Fireworks explode above the Charles River on July 4, 2011. Photo by Pablo Valerio | CC BY 3.0
David Mugar, who developed several retail plazas across the state and transformed the way Boston celebrates Independence Day, has died at age 82.
His death was reported by the Boston Globe and WCVB-TV Wednesday morning, citing family members.
As chairman of Mugar Enterprises, he headed a privately-held business empire that ranged from a small supermarket-anchored property in the U.S. Virgin Islands to some of Boston’s biggest live entertainment venues and stakes in developments rapidly transforming the city’s Fenway neighborhood and other life science hot spots.
Born in 1939, Mugar grew up in Belmont as a child in the family behind the Star Market supermarket chain. His father Sarkis later sold the markets in the mid-1960s and founded Mugar Enterprises, which the younger Mugar took over in 1982.
Under Mugar’s guidance, the company shifted away from its roots in local television and towards real estate investment. The company developed several retail plazas across Greater Boston, including Stoneham’s Redstone Plaza and Hingham’s Derby Street Shops, both of which are now owned by WS Development. In recent years, the company has also invested in the region’s growing life science industry. This included partnering with King Street Properties on the long-in-gestation, three-building Nexus project on Allston’s Western Avenue, part of a larger rush to develop new commercial buildings in the area.
As a philanthropist, Mugar donated to many causes and cultural institutions like Boston’s Museum of Science. But he will likely be most remembered as the longtime producer and funder of the Boston Pops’ July 4th concerts. With few attending the orchestra’s Independence Day Esplanade performances in the mid-1970s, Mugar convinced conductor Arthur Fiedler to add howitzers and fireworks to the performance. The idea proved wildly successful and set a template for similar celebrations around the country. Mugar self-funded the million-dollar events until 2016 when he passed the responsibility to Boston 4 Productions and the Pops.
