Borders, new shops to open this summer at Dedham’s Legacy Place

Borders is due to make its somewhat-delayed opening at Legacy Place in June, becoming the fifth and final anchor store to welcome customers at the $200 million open-air mall.

The 25,000-square-foot bookstore will have a soft opening in mid-June, and is planning grand opening activities for the end of the month, said David Fleming, the corporate marketing director of W/S Development Associates.

“They had originally planned to open in the spring, but it was pushed back to June,” he said. “Borders, it’s a big addition to Legacy Place.”

Fleming said the developer, in crafting its tenant mix, looked “for what the customer wants and what the customer needs.”

“Among those needs we see things like the Whole Foods Market grocery store. L.L. Bean has a number of goods that people need. And the bookstore is another one of those customer needs that we look at,” he said, with the “wants” being Legacy Place’s restaurants, cinema and entertainment. That end of the mix includes anchors Kings and Showcase Cinema de Lux, from Legacy Place co-developer National Amusements.

Borders will be in the same building as P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, near the major intersection of Providence Highway and Elm Street. It will include a Seattle’s Best Coffee inside.

Fleming said that after Borders installed bookshelves last week, books would be coming in this week. It will take three weeks to “merchandise” the store.

The country’s second-largest bookstore chain, which includes Waldenbooks, said in late March that it lost $110.2 million from continuing operations in 2009 – an improvement over its $184.7 million loss in 2008.

Its fourth-quarter sales fell 13.3 percent, to $937.3 million – though its fourth-quarter earnings doubled, to $59.9 million, compared to the same period the year before.

This summer Borders is launching its own electronic book reader, called the Kobo.

Borders is one of a slate of new openings rounding out Legacy Place, which Fleming said is “getting closer and closer to full capacity and full occupancy,” nine months after its official debut last August.

Yard House, J.P. Licks, Beauty and Main, and Francesca’s Collections opened in March. Handcrafted jeweler Dandelion opened this month, as did Salon Capri, which Fleming called “one of Boston’s preeminent hair salons.”

In addition, new tenant signings at the 675,000-square-foot development include White House | Black Market, a boutique that offers sophisticated apparel and accessories in those two timeless colors “and occasionally related shades” for women 25 and older, and Love Culture, launched in the L.A. area in 2007, a fast-growing specialty retailer whose motto is “When Girls Take Over.”

“It’s dynamic, stylish, cutting-edge clothing for the younger generation,” Fleming said. “They appeal to the shopper who’s looking to be a trend-setter.”

Fleming said Love Culture usually has an interesting store design with glass storefronts and floor-to-ceiling glass walls, though he doesn’t know if they’ll be able to do that at Legacy Place.

Coming sometime this summer is Wicked Fire Kissed Pizza, a Massachusetts business whose signature pies include the Scallop BLT and the Sicilian Comfort, which Fleming described as “basically a lasagna on top of pizza.”

“They’re taking the old world Neapolitan pizza making techniques and using fresh organic ingredients to create these modern pizzas – modern creations,” Fleming said of owners Robert and Sheri Catania, whose original location is in Mashpee. Wicked – which also serves cocktails made with organic rums, tequilas and vodka, and organic and biodynamic wines – will conveniently be placed next to the cinema.

The latest signing is Roster, which puts a fashion focus on Boston sports team apparel. “They use retro designs to get what they call a one-of-a-kind look,” Fleming says.

The baby store, giggle, will join the shops at Legacy Place. Labeled as “ a new parent store,” giggle will offer all the essentials for new parents to stock the nursery.

Meantime, office space for Citizens Bank is under construction. Citizens will occupy the entire second level of the Pavilion Building in the center of Legacy Place, and another section in a corner of the Borders building, on the opposite end from P.F. Chang’s, Fleming said.

Citizens will relocate 250 to 300 employees from Norwood and Westwood, according to Fleming. It also plans to open a bank branch and ATMs.

Overall, Fleming said it is “remarkable” for a shopping center, whether new or not, to be so close to capacity in this economy.

“There’s just a few remaining spaces, and we’re really trying to find the right retailers to finish off the shopping center, to make sure we have that nice mix of tenants,” he said.

Dedham Transcript staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.