Guitar Center to Lease Half of Borders Building, Beauty Store Coming to Braintree

Two new stores are coming to the Grossman Drive shopping center in Braintree, both of which will use a portion of an existing retail space.

Permitting and initial construction is underway for ULTA Beauty to move into the former garden center area of , and Guitar Center will inhabit half of the Borders building, Building Inspector Russell Forsberg said.

The lease for ULTA, which sells cosmetics, fragrances and other beauty products online and in stores, is a trend for Kmart and Sears, which are renting portions of their big box stores to smaller retailers, according to Forsberg and various news reports.

In St. Louis, for example, the owner of both stores, Sears Holdings Management Corp., is subleasing nearly 30 properties, the St. Louis Business Journal reports. A spokeswoman for ULTA confirmed the lease in Braintree but declined to comment further or release an opening date until closer to that time. A Sears Holdings spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

California-based Guitar Center is the largest musical instrument chain in the world, with more than 200 locations in the United States. The nearest locations to Braintree are Boston and North Attleboro.

Splitting the Borders building will not be a major undertaking, and the biggest challenge will be dividing utilities with another retailer, Forsberg said. He added that he was unaware of who the second tenant might be.

Borders filed for bankruptcy last year and closed its Braintree store and more than 200 other locations. Last June, Quincy-based The Grossman Companies, Inc., along with Dinosaur Capital Partners of Boston, bought the 27,500-square-foot store for $4 million, according to a statement on Dinosaur's website.

A Guitar Center spokeswoman did not respond to an inquiry. Stan Hurwitz, a media representative for The Grossman Companies, said it is premature for the company to comment on its new tenant.