Aug 4, 2010

Shoppers enjoy fresh air, deals on Wednesday at Dedham’s Legacy PlaceBy Alexa ChildDailyNewsTranscript.com

Dedham, MA — For the businesses at Legacy Place, success is driven by community.

Every Wednesday evening throughout the summer, stores and restaurants open their doors and bring out different activities and sale items to the sidewalks of the open-air mall.

“Whether it’s sale racks or whether you can go all out and really host activities, it just creates a fun atmosphere on the sidewalks,” said Joan Jolley, head of marketing and business development at Legacy Place. “When you get here, you almost feel kind of like a city street, community feel … I think that’s part of the big success of Legacy Place.”

Although the 675,000-square-foot complex along Providence Highway is almost a community on its own, Jolley said she thinks of Legacy Place as part of the larger Dedham community as well.

“We feel like a community here, but we feel like Dedham is our community too,” she said. “We work pretty closely with a lot of the Dedham partners.”

Jolley said she chose Wednesdays as the designated night for activities because Wednesdays are busy in Dedham Square. Every Wednesday from noon to 6 p.m. there is a farmers market in the town’s permit lot on Eastern Avenue and the Endicott Estate on East Street is the spot for the Dedham Junior Woman’s Club’s 7 p.m. summer concert series.

So when the mall was planning its outdoor events, Jolley said “Let’s pick Wednesday, a really fun day to come to Dedham, for all of this stuff.”

What the Legacy Place businesses choose to do on Wednesdays is up to them, Jolley explained.

Read complete article.