The Old Kmart Building in Watertown is Finally Getting Chopped Up

I drove by the old Kmart building in the 10 Acre Mall Plaza on Straits Turnpike in Watertown the other night, and I noticed that finally, almost a year after it closed down, they've recently done a ton of work on the old Kmart building.

It looks like they've opened up a good portion of the front of the store with new windows, and it also appears that they've subdivided the main space of the former store with the new, chopped up portion. Contractors have also filled in the front of the new windows with leveled sidewalks, it's a pretty steep drop off towards Bunker Hill Road. If you don't remember what the building looked like before, here's a photo I took of the front of the store, shortly before it closed in December 2019.

And here's a photo of the location that I took just the other night

I'm pretty sure that the next thing that's going is the last Kmart sign, sadly, that we'll ever see again in our lifetime. As of right now, according to Wikipedia, there are less than 50 Kmart stores operating in the world, and they're disappearing quickly through the pandemic.

Which leads to my next thought, what would you like to see go into the new space in Watertown? The 10 Acre Mall already has LaBonne's, a liquor store, the Chinese Buffet, a pizza place, a nail and tanning joint, and a laundramat. Watertown has always had a Marshall's, so, maybe a HomeGoods? I'm sure LaBonne's has a contract of exclusivity with the owner's of the plaza, so, a Trader Joe's would not go there, but, that would be nice.

The Pioneer Plaza across Straits Turnpike has Staples, another nail salon, Chinese restaurant and liquor store, plus a bank, and a couple of rotating local restaurants. What could go into the old Kmart building that would snazz up Automotive row? I'd love to see a pet store, a local coffeehouse, or, hell, even bring back Radio Shack.