Bean move will put further financial strain on the old mall which is already suffering tremendously financially and in my opinion this will be the final nail in its casket,” Sinex said.
“Because we have been aware of the plan to relocate its LL Bean store to Williston,” he added, “we at BTC will accelerate our plan to redevelop the old BTC mall from Church street to the new St. Paul street.”
A spokesperson for L.L. Bean told VTDigger in an email that it will be relocating its Burlington employees to its Williston location.
“We appreciate the loyalty our employees and customers have shown to us in Burlington over the past seven years and look forward to reopening in Williston next year,” the spokesperson wrote. WCAX first reported news of the move earlier Monday.
Finney announced that the store would be moving to the complex on its Facebook page July 23. It will be located between the complex’s Healthy Living store and Union Bank.
Scott Rieley, co-developer of Finney Crossing, said he wouldn’t comment on L.L. Bean’s decision to move out of its Burlington location. He said Finney has just begun breaking ground to build the 25,000-square-foot building that will house L.L. Bean and some other tenants. He said he expects to turn the building over to L.L. Bean in January.
“We think L.L. Bean is a fantastic anchor, a great regional brand,” Rieley said. “We think they’ll be successful in Williston.”