Krafts Planning To Spend $250M On New Patriots Place Complex

Kraft Family Investing $250M In Patriots Place Retail And Entertainment Complex

Patriots Owner Robert Kraft is investing $250M into the family’s $350M retail and entertainment complex that is being built on “much of the 700 acres they own around Gillette Stadium,” according to a front-page piece by Jenn Abelson of the BOSTON GLOBE. The 1.3 million square foot Patriots Place is anchored by retailers like Bass Pro Shops, and other attractions include a team museum, sports medicine and healthcare clinic, a 500-seat jazz club and a “high-end movie theater.” The Krafts are “insisting that all the major players involved — from the architects to the construction firm — be local companies.” Kraft: “For me, this is a legacy project.” Abelson noted the Krafts “plan to own the development long-term and keep control of the day-to-day operations of the complex, which analysts say is rare for such a large undertaking.” The Krafts said that they “now have their pick of merchants and can be very selective.” The family is hoping to attract at least 40,000 visitors daily to the complex, and on game days, they want “to get people to come earlier, stay longer, and to lure into its stores the thousands who show up without game tickets and tailgate in the parking lot all day.” The first phase is set to open this fall (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/20).

COMPONENTS: Bertram Zarins and Thomas Gill, both Patriots team doctors, will be among the physicians who will work at the sports medicine center and outpatient surgical clinic. The Patriots, Massachusetts General and Brigham & Women’s are teaming to “create a potent partnership that will draw sports-crazed suburban families” to the center (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/20). The Hall at Patriot Place museum, originally “conceived as a way to honor” Patriots players, “has evolved into a living history of New England football, from the youth leagues to the Super Bowl.” The facility design is not finalized, but plans are for the $15M museum to be three stories tall with a “grand hall with walls that have digital images from Patriots history projected onto them, and soaring ceilings to make those images appear even more dramatic” (Keith Reed, BOSTON GLOBE, 5/20).