Boston Garden parking lot soon to be a mall

It's been reported that this is happening before, but the Boston Business Journal is reporting that the project to build a big mall on the former location of Boston Garden has received approval from the Boston Civic Design Commission. It'll be two floors of mall on the ground floor with two towers on it - one residential and one office space. No word on what an apartment in the residential tower will cost, but I'm guessing it'll be out of my price range.

Whalers fans should rejoice at this news - finally, a mall is coming back to NHL hockey in New England! They're calling the giant glass and concrete mall "Champion's Row" which makes me laugh like "Natick Collection" (remember that?) did. The press about it has some nice quotes about it "only happening in Boston" which is sort of hilarious. I'm sure it'll make the Jacobs family a giant pile of money, though. Which is good, if Cam Neely is going to keep doing whatever it is he's doing as President of the team.

Anyhow, this should help streamline the experience between North Station, the Garden, and the businesses across the street. No word yet on where the Bobby Orr statue will end up.

Finally, a discussion of New England hockey in a mall wouldn't be complete without this hot jam: