Big news last week out of New York: the Nanuet Mall in Nanuet, New York will soon be closing to be demolished and replaced with an open-air lifestyle center.
I only visited the Nanuet Mall once–way back in 2000–and I remember being amazed at the time that it seemed to do fairly well given that it exists in the shadows of Nyack’s mammoth Palisades Center Mall, a far newer behemoth that’s one of the largest malls in the tri-state area. Nanuet seemed quieter and more civilized than its cousin down the street; clearly a case of a mall that had (successfully, then) positioned itself as a convenient option for residents living in the immediate area, much in the same way that Paramus Park manages to thrive in the shadows of Garden State Plaza. I guess that times have changed since then, however, and the center needs to dramatically reposition itself to remain viable.
The Nanuet Mall was the largest mall for affluent, suburban Rockland County in the lower Hudson region for 30 years. The mall opened in 1969, with Bamberger’s and Sears as anchor stores. Here’s a vintage photo of the Nanuet Mall from that era; the Bamberger’s signage is plainly visible in the shot. In 1986, Bamberger’s was converted to Macy’s. In the mid-1990s, a new wing was added (creating a “T” shaped layout) with an Abraham & Straus anchor store; this store would later become a Stern’s. When Stern’s and Macy’s merged in 2001, the store was shut and later replaced by a Boscov’s store; one of only four in New York State.
The redevelopment plans call for eliminating the entire center save the Macy’s and Sears stores; Boscov’s is leaving the complex for good. There were rumblings of something like this happening for awhile, with a scare around the holidays about the mall cutting its hours from 10-9 down to 11-6. Instead it looks like they’ll be cut back a whole lot more than that.
Prangeway took all of these photos in 2001, a much better time for the poor old Nanuet Mall.
This news absolutely sucks. The Nanuet Mall is such a beautiful mall, which is a sharp contrast to the Palisades Center (which is the ugliest mall I have ever seen, given the fact that the HVAC units are exposed everywhere.) The mall’s managers really must have screwed things up: there’s no reason why a smaller mall couldn’t serve as an viable alternative to a nearby behemoth: witness the success of not only the Paramus Park Mall, but also of Southdale Center (which is very close to the Mall of America).
The terrible news of Boscov’s closing really worries me. (Really, if any of the anchors were to close, one would expect it to be Macy’s, since only they have a location at the Palisades Center.) For one thing, I always thought Boscov’s did real well in dead malls. This store closure makes me wonder if that whole chain is in deep financial trouble. The last thing we need is for one of the few remaining regional department stores (not to mention a chain that sells merchandise that other chains stopped carrying long ago) to bite the dust.
As a historical note, I am really surprised to learn that the Nanuet Mall’s Macy’s was originally a Bamberger’s, since (aside from this location) the Bamberger’s name was never used in New York State. I can only speculate that the Bamberger’s name was used because Nanuet is so close to the New Jersey border.
Caldor, thank you so much for profiling this mall, as I had been wanting to see this mall on Labelscar for quite some time.
What the hell? That Boscov’s looks awesome! I hope they don’t demolish it =/
The marketing director at the Galleria in White Plains, also worked in Nanuet as well, she is a friend of mine. When i get a chance i will contact her & get some answers for us.
It shouldn’t come as a shock that Nanuet is closing, it is being squeezed by 2 monsters, Palisades Center & Paramus NJ. What is weired is the fact Macy*s is staying & Boscov’s is not. We don’t need that macy*s to remain if 3 other stores are with in 15 minutes driving time.
AceJay & Max, good to hear from you
Wow! What a beautiful place. Too bad it’s being closed and razed.
I haven’t been back in years, it wasn’t that nice of a mall. It was dark & was a hang out for local kids who had nothing to do.
On one visit a group of teens were herrassing my girlfriend in Record Town because she was sort of dressed like an employee. While in the store they kept asking “do you work here”?* laughing as they were doing this*. After the 3rd or 4th time we picked up & left, & to this day never returned.
The mall interior is too cool to be destroyed. It’s one of the rare mall remodels from that time period that doesn’t look really dated.
It’s very unusual to see a Boscov’s close. But considering what a short lifespan A&S and Stern’s had at Naunet Mall and the upscale demographics of the area, it probably wasn’t the ideal location for a Boscov’s I don’t think it’s indicative of any financial problems with the chain.
Yep, it’s a sad bit of news, but this was really only a matter of time.
Even at its peak, Nanuet was never really a blockbuster mall. Rockland County residents often made the quick trip down Route 17 or the Garden State Parkway to one of the five Paramus malls for major shopping trips, leaving Nanuet for the smaller trips, while residents of Orange County (the next county north) gained many more shopping options when the Galleria at Crystal Run opened in Wallkill and the Woodbury Commons outlet center began its amazing expansion. Nanuet couldn’t even position itself as the quieter, convenient center, since Paramus Park was just as convenient to many Rockland residents and offered better options.
It’s too bad, because this was really a great mall at its peak. Before the 1995 renovation and 21-store expansion (motivated by Palisades Center’s proposed construction), the mall was straight out of the 1970s, with lots of wood, foliage, and funky lighting fixtures. That renovation saw the small movie theater near Sears torn out to provide room for a food court, the addition of marble flooring and glass skylights, and a general upgrade in the mall’s appearance. It also added Abraham & Straus, which would be the last location A&S opened before being closed in the fallout from the Macy’s-Federated merger. AceJay’s right — it is a beautiful store and really a testament to the quality of the job A&S did that the store looks almost as good today (three owners later) as it did the day it opened. Even the internal department signage is the same as in the A&S days. The mall expansion really did a great job bringing new stores to the mall like Guess and the region’s first American Eagle (no Record Town, though – the only record store I remember was the long-existing Sam Goody on the lower level next to Sears), and helped Nanuet hold on a little longer after Palisades opened.
The core reason that Sears and Macy’s will remain while everything else will close is that those two stores — the original anchors — own their stores, while Simon owns the rest (including the Boscov’s location). Sears’ Homart Development division built the mall, and it included the only Bamberger’s in New York state. In fact, until Bamberger’s took the Macy’s family name in 1986 or so, Macy’s/Bamberger’s credit card statements listed the store as being in “Nanuet, NJ,” despite being five miles north of the New York-New Jersey border.
The Nanuet Mall also had its share of tragic headlines. In 1994, a Bronx man carjacked two local teens at the mall and forced them to drive to a vacant field about 15 minutes away before shooting them both at point-blank range. One died, but the other miraculously survived. Years earlier, in 1981, several members of the Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army stole $1.6 million from a Brinks armored car that had just serviced the Nanuet National Bank branch on the mall’s upper level. Two police officers and a Brink’s guard were killed in a shootout with the robbers during the ensuring police chase against the county.
Finally, I wouldn’t worry too much about the overall health of Boscov’s. When the Nanuet store opened seven years ago, Boscov’s planned to open a series of locations throughout the Hudson Valley and into New Jersey. Over the last few years, it sounds like Boscov’s realized that it could build more stores in other areas for the same price, and given the stated preference of Boscov’s CEO Edward Lakin to build a dense store base in the markets it serves, the company appears to have channeled its growth into other areas (like Maryland, upstate New York, and Pennsylvania).
What an ugly mall. Full of 90s kitsch–a postmodern collection of classic columns, fake wrought iron and other busy looking junk that doesn’t fit together.
I went to this mall 2 weeks ago and it had a lot of vacancies and odds and ends store. I guess this mall is this way because everyone goes to the Palasades. Why Boscov’s going?
Sean, thank you for your kind words.
One thing that puzzles me about the Nanuet Mall’s decline is the fact that it did not immediately collapse the moment the Palisades Center opened. In fact, based on these pictures, the mall was still successful in 2001 (some three years after the Palisades Center opened). Rather, the mall collapsed within the past five years. Does anybody have any insights as to what occurred over the past five years to make Nanuet Mall so dead? (Obviously, the opening of the Palisades Center could not be given as a reason, since that mall opened ten years ago.) The only event that I can think of (that may have contributed to this huge decline) was the Federated-May merger, which converted the Palisades Center’s Filene’s into a Macy’s; as a result, those who shop at Macy’s no longer had to go to the Nanuet Mall.
This past December, I visited the Nanuet Mall for the first time. The only reason why I even went there was to see Boscov’s. (I live in Morris County, NJ, and the closest Boscov’s locations to me are the stores at Nanuet Mall, Monmouth Mall, Palmer Park Mall, and Lehigh Valley Mall.) If you exclude the anchors, just about the entire mall was dead (aside from the food court). Those tenants that did exist were very odd, such as a Tae Kwon Do studio and a piano store that was located in a former CVS (and looked exactly the same as back when it was a CVS). Macy’s and Sears seemed to be doing alright (although hardling bustling), but Boscov’s was by far the most crowded store in the mall.
Max,
i’m going to take my best guess at this, why must you ask such tough questions! LOL
The F & M merger contributed some what to Nanuet’s decline, but it was not the sole reason. One of the problems was it was a short distance from Spring Valley where a lot of lower income families live & the kids would hang out as i posted above or congergate at the bus station in town.
It took a few years for pallisades to find it’s footing, but when it did it wasn’t to long till it became the powerhouse that it is today. Yes there are to many empty stores at pallisades for my taste, but their are enough stores that could have filled both centers if they wanted to.
I gave it my best shot even if i took the long way to get there.
I forgot to make 1 more point, Nanuet mall’s decline was so slow that one would never notice with the naked eye. A store, store here, a store, store there, here a store, there a store, every were a store store. LOL
next thing you know, it’s 5 years & at least half of the stores are gone.
I was honestly suprised to see the mall lasted as long as it did. Max makes a very good point about the Filene’s-Macy’s merger helping to accelerate the Nanuet Mall slide. Very sad to see this mall’s decline because it was a nice size…it also didn’t have the traffic of route 4 or 17 and it’s not Blue Lawed like every mall in Paramus.
And Craig, I remember that carjacking incident in 1994 vividly…that made news outside of the NY Metro Area as I recall and many I know who live in Bergen County were afraid to go to Nanuet Mall for a while as a result.
Again, sad to see a classic ride into the sunset. And Max, I agree that Palisades Center is not too aesthetically pleasing.
Palisades, at 3,500,000 square feet, still to this very day could not fill all of it’s retail space. When the mall was built the whearhouse club was the in thing. As a result the mall was designed in that manor, & why it is so ugly.
Well, inbetween reading the comments here about Nanuet, and over at the Malls of America blog, I’m saddened to hear that this mall is about to be de-malled. Have to totally agree with other commenters about the condition of the Boscov’s in this mall, it looks in too darn good shape to just close all of a sudden! 🙁 Hmmm, all I can guess is maybe Boscov’s does better financially in other regions where they have stores…..
Since I have all but no knowledge about this area(and since I’m trying to correctly read inbetween the lines of other posters here), how many Boscov’s stores exist in northern NJ? I’m guessing a big reason this mall could’ve held on as long as it did after Palisades opened, was that not many Boscov’s operated in the northern NJ area, and this was one of the few easily accessible Boscov’s for northern NJ residents. In addition, I guess(but correct me if I’m wrong, and if this wasn’t the only reason for this mall’s death) all the competing malls and shopping centers to the north of here(in Orange County, and the Paramus malls in northern NJ helped in the end to squeeze this mall’s business too much, and did it in.
Like I said at the beginning, sad to hear that a mall that looks in such good shape is about to be de-malled. Guess the bigger factor that hurt this mall was competition from malls to the north(in Orange County) and the south(in northern NJ) doing this one in, besides it having to compete with Palisades for shoppers. (correct me of course, if my thinking of why this mall declined in the end is off)
Allan,
In answer to your question, Boscov’s has zero stores in northern NJ. Aside from the Nanuet Mall store, the closest Boscov’s locations accessible to people who live in northern NJ can be found at the Monmouth Mall (in central NJ), as well as two PA malls–Palmer Park Mall and Lehigh Valley Mall–that are located close to the NJ border.
wow I heard this mall was in trouble but not that badly yes the palisades mall killed this mall big time look at the size of palisades compared to this mall. its strange how they had a bambergers in NY back in the day those stores were common in NJ,PA,DE and MD its a shame boscovs is leaving that store aint to bad but I miss A&S though
that boscovs from looking at the pictures looks fairly new even though a&s and stern’s were there before hand. it wouldn’t make any sense to tear it down just plain stupid. they might save the store itself and maybe put one of these stores there Dicks but palisades probably has it already, the great indoors which is like an ikea kinda store but owned by Sears they have a mega location in woodbridge nj or an IKEA but theres one minutes away in paramus across from the GSP on rt4 I dunno any suggestions
With out Boscov’s the number of choices to add becomes very limited. Because both Palisades & Rockland Plaza have most of the big boxes, the only store i can think of adding is Bass Pro Shops. I’m not sure if Nanuet is the best place for a store like that though.
Sean,
You make Spring Valley sound like a poverty stricken area….which it is not. Unless you are referring to the influx of Guatamalans and Mexicans who have plagued the area the last couple of years?!?!?!?! A large part of Spring Valley falls under middle class income AND no it did not contribute to the decline of the Nanuet Mall.
Max,
To answer your question the decline of the Nanuet Mall was very gradual. Because the Palisades Mall was such a monstrosity when it first opened the Nanuet Mall got the “overflow” of customers who preferred not to be bothered with the Palisades Mall.
I can recall about 1 1/2-2 1/2 years after the Palisades Mall opened that right after the Christmas holidays is when stores started to gradually disappear. I can vividly recall going to the mall after the holiday to catch some after Christmas sales to find the Gap gone. After that I noticed a trend where the stores that were closing were the ones who also had a store in the Palisades Mall….it does make good business sense considering the Palisades Mall and Nanuet Mall are within close proximity of each other.
Currently, there are very few stores in the mall and off the top of my head I can think that NY& Company, Rainbow, Footlocker, Aeropostale, GNC, Hallmark Store, Mandies and Kay Jewelers. Also, another factor that contributed to its decline is the fact that as more stores closed that in effect made the rent increase for the remaining occupants.
It will be sad to see it go, but I am at least glad there are plans in the works to turn it into something else vs. it becoming a “dead mall” and an eyesore like the infamous Dixie Square Mall, where the infamous Blues Brothers chase scene in the mall was filmed.
Fast fact: To date the Dixie Square Mall has been closed for 30 years more than twice as long as it was in business.
For the record i said “lower income.” At that time Spring Valley’s downtown area was very nasty, it was in the early 1990s. Perhaps things may have improved since then. I hope things are better now then they were when i went there last.
Hello,
The Nanuet Mall closing is no surprise to me, I went in there around Thanksgiving……..theres a dentists office in there people! Thats when you know a mall has gone down the sh*t hole. I live very close to the mall, so the demolition and the stages to follow should be very interesting.
Personally, I think no matter what they put there in the NMs place will still be under the Palisades Malls shadow.
So true Greg, the only exeption to this is if they bring in a large format store that Palisades or Rockland plaza doesn’t already have. As i said above, the number of big box choices is very limited. If IKEA was not in Paramus it would be an option, but as it is the only choice i could see are Lowes or Bass Pro Shops.
Sean,
You must be referring to Main Street. There is currently a revitalization project going on and 3/4 of the stores that were there are now gone. Supposively they are building affordable housing…..townhouses & condos.
Yes i was refering to that area. I’m glad to here that part of town is being revitalized, just what Spring Valley needed.
Thanks for answering my question about Boscov’s, Max. It’s too bad that adding Boscov’s didn’t prevent this mall from declining against other competing malls in the end, but I do also know that’s the way the retail cycle of malls often goes.
And considering the size of Palisades Mall(it’s even documented as one of the top 5 American malls in overall square feet, according to wikipedia), I think I’d have to agree with Greg’s comment about the dominance of Palisades over Nanuet, and that whatever shopping center Simon puts in NM’s place will have to carefully be something(i.e. at least a few big-drawing store(s), i.e. Bass Pro Shops, Cabela’s, etc.) that you can’t find at Palisades.
There maybe a way to save Boscov’s,at Palisades move The Sports Authority into the former Comp USA location, that way you would have a 2 level retail space that includes the former JoAnn’s etc. store wich is pritty large to begin with.
Just a thought.
As a teenager living in Nanuet, I can tell you that the only reason that anyone my age goes to that mall is because parents think it is “safer” (which i know is true) than the Palisades. As everyone knows, the Palisades has much more desirable stores, although it is a bad atmosphere. I am sad to see the Nanuet Mall go, since it has been a part of my life since i moved here in 1997, as a 3 year old. I am, however excited to see what comes out of the new Open Air center.
Does anybody have any idea on the stores that will be there? And when will demolition and rebuilding begin?
Sean, no hope to move to Palisades. The old JoAnn space at Palisades is going to become Burlington Coat Factory.
OY VEY! You must be kidding me. Of all the stores they could bring in here, they settled for Berlington Coat Factory. I guess thats the state of the econemy right now.
On the other hand, the nearest stores to Rockland County are in Paramus & Wayne Hills Mall.
As a teenager living in Nanuet, I can tell you that the only reason that anyone my age goes to that mall is because parents think it is “safer” (which i know is true) than the Palisades. As everyone knows, the Palisades has much more desirable stores, although it is a bad atmosphere. I am sad to see the Nanuet Mall go, since it has been a part of my life since i moved here in 1997, as a 3 year old. I am, however excited to see what comes out of the new Open Air center.
Does anybody have any idea on the stores that will be there? And when will demolition and rebuilding begin?
O Jeez….this looks exactly like the malls built here in Canada during the late 80’s or early 90’s. I was about to ask if you made a mistake by saying this was in New York. It’s so unbelievably Canadian. The decor reminds me somewhat of Woodbine mall (built 1985ish) in Toronto, Ontario.
Is “Palisades” pronounced “Paul-a-sad-ease” or “Pal-e-sades”?
Today in the Journal news http://www.lohud.com even after 10 years, residents still have some reservations about the palisades Center, should it have ever opened in the first place. The answer could have prevented Nanuet malls distruction.
I personally think that the opening of Palisades Center did more good than harm. First of all exept for Boscov’s every store in Nanuet was in Paramus, wich means Lower sales tax for shoppers by going across the state line, with far more veriety of retailers to choose from. The only upshot for Nanuet & for Rockland County in general was no blue laws.
Secondly, Palisades atracts shoppers from a much greater trade area than Nanuet ever could. The trade area stretches through 4 suburban counties on both sides of the hudson Westchester & Putnum on the east as well as Rockland & Orange on the west. You may get some shoppers from NYC, & Bergen & Pasaic Counties as well.
I lived in Rockland for a good period of my life, and now living in Jersey, I can visit the Nanuet Mall every once in a while. I went today and I can say I cannot wait till the Nanuet Mall closes down.
I randomly visited the mall in the past 3 years and saw it’s decline. Any time a store closed down a furniture store would open up. It became a passing joke, “Look a furniture store will take it’s place,” till I saw it to be true more than than I could count (take the Office Depot by Red Lobster for one, or Tower Records and Fortunoff, for another?). The mall would be losing stores left and right, it was almost a sign of the times. Close down quick please! Give me a reason to go to Nanuet, there needs to be change!!
Surprisingly no one mentioned the “downfall” of the Spring Valley MarketPlace, then it’s slow upward incline, but how long will that last? I truly thought a Target would open in it’s place there and Shoprite would stay.
Instead of speaking more on low points, why not solutions, because really, what is a “lifestyle center”?
1. Ikea – yes the furniture joke, but why not? The only Ikea in NY is in Long Island.
2. Borders – Competition against Barnes & Noble, closest one is Ramsey, NJ?
3. Healthy Eateries (come on, compete against White Castle!!) – Amazon cafe, Better Burger NYC, Jamba Juice, Chipotle, Whole Foods, Organic anything
Those are just some ideas. I would like to see something new other than the same old Macy’s and Sears… I will not miss either of them!
Hi. I have lived in Rockland my whole life. I am 41 years old and I have seen a tremendous amount of change here. The Nanuet Mall was and still is a beautiful mall. It used to have a Friendly’s downstairs and on Friday nights I would go there with my family and “wait” on line to get a table! The Movie theater was upstairs over by where the food court is now. There used to be a restaurant called “The Lion’s Den” which as a child we thought was very fancy! The mall used to be packed because of great stores and restaurants. Now the Palisades dump is packed because people have no where else to go. During the week, the Palisades is empty, if you go on the weekend, you can’t get a parking space. This is not because of Rocklanders going there, it is because people from the city stuck in apartments can spend an entire day at the mall. If the Palisade Mall was an upscale mall I bet you that it would not be packed with a ton of people just hanging out. It would have people there to do their business and get out. “The Westchester” is a prime example of a “non-hang out” mall. I truly believe that the Nanuet Mall should be a high end mall with stores such as Fortunoff, Bloomingdales, Whole Foods, Nordstrom, Anthropologie, A & F , Coach, Neimans, PF Changs, Crate & Barrell, Pottery Barn Kids, Gucci, etc…. I bet you that it would be a huge success! People are disgusted with the Palisade Mall and the novelty of that hideous mall is over! We need a refreshing new look in Rockland and for the Nanuet Mall. I know that the economy is tough now, but eventually things even out and it all works out! If the Nanuet Mall decision makers are reading this, please make it an upscale mall!!! I hate going to Jersey and dealing with Routes 17 and 4!!! Thank you!
By the way here is what I found from the Simon website in regards to an “Open Air Lifestyle Center” I just hope that if they plan on doing something like this it doesn’t turn out to be like “Cross County.” God Help Us!
http://www.simon.com/about_simon/our_business/lifestyle_centers.aspx
check out this weeks “Westchester County Business Journal”, there is an artical called “Mall eyes expantion”, reguarding what the Palisades has in mind for the future.
Here is the link.
http://www.westchestercountybusiness.com
An open air center- a good suggestion- still won’t be able to compete against the Palisades Center and other regional malls. Also not the best idea for a northern climate location where “foot traffic” will rather be somewhere warmer for a large part of the year. The site is so close to the PVL rail- would prefer to see a larger part of the site be redeveloped into townhomes and condos. Also would like to see TV/film and sound production facilities considered in the site- would bring in better paying jobs while production companies may be attracted to modern facilities at half price rents plus twice the space relative to in or around Manhattan…. I know that’s a long shot. If your going to do the open air concept, google “The Block at Orange”- which offers the same concept plus some office and residential mixed into the picture.
Good points all around Jeff.
With the new service on the PVL, it would be more practicle to build a transit village on that site. Not only could they have housing, some community oriented retail could also be part of that type of project.
Not only is there rail service in the area, but not to far away there are bus services that will take you not just around Rockland County, but to points such as Tarrytown & White Plains in Westchester, as wellas Manhattan. You can also connect to NJ transit in several communities in Bergen County.
With all of the retail in the tri-county area, how can building another retail complex be the best use of limited tax dollars. You have Palisades Center, Paramus/North Hackensack NJ & White Plains across the Hudson, isn’t that enough retail square footage?
I second that notion, Sean. No more large scale retail really is needed in Rockland. Unfortunately the Nanuet Mall’s slide into the abyss has already proven that to be the case. Changing it’s “look” may help but not significantly.
It will be very interesting to see how the Rockland/Bergen County shopping scene will adjust to the upcoming opening of the Meadowlands Xanadu. Bergen Town Center, Garden State Plaza, The Shops at Riverside and Paramus Park have all made some changes/additions to prepare for the opening. It will be interesting to see if Xanadu has an equal effect in Rockland. Nanuet has to change as a result of Palisades, but what about Palisades having to change/grow as a result of Xanadu?
That’s a very good question Mallguy, the Business Journal ran an article not to long ago. “Mall eyes expantion,” in it manager Peter Janoff, talks about bringing in a conference center & a hotel with more retail. I am not sure if Clarkstown will allow such a project to ever happen. A lot of locals hate the mall as it is, & now this expantion idea comes along?
Paramus will always be Paramus, no matter what, it has a reputation & base that is almost unmatched any place in this country. Even if Bergen Town Center & the Fashon Center were to close GSP & Paramus Park as well as Routes 4 & 17 will still do a brisk business. Ditto for Shops at Riverside, after Mills spent a boat load of money remoddleing & a expantion of it’s own, bringing Barns & Noble & Cheesecake Factory in to a high end mall that was floundering. Simon is going to defend that mall to the hill.
The wild card in all of this is in the Medowlands, because this is a project far enough away from most of the other retail areas that it could create it’s own market. Not only is there retail, you also have a hotel with conference center, office uses, Giants Statium, an arena, a track for horse racing & NJ Transit is building a station on the PVL wich will open in the near future when the new Giants Statium opens. It will be an understatement to say that a lot of people will want to see the whole project when it’s completed. Traffic around East Rutherford may become a problem, so public transit use is being pushed, by NJT & the NJSEA who is over seeing this project.
The big Loser in the deal of malls in the area will be nanuet. Even when the Lifestyle center finally opens there might not be a market for it. At some point Macy*s could decide to close that location, being so close to it’s Palisades store. As for sears-there finantial problems could seal there fate, or they could also build a new store in West Nyack as well. No matter how you look at it, it doesn’t look good for Nanuet mall’s future.
Great explanation, Sean. I do agree that Nanuet is the big loser in all of this.
In Paramus, each mall has its niche: Paramus Park gets the Northern Bergen County moms who don’t want to drive the extra 4 miles down route 17 to GSP becuase its crowds, traffic and the overall size of the place is too big (also interesting to note, the Macy’s in Paramus Park is one of the only 2 Macys left in NJ with an in-store furniture dept…Rockaway Townsquare being the other); GSP gets a mix of people who want one stop shopping and will get more now that the movie theatre and Grand Lux Cafe are open; Shops at Riverside gets the high end shopper as their Bloomingdales and Saks are bigger and better than the respective Short Hills locations and they have stores that Short Hills doesn’t (e.g. Hermes)…plus they are a mere 6 miles from the GWB.
While I do believe that the Paramus malls will survive, Xanadu has the “entertainment” factor that the malls in Paramus, or even Palisades Center does not have: the indoor ski center, the virtual skydive and the ferris wheel. As long as Palisades has Dave and Busters, they will see me there, but again, it will be interesting to see how this place does especially on game days. Maybe it will end up alleviating some of the route 17 traffic, which can’t be all that good for Paramus.
Nanuet will be the big loser in this Bergen/Rockland retail landscape and frankly, as far as lifestyle centers go, I doubt it will even come close to that of Tices Corner in Woodcliff Lake. Very sad to see its demise.
Take my word for it, once Xanadu opens Palisades will intriduce new entertainment options to defend it’s market. What they will be is yet to be figured out.
One thing that Xanadu has going for it is, it will be easily reached from Manhattan & the region by public transportation. NJT’S bus 351 & 320lines plus rail service on the PVL will reduce traffic in East Rutherford, lessening the impact on the area roadways. Tri taking the bus to the Palisades from the PABT. It is 100 minutes each way on Red &Tan line 20 & cost $8 one way. It is only 20 minutes each way to East Rutherford &only $3.50 per ride. A round trip is less than paying the toll your self, a nice insentive.
Even if you drive from other areas of the region, as you do Mallguy going to the Medowlands is much closer to mor suburban areas than Palisades is.
On a personal note, i’m tired of the Costco look of Palisades, time for something refreshing. If Xanadu is it, than so be it.
Regarding the comments on the decor above (kitshy Greek columns and post-modern art deco style railings)…my friend had come up with a great description of that style: Art Greco
hate to see Nanuet Mall go – needs improvement but not to the point of elimination. Believe it or not, many people do not like and will not go to the Palisades Mall. It is a monster place with no warmth – nanuet mall always had this for me. It is my mall.
I’m don’t know whether I should be sad or happy. The Nanuet Mall was much nicer than the Galleria in White Plains, but getting to it was a drag. This was 1987/1988. The tapanzee bridge was the worse part of the trip. I find it to be one of the worst crossings through the Hudson. For your information, the tap is falling apart and they have been talking about replacement for years. The only reason why the Galleria in White Plains is still alive, is that, it is surrounded by a city. Otherwise, it would have gone out of existence as well. It also is a quick hop to the City Of White Plains Library. So that was the main reason why I liked the Galleria. My best childhood memories is of course with the city of White Plains/Westchester County.
What White Plains has going forit is the fact the downtown core is walkable. Over the last 7 years the city has transformed from a place that was devoid of any activity at night to an area that has become reenergized & actived with new housing, retail, restaurants & entertainment in the downtown. Because of this it is possible to hoof it from place to place & not be dependent on a car to get around all the time.
Many malls were built & or designed for auto access only like Nanuet was. As gas prices rise beyond $4.00 pg people won’t have enough money to spend at the mall.
My friend John works for a supermarket, if you asked him about food prices lately he would say they are going “koo koo!” As i type this a gallon of milk is $4.40 in his store. Little wonder that so many families are struggling. Add increasing forclosure rates & uncertainty with the econemy & you have the ressapy for something desasterous.
http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com Is an interesting site that illistrates the points i made in my last post. It teaches with plenty of tungue & cheak reguardless if you agree or not. One of the runners on this blog is a play on the “Real men of Genious” ad from Budwiser. It’s called “Real HOMES of genious.”
Hope you enjoy.
I second Ava’s statement that it would be great in Nanuet went the way of a more upscale approach. Clearly the people in the area have the money to spend, but do not have local access to such stores. I heard a rumor for a split second that Walmart is no longer wanting to go in Monsey, but the Nanuet space might be appealing. I don’t think it would ever get past Clarkstown’s board (THANK GOD).
I would really support something more upscale, we don’t need anymore run-of-the-mill retail…
Kelly,
I don’t see a need for any new retail in Rockland. Every store has a larger & better location in Paramus or at Palisades Center, either way it’s 15 minutes away from Nanuet Mall. Believe it or not that site is best suted for a transit oriented village with community retail uses including supermarket, small shops & low rise housing units with condos, townhouses & apartments surrounded by greenspace.
Being clost to both the PVL, local bus route 59 & the Tapan Zeexpress, it just makes sence. If they ever decide to add transit along the T Z bridge this will make a difference in Rockland’s housing needs.
Sean,
Do you happen to know what the plans are for the strip mall behind the actual mall are? I believe it’s called Nanuet Mall South or something of that nature.
PS – A Trader Joes or Whole Foods would be an awesome addition to the area, but I know Stop & Shop is right there…however I know many people would pick TJ/WF over S&S.
A good question Kelly, I wish I had an answer for you.
Yes, the strip mall was called Nanuet Mall South. There was aPizza & Brew restaurant, Cineplex Odion 5-screen theatre & other stores wich I have no clue about.
The intigration of Whole Foods or some other major food retailer is a smart idea if you want to turn this property into a mixed use site. Community oriented retail along with residential units is the future. If this remains strickly retail, it will never work.
As a teenager residing in Nanuet, I think I speak for the whole youth population here when I say this: We’re bored beyond belief with the Palisades. It’s done. We hate it. At first it was great to go to such a huge place and just hang out, but after the novelty factor wears off it seems that the more scummy aspects show through. Paramus is great, the GSP has all the stores we’re interested in, but it’s so damn far away compared to the Palisades and the Nanuet, that it can’t be a weekend hangout all the time. I’m totally for a mixed-use center with an organic grocery, a gym, and some other non-mall aspects, but I’m not sure on housing. There’s already a few townhouse communities around here(Normandy, Avalon, etc.) and there’s not a huge demand. Not to mention the mall’s property isn’t huge. By creating a lifestyle center that cuts through the B.S. stores and caters directly to the locals who just need some hang-out space and don’t want all the backlit signs and crowds, the Nanuet would do INCREDIBLY well. These huge malls are fine and dandy when you need an 8-hour shopping excursion, but sometimes all you want is a movie theater, a starbucks, and a quick trip to Abercrombie & Fitch (or Ann Taylor, or J.Crew…etc.). My friends and I hate the fact that “our” mall (the Palisades) is so overrun with out of towners that it’s impossible to do anything.
My point is: Create one of these lifestyle centers with a Trader Joe’s, a Jamba Juice, a movie theater, some high-demand, semi-upscale stores, and lots of community “chill” space, and WATCH THE MONEY PILE IN.
Let the Nanuet Mall flaunt its “little-brother-ness” to the Palisades as a quality. We want that.
Rockland County needs some UPSCALE retail! We have so many “junky” stores and th Palisades Mall is just a big dump. Bring in the upscale!!! I hate to go to Garden State Mall and deal with RT. 17. I don’t like the trip to “The Westchester” because I never know if I’m going to hit traffic! Bring in the upsale and GET RID OF THE RIF RAF!!!!
Ava,
With Berlington Coat coming in there’s little chance that upscale stores will go into Palisades. The upscale retailers will continue to move toward bergen County, and the shoppers will follow them.
Enjoyed reading all the other postings shared by fellow Rocklanders about this Nanuet landmark. But I still think the mall should be heavily redone as residential. Please take a look at the numbers for a moment: Rockland’s 300,000 residents simply cannot support a huge mall (Palisades) plus a 2nd medium-sized mall (Nanuet). IMO, NJ residents south of 4/208 will patron Xanadu and don’t count on Westchester residents traveling to Nanuet. Northern Bergen would support a new Nanuet- on Sundays and holidays that is.
It’s time to disperse specialty/upscale retail and the lifestyle scene back to Rockland’s downtown centers (Nanuet, PR, Nyack, Suffern, Piermont, and New City to name a few). IMO, continuing and sustaining on downtown resurgence will require eliminating most of the Nanuet Mall retail space or simply put competition. Under this notion any leftover retail not absorbed by the downtown centers can be reabsorbed into the Palisades Center and/or into other county-wide strip malls depending upon spacing needs.
Bring the life back to downtown centres. The highest and best use of the Nanuet Mall site is residential.
I’ve been trying to drive that point home a few posts back. Thank you Jeff for agreeing with me, somebody finally gets it.
My Uncle has lived in Monsey now almost 20 years and we’ve exclusively went to Nanuet or Pallisades in the years we’ve visited him from South Jersey. We drove by but never visited Paramus or GSP. I guess we went against the trend. I’ve been to Nanuet a handful of times. The last time I was there was before this decline. That Boscov’s store is amazing. I remember being at the mall with the old A&S name I believe. That was a fine quality store they built there. I appreciate Boscov’s still had a toy section. Being shown the parking deck at this mall years ago was a big deal for me. I remember the exterior of the Sears on the other end. I was really disappointed to hear about the mall closure and store clearances my cousin told me about today. I blamed Pallisades 10 years ago for making me bug out with all that neon. Not enough sleep and too much neon I experienced when I visited in 1998.
Why is it that the Nanuet Mall and the Pallisades Center cannot co-exist, while Garden State Plaza and Paramus Park Mall are able to do so? Certainly, one would think those Rockland County residents who don’t want to go to a huge shopping mall would instead flock to the Nanuet Mall (since this is exactly the reason why so many Bergen County shoppers flock to Paramus Park Mall). Why are these two situations so different?
Also, I have a feeling that Simon simply kicked Boscov’s out of Nanuet, since I once read that the downtown Binghampton store–and not the Nanuet Mall store–is the lowest grossing store in that chain. (Therefore, it wouldn’t make all that much sense for Boscov’s to voluntarily close its Nanuet location, since the Binghampton store remains open.) Sadly, I have given up hope that Boscov’s will open a northern NJ store anytime in the forseeable future.
I for one am depressed. I HATE, HATE, HATE
Sorry, I HATE, HATE, HATE the Palisades Mall. It’s way too big and parking sucks. The Nanuet Mall is easy to get around, there is always parking without a mile hike, you don’t have to deal with traffic in and out of it and it’s not a horrendous drive to get too. It’s sad to see it go. So what will they put up ANOTHER mall or maybe MORE ugly condos? This sucks.
Max said:
Why is it that the Nanuet Mall and the Pallisades Center cannot co-exist, while Garden State Plaza and Paramus Park Mall are able to do so? Certainly, one would think those Rockland County residents who don’t want to go to a huge shopping mall would instead flock to the Nanuet Mall (since this is exactly the reason why so many Bergen County shoppers flock to Paramus Park Mall). Why are these two situations so different?
Bergen County’s population and location is the reason why it can operate two successful malls: Bergen’s 900,000+ residents are able to support two malls whereas Rockland’s 300,000 residents is not enough people to support the present retail square footage of the Palisades & Nanuet. Also, Bergen County malls draw shoppers from nearby counties more effectively than Rockland can- however the Palisades does a great job in attracting $$$ from out- of- county shoppers. I just don’t think Nanuet can do the same especially when you add Xanadu into the menu of choices very soon.
Rockland County should add more of a shopping element to their downtowns for an alternative to the “huge shopping mall experience” rather than the two- mall concept.
Lets not forget that not all of the Palisades Center has been built out yet, even after 10 years. Clarkstown has refused time & time again to allow the dead spaces on the 3rd & 4th levels to be occupide. With that in mind how could 2 malls opperate in Rockland successfully?
^^
Sean,
Do you know WHY Clarkstown is against having space that is already in existence to be actually FILLED? It doesn’t make sense.
I live in Clarkstown and I know a lot of Clarkstown residents HATE the Palisades but it sounds very stupid not to occupy a space that already exists and yet at one point they wanted to physically expand the mall? What!?
Kelly,
From what I remember Clarkstown was fearful that if Palisades were to be expanded any further,there would be so much more traffic on the roads, or so they say.
The people who live there wanted the mall, now after a decade the same people are saying I hate the Mall, do something about it! Or the mall is over run with out of control teens, i’m not going there because of it. You cant have it both ways, the mall is there, get use to it.
Just imagine if out of towners like myself who come regularly to shop here didn’t have an option like the Palisades, we all would instead travel to GSP. Now how would Clarkstown pay for the towns services without aditional sales taxes that the mall generates? Yes, your property taxes would rise close to 10% each year. Oh yeah, I didn’t think about that, thats what often happens, people forget about the other side of issues like this.
One more thaught, I like most people would never cross the TZ bridge just to go to Nanuet Mall, there is no reason to do so. Palisades on the other hand is something entirely different.
Interesting, thanks so much. You are so informed!!! I assumed you lived around here!
I just can’t believe that they think that there would be considerable more traffic with the addition of more stores in a structure which already exists…Am I missing something? So dumb. I guess it is there way of keeping some people here ‘happy’. Whatever!
The mall must pay a lot of school tax, too. thanks for the info!
Actuly Kelly I live in Westchester not Rockland, but i go to Palisades quite often. I tend to do a lot of my shopping at the Best Buy there because it’s better than the 3 stores nearest me.
A few weeks ago I posted a link to the Westchester County Business Journal wich ran a story about Palisades future plans, see if you can find it.
It was on March 31st
thank you 🙂
I just learned from this site that the Boscov’s is closing. I live in NYC and do (or did) a lot of my Christmas shopping at the Boscov’s in Nanuet because they truly give you a choice from the local chains. Boscov’s should really find a place to relocate to in the area. As for the open air markets, the only one I am familiar with is the one in Cockeysville/Hunt Valley, MD. They converted the dead Hunt Valley Mall, recycling some buildings and also demolishing, then rebuilding. I think the purpose is to prevent kids from hanging out at shopping centers. The biggest problem is that you will get wet on rainy days.
Kelly,
Were you able to find the article?
If you want to see what’s in store for Nanuet, just Google “Americana at Brand.” That’s a lifestyle center for you. Even with apartments and condos above the stores. Just like many of you were mentioning.
Hahaha, I wish.
Thanks for that link, Scott. If that’s true that would be an ideal redevelopment project to move forward with but wouldn’t be surprised if Rockland County drags it’s feet on this one. Scott, may I ask how do you know that is what’s in store for the Nanuet site? I thought Simon Mall was the new owner/developer of Nanuet while the link below shows Caruso as the developer of the Americana?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americana_at_Brand
Another good example of a lifestyle center with condos is Promanade at Edgewater on river road. Most of the parking is in garages under the buildings. It contains most of the upscale retailers you would find in any top level mall.
Nearby are Target, National Amusements theatres, Edgewater Commons & Edgewater Town Center. There are loads of condos & apartment complexs in the area adding to the vitality & traffic levels.
All I can tell you is the quotes were given from Simon that a “lifestyle center” was in the offing. Americana at Brand is an example of a state-of-the-art development of that type. It certainly made a splash here on the local scene in Los Angeles (along with its predecessor by Caruso Affliated, The Grove), and it doubtless is making a big impression on the developer community across the country, and around the world, as well. You could get one thing TAAB doesn’t have, namely on-site transit, with the railroad tracks running next to the property. There is commuter rail in Glendale, but the station is a good mile away from the mall.
Incidentally, I grew up in Woodcliff Lake (NJ), and spent many years at Nanuet Mall. My mother would drag me there as a toddler in the mall’s early years (early 70’s) and I hung out there countless times as a teenager in the 1980’s. Spent countless quarters at the video game arcade in the front parking lot (next to Beefsteak Charlie’s; building torn down long ago) ate at the Friendly’s many times, bought the Bruce Springsteen “LIVE” box set at the record store, and saw movies at the tiny movie theater on the second floor in the back next to Sears. “Mother Jugs and Speed” with Raquel Welch and Bill Cosby is one I remember seeing there. Also saw “Pink Floyd’s The Wall” first run at the 4 plex theater in the detatched strip mall in the back. Right next door was the “Paperback Exchange,” where I first got interested in collecting old records. Good times.
Thats all well & good, but unless the project is accessable by transit you wont have much of a market for the housing. Housing preferences are changing right before our eyes, with people demanding condos & townhouses near major bus stops & rail stations.
The Nanuet Mall site is the perfect spot to showcase the best of developments like these.
http://www.tndwest.com is a site the profiles many types of developments in California, Oregon & Washington state. Some good, Some bad & some that really stand out in what a mixed use development should be, like Portland’s Pearl & South Waterfront districts for example.
Take a look you may learn something.
Thanks for the follow up info, Scott. I also remember the Friendly’s (on the lower level across from Spencer’s and going towards Sears) and the arcade (right next to the mall’s 2nd floor entrance). Good times, indeed.
The mixed use center I am familiar with in the greater LA basin is The Block at Orange. I would prefer to see the physical layout of the new Nanuet to mimic something similar to the Americana (where residential is above retail and one which provides ample underground parking options). What I didn’t like about The Block at Orange is the large, mall-like parking lots which circumvent the retail and also the residential and commercial buildings are NOT mixed into the retail space but adjacent to it- making it seperated, mixed- use sprawl to me. The Nanuet site is certainly smaller than this but has similar characteristics of The Block: same sea of existing parking lots, former shopping centers converted/being converted into an open air themes and same owners!!
Jeff,
I in California as well as most localities zoning is single use only. You wont find housing mixed with retail, rather it will be ajacent to it. Go to the link i posted above & you will get a better understanding of the issues involved.
Thanks, Sean for the link above but I think the website is experiencing some problems since I keep on getting the message below everytime I open it:
If you are a member of the general public:
The fact that you are seeing this page indicates that the website you just visited is either experiencing problems or is undergoing routine maintenance.
If the Nanuet lifestyle center moves forward as anticipated, Clarkstown should consider zoning the new project to resemble more of a “village atmosphere” and create an effective transition linking this project to it’s downtown district (being that they are right next to each other) rather than making the lifestyle center “mall-like” and “automobile dominate”.
Sorry jeff,
It something with their server, try again from time to time
Boscov’s is gone?
http://www.simon.com/mall/directory.aspx?ID=101#
I hope Simon doesn’t tear down the Boscov’s Building, it looks awesome.
Wow, this is news to me as I’m on the other side of the country now. Used to live in New City during the early – mid 80’s and the Nanuet Mall is my first memories of any mall. It definitely had it’s changes over the years and isn’t what it once was but it’s a better place to go than the Palisades if you ask me. I’ve never liked the Palisades.
Maybe I’m alone in this, but the one time I went to the Rockaway Mall in NJ in 2002, it reminded me of a larger 80’s era Nanuet Mall.
Holy Crap! What was the name of that arcade next to Beefstake Charlies/Blimpies? I had TOTALLY forgotten about that arcade! If I remember correctly, it was such a piece of trash place.
The best arcade in Rockland was either Mr. Arcade or Futurestars (the place behind Route 59 that had batting cages and for a while laser tag).
boscovs has officially closed its doors.
The arcade in the mall was Aladdin’s Castle. I had at least one birthday party there as a kid. Although the Nanuet Mall has lots of sentimental value to me, I support the idea of trying something new. Route 59 in Nanuet is such a mess as it is. Maybe the open air marketplace will work out.
How long until the mall closes for good.
This is a bit off topic, growing up there were two big arcades in my area, the Nathin’s restaurant in Yonkers on Central Avenue & Cooks in Mamaroneck on Boston Post Road. Ah! memmeries!
James:
The video game next to Beefsteak Charlies was called:
Video Game Asylum.
Played a lot of Tron, Pole Position and Qix there. I also remember the “trailer” for Dragon’s Lair playing OVER and OVER…”Will the princess be forced to marry SOMEONE SHE CAN’T STAND????”
We also went to “Super Arcade” and “Mr. Arcade” after a while, because they were bigger and had better games.
There was also a little storefront arcade in downtown Nanuet we went to…it only had a few games, but the games were 10 for $1. In fact, that was what we called it, “Ten For A Dollar.” I don’t think it even had a sign or a real name. That place only lasted 1-2 years at most.
Does anyone remember the place across the street (facing rt. 59) in the plaza where Marshalls is named Pickles? I believe it burned down in the late 80’s/early 90’s.
Kelly,
Pickles burned down in 1987. I recall reading that it was an arson fire staged by the owners for insurance money.
Incidentally I worked very briefly for Pyramid in 1989 or so when they were planning the Palisades Center mall. At that time the plans had been for a much smaller center with high end retailers. Sacks 5th Ave was the anchor. Somewhere after the gulf war and the recession the plans changed to the massive, down-scale dump it is today.
As a teenager in the late 70’s and 80’s I worked at the Nanuet Mall. Before the additional anchor store was added I could stand out in front of the store where I worked in the mall and see straight from one end to the other…Bambergers (later Macys) to the left, Sears to the right. Some nights there were so few customers in the mall I’d just sit behind the cash register doing my homework, a slice of pizza from Roman Delight on the desk.
Good times, indeed.
Thanks for the info, Peter 🙂
Bring back Mr. Arcade!
This mall seemed kind of run-down and depressing when I was there around 1993. Kind of surprised it hung on so long, given all the surrounding competition.
Growing up in Clarkstown in the 80’s and living in New City for most of my adult life, I have some fond memories of the Nanuet Mall.
What most folks are missing when it is said that Rockland cannot support both Palisades and Nanuet is the fact that Rockland isnt supporting the Palisades now. So much of the retail (I’m not speaking about the “entertainment” venues) in Palisades seems to be foot traffic from people who make it a destination (not locals).
I absolutely believe Nanuet can support the “lifestyle center” concept, provided it remains upscale. I know many fellow Rockland residents driving to Paramus (GSP) or the Westchester in White Plains to shop. The demographics in a lot of Rockland have shifted from middle class to upper middle class and wealthy over the last 25 years. Rockland deserves a local place to shop without having to travel into another state or over the river, and without having to deal with the ugly cave that is the Palisades Center.
We need an organic grocery (whole foods, etc), solid upscale retail, and stores that accurately reflect the changed demographic that is Rockland County. I often wonder if we fail to show up on these retailers radar since they are already getting our money, albeit in Bergen and Westchester counties.
If Nanuet could function as some sort of transit hub/train depot in addition, that would make it even more attractive as a housing destination, but the current condo market doesnt seem to warrant this. However, if you made it an attractive spot to catch the train to NY, you’d benefit the retail as well and draw local residents and their disposable income (New City/West Nyack, etc). on their way into and out of NY. Eventually, as rail service grows (gas is on its way to 5 bucks a gallon), you could encourage reverse commuting to office space in the new “lifestyle center”.
Especially in the last 10 yrs, Rockland has really come into its own as a true commuter suburb of NY, much like affluent Bergen and Westchester. All we need now is better rail, transit, and retail options.
Everything you just said is true, however Rockland is 15-20 minutes away from paramus leaving no insentive for locals to stay there& shop. Everything is much cheeper if you cross the state line. Example gas is 35 cents less pg in Montvale vs Orangeburg.
“We need an organic grocery (whole foods, etc),”
No, you need Wegmans.
Whole Foods is not really good unless you are vegan. Wegmans’ Organic Dept is smaller than Whole Foods obviously, but prices are cheaper for the same products, etc.
tl;dr:
Not everyone will shop at a Whole Foods, but just about everyone will shop at a Wegmans.
John mentioned earlier-
…. if you made it an attractive spot to catch the train to NY…
which I think should mean frequent and fast service to/from Penn St. during the peak am & pm periods. Fast & frequent should mean comparable to other locations that are 30 miles via rail to/from Penn. If you compared the travel times from the train schedules of these other locations (Syosset, Morristown and Edison) you would see that rail travel time from Nanuet to Penn St. should be about 50 minutes to one hour during peak periods. The capital improvement project to create a one-seat ride to Penn on the PVL should shave 10 or so minutes off travel time by 2015 but catching a train from Nanuet would still need additional improvements or more peak express trains. I don’t catch the train from Nanuet but I believe there is one a.m. express train which can get you to Penn in under an hour and that’s it. Personally, I would rather see faster peak hour service that bi-directional all day service on the PVL.
Also key is a mass transit mode with a reliable, predictable and faster travel time from the Nanuet site to the heart of the northern suburbs-White Plains- which hopefully the TZB project will solve as well.
Implementing these mass transit improvements will surely create demand for housing at the Nanuet site which will then create more demand for retail AND SUSTAIN IT.
As we discuss this topic the roll of the suburb is in transformation right before our eyes,. Infact with $4 pg at the pump & rising rapidly, the question is will the suburb remain in existence at all?
I have done a lot of resurch on this topic at my job, and I have come to 2 conclusions.
First observation-communities far from the city without frequent public transit service will depopulate wile those areas that have good transit will gain population, as a result towns like Nanuet should be planning for growth around the train station. White Plains started this a decade ago, with results that shocked even the most arden critic.
Second-transit oriented development projects with housing, offices & retail in a walkable setting instead of acres of parking lots is the future. As i said in prire posts, a high density transit village at the Nanuet Mall site is criticle. If you need an example on how one of these TVs should look & function Go to either Westwood or Ridgewood in Bergen County & take a walk around. It should not take to long to figure out what I’m talking about.
In these examples both villages have walkable downtowns with apartments & offices over shops. However what makes Ridgewood a standout is you could walk to major stores like Stop & shop, Whole foods or Kings.
With a train station & bus station a block from one another in the heart of downtown Ridgewood getting around Bergen County & the region is easy. This is the moddle Nanuet officials & developers of the mall should be examining.
Sean,
This is actually the case in many NJ communities like Ridgewood. Towns like Madison, Chatham, Westfield, Morristown and Millburn are building vibrant downtowns centered around their train stations.
The suburbanization of the 1950s that relied on the automobile and not public transportation is definitely coming into examination as purely suburban towns in NJ with NO downtowns such as East Brunswick, Edison, Middletown, Mahwah and Montville are exploring ways to build transit villages with lifestyle shops and apartments centered around that transporation hub, whether it be a bus station or a train station.
Malls in turn will have to conintue to build, update and modernize in order to keep up and still keep the customers coming despite the higher gas prices. NJ has bucked the trend with the real estate/retail slowdown as at least 12 malls are moderninizing/have modernized in some form or another wihtin the past two years.
And AceJay, I’ve been hearing rumblings about Wegman’s coming to the redevloped Crossroads Complex in Mahwah, about 15 miles from Nanuet
mallguy: No, Wegmans (no apotrophe) is not planning any new stores in NY or NJ right now, they’re focusing on MD, VA, and some PA locations:
http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/FAQDetailView?langId=-1&storeId=10052&catalogId=10002&faqCategory=AboutWegmans#question_4
On that note, Sunday is the Grand Opening of the Potomac Town Center one. If anyone’s in the area, be sure to check it out. 7am sharp!
Mallguy,
NJTransit http://www.njtransit.com has a transit village program. . The reason I braught up Ridgewood was because of the fact that it was developed prire to WWII wich was the watershed that led to the patterns that we see today.
I could have just as easily inserted Summit, Madison or even Scarsdale. They have the same development pattern, with walkable streets & all the elements I already braught up.
Mallguy,
I have an interesting question for you, but anyone can chime in.
What area malls do you think could support the adition of housing, AKA Natick Colection?
I was thinking that some malls could build on eccess parking lotsor on top of the mall depending on configuration of the site.
examples:
1. The Westchester-on top of the garage
2. Freehold-off Trotters Way where the existing theatre stands
3. Menlo Park-near Parsonage Road Going toward JFK Hospital.
Today oil jumped $10 to $135 per barrel, it’s time to rethink what to do with oversized surface lots.
Input please
I had this odd idea:
Add a 3rd floor onto QBM in the expansion which will house the Food court and a relocated AMC.Loews 30-plex, then above that, condos and apartments!
Hahahaha.
I’d live there.
Sean,
I could see Freehold sustaining condos or apartments (also a hotel which they were supposed to build when the build the new Wemrock Road access road). Menlo would be tough because it’s hemmed in its little spot and right next to Menlo is the Roosevelt Care Center. And Newport Centre I believe already has apartments nearby. I would also think Garden State Plaza, but knowing that Paramus had to take Westfield to NJ Supreme Court to try and stop the building of the movie theater expansionm, I don’t think Paramus would be too keen on that new development.
Short Hills is in the same boat as Menlo Park, with a property that is hemmed in making building on surface lots difficult.
As for GSP the back lots behind Lord & taylor & neiman Marcus should be used as park & ride spaces. This will keep unnessessary traffic off the local roads. However Paramus officials & Westfield are trying to see the forest through the trees & don’t see the big picture yet.
What about Bridgewater Commons Mallguy, could housing be built there? It’s been a very long time since I been back, and I don’t recall the layout of the area.
i cant believe its closing its been there forever! how can it close!!! 😛
When are they remodeling it? Does anyone know?
I used to work at the mall not to long ago and they were supposed to be knocking it down at the end of the year.
It’s a good thing though.
I haven’t heard about a date when it’ll come down, nope. I admit it’ll be sad.
In other news, a brand new big HomeGoods store is now occuping the space where Office Depot (or was it Office Max – always get them confused) used to be in the Pathmark/McDonalds shopping center down 59.
i’ll admit
it is very sad the mall is slowly falling apart financialy
i’ll walk there with my frind and we chiil alot
nd 2 that fucker who never came back cuz teens were pickin on his girl
FUCK YOU!
GOD! let some kids have there fun
oh yeah,
me nd my friend know the mall will eventualy close
but want we want to know is if there gunna tear it down right away or leave it boarded up 4 a couple years
bc
we wanted to break in and like trash the place
u know, break all the glass walls nd stuff
maybe play baseball in the food court
nd i want to know if thats ileagle
cuz it shouldnt be if its due 4 destruction
^Hahahahahahaha.
This is incredible. You should be president.
I was 6 years old when the Nanuet Mall opened. It was a great, safe place for kids to hang out. The nice restaurant upstairs was not the Lion’s Den but the Hungry Lion. A real treat to go with the parents. Bamberger’s (what later became know as Macy’s) had a nice restaurant, too, which had an all you can eat spaghetti and meatballs night once a week and a salad bar, a novelty for the time. There was a good cafeteria restaurant in the mall and a counter service restaurant called Zippy’s. I was there the day that Aladdin’s Castle (the arcade featuring Bally pinball games) opened — it was brand spanking new and fantastic! Aside from the usual Santa and Easter Bunny visits, the mall would usually host an exhibit each spring with loads of flowers and outdoor displays. AT&T operated a Phone Center Store in the mall, an entire store dedicated to phones and answering machines! There was a housewares type store that had, among other things, a section that would be described as a head shop with drug paraphernalia, lighters, hippie beads, incense, etc. Sears owned the brokerage firm Dean Witter, AllState insurance, and Coldwell Banker real estate at one time so there was a kiosk in Sears where brokers would hawk financial services next to the vacuums! Don’t forget Spencer Gifts, where you could get T shirts with big iron on decals or personalize them with your own phrases. You could also buy big, expensive fiber optic lamps that shimmered and changed color (groovy!) Also, black light fluorescent posters and the immortal Farrah Fawcett! There was at least one record store (if anyone remembers records.) You could also buy cassette tapes, 8 Tracks, and singles (singles, or 45s, were $1.00.) Outside the mall, closer to Rte 59, was at one time a Nathan’s Restaurant with arcade, then a cool restaurant called Daley’s Dandelion. Any other old memories of the mall?
I just found out recently that several stores at Palasades closed or moved.
Modells is now in the former Comp USA location, Fox Sports Grill closed along with a few other stores in that area. I guess with Modell’s move Berlington Coat would have a chance to have a even larger store there, but who knows.
Speaking of Berlington Coat, they will be opening a 82,000 square foot store in White plains acording to the Westchester County Business journal this week.
This will make things even more challenging for the new lifestyle center for the Nanuet Mall site. One less option in a field of fewer & fewer choices. I don’t see how they can pull this off.
I feel like a part of my childhood is disappearing. I can’t tell you how many years I spent hanging out at that mall. I met so many people from all over Rockland & Bergen. Fellow mall rats. Pisser times up there. Remember the stand that sold the pretzles and the ices? And those green animal statues? I’m sad to see it go…
The Macy’s was originally Bambergers. It was said at the time that Macy’s had bought land near West Nyack and the only way they would get out of the land deal was to have a comparable store nearby hence they used the Bambergers name.
Cannot believe that the mall will be closed and demolished. I remember being there when it opened.
well I guess you can say its an end of an era you gotta admit plaisades mall has it I didn’t even reallize how huge it was until I went there last friday with friends to go to dave and busters boy nanuet could not survive no way I never visited that mall but I guess thats the way it goes
Its only a matter of time now guys. Basiclly only sears and macys is left at this point.
Now the question is, how much trouble is Palisades in with the loss of Fox Sports Grill, the movement of key retailers & Berlington Coat coming in soon.
Greg, your comment is a wee bit off. Among the stores still left at Nanuet are Victoria’s Secret, Aeropostale, Aldo, Bath & Body Works, Foot Locker, Zales, Mandee, Lenscrafters, and Famous Footwear.
Oh, let me add The Children’s Place and New York & Co. 🙂
honestly tho if they had juss threw a movie theater where boscov’s was (some rumors when they were shuttin down) that mall spring 2 life. were i live alotta kids my age 16-19 go 2 the mall fridays n saturdays 2 see movies n not every1 has a car so the buss ride is alot shorter juss goin 2 nanuet n then once a movie theater was put n otha stores would open up n actually get businesss as movie goers can shop as they await their show or juss see wuts n there n come back anotha tiime.
I was at Pallisades Center for the first time today, man that place is huge. Packed as anything. Too bad they went with that gross industrial look, it would be incredible if it had a more upscale feel to it.
Also, I took a trip to the Nanuet Mall, and while I didn’t have the time to go inside, I did get this very depressing shot of the former Boscov’s:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a124/AceJay/Malls/Nanuet%20Boscovs%20July%2025%202008/Labelscar.jpg
Sorry I wasn’t able to get inside, it would have been interesting to see what’s left in there.
I’m really sad to see the nanuet mall go. I was hoping they could do some kind of revitilizing of it, but truly everything in there is dead. I knew it was definitely about to go when CinnaBon left… I mean, I was worried when they added one to the palisades center because i’m pretty sure it was one of the ONLY reasons people still went to the nanuet mall but even for a few years after it opened there, it was still in the nanuet mall. Spencer’s also held out for a while, and closed only a year or so ago. I miss the days when it was good.
Good Freakin’ riddance! I have been waiting for that hunk of sadness to go down for a long time. I grew up in this area and ever since Palisades opened, I have no need to ever go back to Nanuet Mall again. Palisades has all the same stores — excepts Boscovs, but who shops there anwyays? Anytime I stopped back in to Nanuet to check it out for old times sake, that place just seemed so depressing. Those stores are run by a bunch of morons. That mall is so ugly and depressing and I can’t wait to see it go.
So this article says it will become an open-air lifestyle center? Are we talking Woodbury Commons/Tice farms style? I think that would be beautiful. Let’s bring some high-end stores to Rockland, that the Palisades Center does not have, i.e. Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, etc. It would really liven the town up.
The fact that Burlington Coat Factory is coming in is no surprise really.
At this point, actually for many years, I don’t believe Palisades was ever really intented to be tailored to Rockland-ers. Go to the mall on a weekday and it is empty, full of moms with their kids doing mall walking and not much else. Of course, some run there for a few odds and ends but I would say the majority of Rocklanders go 10 minutes to New Jersey for better shopping tax free!
The mall is simply a destination for people from the city seeking to get out on the weekend. It sounds bad, but yes, it does keep a lot of Rocklanders away from the mall on weekends. Simple fact. Not to mention the fact of how many people from the city come up there to simply shoplift – horrible.
I agree with the a upscale re-invention of the former NM site. Not limited to retail, but housing, perhaps a grocery like Whole Foods. A park.
The open air center on Chestnut Ridge Road, Tice’s Square I believe it is called in New Jersey would be an excellent plan to follow.
Sad to hear the closing of the mall. I raised my children in Rockland and took them there. I recall it was so safe for them to walk around. Bambergers was much better than the Macys it became. The Palisades Center was built before I moved out of Rockland. It will never replace the quiet mall of the past. I have many memories and its a shame but the economy is so bad nothing is staying the same.
The final lease plans:
http://www.simon.com/Assets/Mall/101/LEASING_PLAN/4830_NANUET%20MALL_CurrentWebLeasePlan-1_1.pdf
http://www.simon.com/Assets/Mall/101/LEASING_PLAN/4830_NANUET%20MALL_CurrentWebLeasePlan-2_2.pdf
No. Effing. Way.
I spent the better part of my 90’s childhood in that mall. It can’t close! I refuse to believe it. I LOVE that mall! It’s nicer and quieter than the Palisades. Even though it didn’t have all the stores, it was still MUCH nicer. I’m so sad that it’s closing!
The truth that no one seems to want to admit is that Rockland County, over the past 15 years, has slowly turned into Yonkers with high concentrations of illegal aliens and low income families with no money to spend. Don’t believe me, look at Airmont and Spring Valley. The Spring Valley Market Place closed for a while because slackers were causing trouble and scaring away the spenders.
I think this open-air Community/Lifestyle Center is a great idea. We do need something like that around here in Rockland. it is a giant pain going to the Palisades Center! I disagree with the comment about an open-air Center not working b/c of the cold , I go down to Tice’s Corner in Woodcliff Lakes year-round. It is an open-air shopping strip with stores like Express, Apple, William Sonoma, Children’s Place, Gap, Pier 1, etc, and there are always people there. It’s great to have the fresh air and not so many tourist type people. There’s also an open-air shopping area near my Mom’s in Morris County, NJ. The Rockaway Mall is now surrounded with tons of open-air shopping areas and they are doing very well.
This article was written (as of today) eight months ago and declared that the mall was closing “soon”. Mall is still open, and no sign of a closing coming.
Article was in journal news. The nanuet mall will close and be demolished. all the stores are leaving as their leases are up and not being renewed.
Last count I did had around 60 stores left there. They didn’t exactly look like they were leaving anytime soon. There appears to be a newly remodeled Foot Locker, Bath & Body Works, and Children’s Place in Nanuet. Nowhere in any Journal News article did it say that leases were not being renewed.
erm,
I live in nanuet and nobody goes to that mall anymore. they said it would be demolished LIKE 900 MONTHS AGO, but they didnt do it yet, We are scared to go to the palasades mall now due to recent abductions.
Now we go to the nanuet mall a little bit more 😉
Do any of you experienced Rocklanders happen to remember any of the tenants of the Nanuet Mall, circa 1995 – 1999? I’m conducting a marketing research project on the mall’s decline and am trying to analyze changes in the tenant makeup before and after the debut of Palisades (basically, how many stores left the mall).
As of now, I know for a fact that these stores operated in addition to the present retailers:
Gap
Banana Republic
Guess
American Eagle
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Dear Caldor, I read your article about the Nanuet Mall Closing, and I must say, YOU ARE WRONG. No sources in the article, no facts. Since when an opinion is considered journalism? Next time you write anything about the Nanuet Mall I will advise you to speak to the town administrator, Alex Gromack, and Tom Hanchar (SIMON properties) they will give you facts.
The future of the Mall calls for Nordstrom taking the Boscovs space and $50 million dollar renovation will go underway, the restaurant BANCHETTO FEAST and other businesses will remain open thru the renovations.
Caldor, DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE BLOGGING.
David,
Thanks for chiming in, but the sources and citations are contained in the links above. Where did I give an opinion unsupported by facts?
Also FWIW Simon does not have any interest in taking their time speaking with a silly blogger. I’m not a professional reporter.
Also the article above states that Boscov’s is closing and the entire interior of the mall will be demolished, save the Sears and Macy’s stores, to be replaced with a new outdoor center. How is the information you’ve offered inconsistent with that?
there is really no offical word on what there going to do to this mall. the reason it took a while for it to fall after the palisades opened was because some of the scores had multi year leases and counld not close it. After the leases were over some stores left and went to the palisades and opened a store there. i know this because i have a store there. Everybody go to Everything Yogurt on the top floor at the food court next to sears. We have smoothies, frosties, frozen yogurt, grilled paninis, wraps, salads and more stop by and try it.
there is really no offical word on what there going to do to this mall. the reason it took a while for it to fall after the palisades opened was because some of the scores had multi year leases and counld not close it. After the leases were over some stores left and went to the palisades and opened a store there. i know this because i have a store there. Everybody go to Everything Yogurt on the top floor at the food court next to sears. We have smoothies, frosties, frozen yogurt, grilled paninis, wraps, salads and more stop by and try it.
Matt,
I remember quite a few stores, each lasting a different period of time.
Screeem
Limited
Warner Brothers Store
Disney Store
Claire’s
Spencer’s
Contempo Casuals
Sesame Street Place
Pacific Sunwear
KB Toys
Aldo
Express
Joyce Leslie
Crabtree & Evelyn
Ann Taylor
The Body Shop
Chico’s.
In response to Matt-Ryan . Stores that once were there when Nanuet Mall was something were the Disney Store, Warner Brothers Store, GAP kids, World of Science (where I worked in 1992) Eddie Bauer. Just to name a few more. Hopefully you check back.
I last visit the Nanuet Mall right before christmas time .The place reminded me of those cell-phone commercials with the infamous “dead-zone” where it is impossible to get reception . I think the mall would benefit from High End stores.Maybe even knock down a section of the stores to create a movie theatre .Bring some of those fast food places that are down south too the mall Arby’s , Jack in the Box , and Sonics . With the right investors, marketing, and timing the mall could be prosperous once again . But in all honesty , I feel that the mall will remain in its current state for awhile longer before anything is done . Maybe once the economy gets better the mall might make a come-back .
Here’s the deal….the Nanuet is not ready to be renovated. Leases were handed out to the existing stores that remain there as of right now. The leases are for 1 year with no clause for renewal. How do I know this, because I do. The fact of the matter is that the mall is a dive right now, needs to be updated and a tremendous thought process is involved. There are between 38-40 lawyers involved in this process. Everybody sit tight and just wait. A high end mall is on its way. This is very good for Rockland, keeps the rif raff out….they can continue to stay at the Palisade Mall. We do not need another Palisade junk mall. Enjoy the upcoming snow everyone! 🙂
Nanuet Mall’s renovation plans still unclear
By Hema Easley
The Journal News • January 14, 2009
NANUET – Almost a year after the owner of the Nanuet Mall assured Clarkstown that it would soon unveil plans for the mall’s renovation, Supervisor Alexander Gromack is still waiting.
For nearly two years, Gromack had monthly consultations with a representative of Simon Property Group Inc. to discuss the mall’s future. The oldest mall in Rockland has been losing tenants and customers since the Palisades Center mall opened in 1998.
Gromack said he was told in late December that Simon would hold no more meetings until the early summer, when it may have plans to share.
“It’s frustrating for me to hear month after month that we are exploring our options,” Gromack said. “We’re somewhat at the mercy of the Simon company.”
A spokesman for Simon said the company had no comment. The group also owns the Jefferson Valley Mall in Yorktown Heights and The Westchester mall in White Plains.
The lack of clarity had some tenants concerned.
“Everyone is leaving,” said Ashok Tandon of Neelam Boutique, which has been selling wedding gowns and prom dresses at the Nanuet Mall for more than 10 years. “Right now we don’t know anything about it (the future of the mall). They don’t tell us anything.”
Tandon said that like many of the other remaining businesses in the mall, he was paying rent month to month. Uncertainty about the mall’s future made him wonder if he, too, should leave, he said.
“They can give us 30 days’ notice, and you’re out of the door,” Tandon said.
Meanwhile, two tenants at the Nanuet Mall are closing. Carlton Cards, which has been at the mall for more than a decade, will close at the end of February, and Rockland Independent Living Center will leave at a future date. Two eateries at the food court closed in recent days.
In recent years Simon executives have offered two plans to revive the mall.
In January 2006, Simon told The Journal News that the Indianapolis-based company was considering a $50 million revitalization that would turn the Nanuet Mall into a “lifestyle center” with a new look and high-end stores.
Gromack, who had informal discussions with a Simon executive, said the plan envisioned a Woodbury Common kind of outdoor complex with a movie theater and lush landscaping.
Boscov’s, a major anchor at the mall, closed in February.
The lifestyle plan was taken off the company’s Web site the same month. Simon did not offer an explanation, but said the company was exploring options.
Gromack said the company approached him in the spring, saying it wanted to retain the site as an indoor mall, but with an anchor store such as Nordstrom.
Since then, Simon has provided no update on its plans, Gromack said.
“What I believe is that the plans have been delayed because of the economic circumstances that we face,” said Al Samuels, president of the Rockland Business Association, of which the mall is a member.
Once the mall is refurbished, it would again attract business, Samuels said.
That has been the hope of Mario’s Barber Shop, which opened with the mall in 1969 and has continued its operations despite fewer customers.
“Business has been bad. There are no walk-ins,” assistant manager Vinny Maddalena said. “The worse thing is that everyone is asking, ‘You’re still here?’ It looks bad because people think the mall is going down. It’s terrible.”
Nonetheless, “we’ll stay here until they kick us out,” he said, laughing. “We like this mall. Our clients come here. The location is what we like. Nanuet is the center of Rockland.”
Gromack concurred.
“We agree that Clarkstown is a destination point for shopping. It’s in a good spot. We want to see Nanuet Mall go back to its glory days,” he said.
Thanks for your input (Caitlin and Debbie) on the older stores. I had done some surveying and a focus group about the mall and the statistics point to people wanting both a high-end retail center, and also the entertainment amenities of the “other” Clarkstown mall. Lucky for me this case made a Masters Thesis – hopefully the findings come true!
i looove this song!! it definitly stands out!!
To Eslam,
I LOVE YOUR FROZEN YOGURTS!!!! I used to go to you all the time, every time I went to that mall, I got your vanilla frozen yogurt in a cone, too bad I can’t drive because my parents only go there every once in a while, for old times sake. I hope you’re there long enough for me to have just one last one (crying)
To Debbie,
I LOVED WORLD OF SCIENCE!!!! It’s a real shame it closed down, I was so upset, I cried when I found out.
I was just there yesterday and it’s a damn shame the mall is closing, there are only about 5 or 6 stores left, Banchetto Feast, Macy’s, Sears, the Dentist office, LensCrafters, a few of the food court places, like Everything Yogurt (AWESOME), a cookie place and two others, Nathan’s is long gone. I know the guy who did the last remodeling of the mall, he laid down the tiles.
I’m gonna miss that mall so much, I loved it when I was younger, and when all my favorite stores started to close, I cried for every one of them. I’m crying right now, I loved that mall, it’s so nice and clean, it’s the best mall in the world. I go to the palisades a lot now because that’s where my parents drive us to go out as a family, but it’s too big and disgusting. The mall is still very beautiful on the inside, I wish they would just put in another anchor store where Boscov’s was, that would be a perfect spot because it’s the only 3 floor lot in the whole building.
To end my speech, I say this:
I DON’T WANT THE MALL TO GO!!!!!!!!!! (pounding the floor like a little kid in the cartoons)
Second post, just because I love this place so much.
I’m working at the Palisades now, and it just makes me hate the mall even more. At first I though it was just the store I worked at the attracted the undesirables, but the more I look around, the more I see they’re everywhere- and driving out the locals. Crime is up, our store’s theft rate is way above the chain’s average- and higher than their Manhattan store.
It’s such a bummer to attempt to find a parking spot, end up parking at the back of the lot, not getting dinner during break because of the amount of people, and end up walking through the dark, empty mall (where someone was recently stabbed, wonderful) back to the far end of the parking lot to find someone has still managed to rail my car.
Point of this story is, we need an actual LOCAL mall, not some giant with 4 Starbuckses and 3 Bath and Body Workses (not kidding on both accounts) where I end up dying because some crackhead needs money for his busride back into the city(I realize that was a terribly harsh generalization, and there are many great people I see every day, but a few bad apples…).
PLEASE Simon, hurry up and kill it and throw some nicer stores on the site so I can transfer the hell out of here, I DON’T CARE if you can’t fit every store I’ve ever heard of under one roof, a movie theater and a freaking J. Crew(which the Palisades lacks) would be good enough, just hurry up and do something or soon the Nanuet mall will soon become ‘Banchetto Feast Plaza,’ which honestly is okay but not worth walking through the depressingness of all the closed storefronts (and the garlic rolls are a little greasy, but hey.). Look at Easton Town Center. Now look at the Nanuet. Which would you rather be at right now? Yes, I realize logistics and zoning, demographics, blah blah blah, but seriously, just do SOMETHING with it that gives me an excuse to go over there. I(We) don’t need another megamall with pink benches and fake plastic trees. I need a movie and a Cinnabon and unexposed ductwork. Just sayin’.
To see it from another perspective, my friend told me the Nanuet looks like a scene from the show ‘Life After People.’ He’s right. There’s freaking moss growing on the walls. I can’t be sure, but that’s probably not attracting customers nor tenants. Could be the coffee talking though.
is this story true??/me and my husband were thinking of moving to nanuet coz he just starting a job therein the nanuet mall omg ,,,and he likes it there we livein nj omg is it really closing
@rose,
I’m afraid it is true, the mall has a high probability of closing and being refurbished. I’d hate to see it go, it’s such a lovely mall, depressing on the outside because of no money, but quite beautiful on the inside. I know the guy who redid the floor in the place too, he’s an old family friend of mine. I will HATE to see that mall go.
Not only that, but the Boscov’s building really shouldn’t be torn down, as it’s a beautiful structure. This mall was quite nice on the inside.
@AceJay,
Not only that, but the Boscov’s building really shouldn’t be torn down, as it’s a beautiful structure. This mall was quite nice on the inside.
#1. I agree with you on keeping the Boscov’s building. As for #2? You must be on something. The mall was dark, crampt & not inviting at all. That doesn’t mean Palisades gets off the hook for being inviting either. It is as comfortable as a whearhouse club, wich Palisades mimics.
Eh well, I was mainly speaking of the decor. I don’t like HUGE malls either.
On the topic of Palisades, I must say that it is quite ugly and is in need of a renovation. They were going ‘bare-bones,’ warehouse look, but in the Lord and Taylor wing, they have carpeting and try to take an attempt at luxury and on the 4th floor, they try to go festival atmosphere with the hanging lights. It definitely needs a renovation!!! And Kenny, a quick note…Palisades had a JCrew (used to be downstairs near the Apple Store) and it closed down in 2004 as it was considered an under-perforning store.
It will be sad to see Nanuet Mall go…unfortunately with a large glut of retail in the area, it wasn’t able to find a niche or have a destination store/restaurant the way many malls in the Bergen/Rockland area do.
@mallguy,
Yes, yes, yes on all points. I think I can explane Palisades look. When the mall was being constructed retailers like BJ’s & costco were the in thing. Now the trend is or I should say was lifestyle centers. As a result Palisades has reached midnight & has lost the glass slipper so to speak. It has no edge & beyond being open Sunday, there’s little reason to go there unless you are going to the movies, Cheesecake Factory or Best Buy. Most of the better retailers rather be at GSP & when you give it some thaught GSP has Best Buy & Movies as well & the restaurant selection is better despite having fewer choices.
Oh BTW where have you been Mallguy?
In regards to the carpeting in the Palisades mall; it’s to cover up the cracks on the ground. The land that the Palisades mall was built on wasn’t exactly the most stable and as a result the mall slowing started to sink. As this happened, cracks (primarily on the first floor) became very apparent. That’s way there is carpeting on the first floor.
I haven’t been keeping up with the news as of late, so I wouldn’t know the ground the mall is built on has finally settled.
I know that he economy is bad…but the high end stores are doing very well! Garden State Plaza is booming, The Westchester is booming, Riverside Square is also booming! Some talk about the stores that are closing in the Palisade Garbage Mall…well there is a reason. People are not shopping there, it’s a hang out for undesirables. The locals do not go in there to spend money, I’m one of those locals who goes to the 3 mentioned malls. These low end stores open & shut. I only go to that mall if I need something in a hurry at Lord & Taylor, William Sonoma or Sephora. If I need something at the gap/abercrombie etc…. I will order online. NANUAET MALL Owners, If you are reading any of this…please put a high end mall together to keep out the riff raff, drug users/dealers, gangs etc… i won’t even go to the movies at the Palisade Garbage Mall so that I don’t have to walk through the underiables that are just hanging out. DO SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL WTH THE NANUET MALL NOW! You will make your money back & the county will thank you! Thanks!
Folks, the mall isn’t closing. I’m an employee of Simon, and Simon has no interest in pulling out. Any word otherwise (like this year old story that hasn’t come true) is false. There were plans a short time ago to demolish the third wing of the mall, which was built many years after the origional structure, and replace it with offices, but such plans have been scrapped. The mall is still making money and has a niche market of customers that keep it alive.
Don’t get me wrong, we make fun of the old girl for her total lack of stores, endless empty spaces and ‘floods’ of about three customers, but it still brings in money (albeit, not much). Every cost has been cut (there’s not even a secretary anymore. All phone calls go to security) but the mall will stay alive.
@Sal, working at mario’s don’t make u a simon employee.
I for one am glad the mall is not being demolished.
I live in the area, and think the Mall can be much more successful if it tries to better serve the local residents.
The Mall is the hub for the local Clarkstown Mini-transit as well as Rockland Coaches commuter Buses. The Nanuet train station (NJ Transit) is a block away. So the place is almost an inter-modal transportation hub. People wait for the buses outside the upper level entrance of the mall. I think the Mall could accomodate these people better and in the process take advantage of the traffic. Perhaps place a large canopy and orient some storefronts to the waiting area outside. What if you tried to get local businesses to place outposts there. Rockland Bakery, Carusel Cakes, Wallys Ice Cream, Davids Bagels.
but u know what people have not been jumping from the forth floor of the mall trying to kill them selves because the nanuet mall only has two floors and there are to many birds flying round the Palisades mall i dont kno what there thinkin but this open mall idea in not going to go well with the people who have been going there from people who where there when it opened to teenagers who went there to hang with friends
@SEAN,
Don’t worry-those unruly children are now hanging out up the street at the Palisades Mall.
Nanuet was never really the “it” mall. I used to work there in my teenage years and it only got busy on Sundays when the NJ malls were closed. After the Pallisades Center opened it was one foot in the coffin already for Nanuet.
what the hell ive been going to this mall when i was able to ride my bike across route 59 before the gay palisades mall was here. people are not jumping from the top floor of the nanuet mall. much safer then other malls if they make it open that would just make it worse then it all ready is they should just leave it the way it is and not tear it down
Well, 2010 and the mall is still here and still open for business, although not too much business. I was there today to revisit the place (I hadn’t been there in years) and it looked post-apocalyptic. The food court has 2 restaurants (Nathans & a pizza place) and 2 dessert places open, and I’d say about 90-95% or so of the storefronts were vacant – just store after store completely shut down and empty.
The T-branch they built in the mid-90s was completely empty except for 1 restaurant on the 1st level. But the place was still open, there were about 30 people or so in the food court (don’t know how many were employees), and the stray customer walking around here and there (mostly near Macy’s). The mall basically seems like it’s catering to an older age group and is more a one-stop shop for various services rather than typical mall stores: they had a karate studio (for the less older people), an eyeglass place, chiropractor, and I think an insurance place. And, of course, that barber shop is still there.
I’ve been a Northern Jersey kid all my life, and I practically lived at the Nanuet Mall as a teen back in the 90s: me and my buddy would go there every weekend, hit up Sam Goody for CDs and Suncoast Video across the way for the under $10 VHS section. Eat at the BK or Taco Bell at the food court, check out a few other stores, then head to the strip to buy comics, play Mortal Kombat, and drink Arizona iced tea at the Paperback Exchange. Walk over to the record store down the strip (I can’t remember the name) and scope that out for more music & used NES games. I remember seeing “The Crow” and “Forrest Gump” at the theater in the strip, too. It’s sad to see what’s come of this place, and I hope they’re able to revitalize it somehow while retaining the current structure.
@SEAN, Trust me … things in Spring Valley have NOT improved. Worsened, yes. Improved, definitely not.
@Ava, I remember that restaurant too, but it was called the Hungry Lion. And as kids we, too, thought it was super fancy!! 🙂
LEAVE THE MALL OPEN
I used to love this mall. maybe if they kept it up and turned on the lights they can get tenants. The website http://www.Nanuet.com had an article on it.
I lived in Nanuet well befoe the Nanuet mall opened. It was not favored by most of the native Rocklanders. It ruined local business and took the charm from a small town. Frankly, both the Palisades and Nanuet Malls did not improve the area.
Such a shame that they’re (likely) closing the mall. Instead, the should move all of the remaining stores to either the first or second floor, and use the other floor for offices or some community thing.
wow I was shocked to read that the Nanuet Mall will be no more! When I first moved to Nanuet it was a swampy area by the railroad tracks… I worked at WT Grants at the time they were buldig the mall. I went to work at Sears before the mall opned for business, I worked in the toy Dept, Met lots of great people. When i was home on leave from the army i worked security in the mall…. what memories!!
the demise of nanuet mall was the fault of simon property and macys. simon did not do anything to improve nanuet mall. it is not palisades fault.macys took away sterns and abraham and strausat nanuet mall and they took away filenes at palisades.i dont find nanuet mall that beautiful. bergen towne center gsp and paramus park are much nicer malls. i know palisades is ugly but i still shop there to contibute to rockland county.the residents here should do the same to help the tax revenue of rockland county.We need outlet stores here not upscale. Not everyone can afford nordstrom and bloomingdales.
@rob, i find that people of rockaland act childish over nanuet mall.losing a mall is not the end of the world just recall what happened on 9/11.palisades is ugly but its there to offer one stop shopping and entertainment.malls arent parks I go there for lord and taylor jc penney and macys does have a larger selection than nanuet macys.
Any chance this article will be updated? “Soon to Close”, and it was written in May, 2008? Nothing the article says has happened. An update would be nice.
@Tim, I think we might’ve had an economic meltdown in the time since the article was originally written. There’s no real indication that plans have changed, even though they’ve been delayed. The mall is still open but it’s almost completely empty.
@Caldor, understood, but an update might be in order. The community and the stores left quote this article as gospel, because it’s at the top of the Google results for the mall.
@Tim, haha, fair enough! You know, I honestly don’t even know what IS going on with the mall from a detailed standpoint. Has there been any change in the plans or the center’s condition? I’m kind of surprised to hear anyone’s quoting my silly article as gospel but if there’s something incorrect or some new update, I’ll certainly amend it.
if pyramid cos would just rennovate the first three floors pf palisades mall then the locals of this county would patronize it more.the problem with the residents of this county people cant accept change.the nanuet mall is preetty much gone so live with it. i used to shop dutchess mall in fishkill it closed because poughkeepaie galleria opened.the people there didnt cry over losing dutchess mall like u all are doing about nanuet mall. they accepted and have been shopping at the galleria in poughkeepsie.all we have to do is email pyramid cos and request them to rennovate the mall so it would look like one of the malls in paramus,
@rob, Agreed. I was there yesterday & boy does that mall need work. For example, inn most of the mall restrooms the wall tiles need to be regrouted. This mall has not aged well unlike GSP or even Willowbrook.
Lately I’ve been going to GSP & Roosevelt Field more & Palisades less often do to the fact PC has been changing & not for the better. Now this I doubt would happen, but if Cheesecake Factory, Best Buy, Target, Barns & Noble & Restoration Hardware all left, this mall would be really dammaged as a regional draw.
@Mary Hogan, Those teens are now adults. Well at least I hope they are. No! They are at Walmart, who else would hire them.
what should be done to nanuet mall knock down the mall and macys put in a super walmart. peopla in rockland can not afford high end stores like nordstrom niemans etc. residents of bergen county have money to shop those stores we dont. the walmart is small and horrible in suffern. that is why all the best stores go to paramus. the rents and taxes are hurting the stores in palisades.we dont help the situation any if they dont get the volume of business they end up closing not only of the interior of the mall. this is why paramus has the best shopping and we dont.
@rob, Super Wal-mart? Please tell me you are kidding. Put that store there & kiss Rockland retail goodbye.
Here is a little reality check for you to think about. Although Wal-mart’s figgures lately on the surface look good, a little digging reviels that a huge percentage comes from such items as check cashing services & not physical sales. Of those actual sales, they are mostly everyday items & not things like electronics. Wal-mart can blab all they want on how big they are & how well sales are, but a lot of it is bullshit.
in massapequa ny sunrise mall has a walmart its a super along with macys jc penney and sears its not hurting retail there,walmart is near the westchester and galleria malls in white plains they are ok. a super walmart would bring jobs to this area.in fishkill theres a super walmart and nearby shop rite walmart will not hurt kohls palisades at all. it would be another choice. i would like these stores from north carolina dillards and hudson belk rwo fine stores better than macys.here but i know they wont because of rent and taxes and the condition of nanuet mall. i know what you are saying anything would be better just to get rid of the depressing sight of nanuet mall.
@rob, Are you sure the Sunrise Mall’s Wall-mart is a super format?
The White Plains Wal-mart has been under performing & has been trouble ever since it opened. It was so bad that the big wigs from Bentonville were called into a meeting at city hall & got a vurble tungue lashing by the prior mayor Joe Delfino. It became something of an interesting news item here, hearing about these executives basicly being read the riot act & being told what to do or else. I’m sure they were not use to being chastized by a city government that way. If I was a betting man, I would say that the WP location will close when the lease is up & the new Port Chester superstore will take it’s place.
@SEAN, Walmart, these people don’t work! They go to DSS in Pomona to get their welfare checks. Then they go sell drugs downtown.
we have to email smon property they put in two junk stores near sears. now another junk store again what is this company doing putting junk unknown stores just to collect rent.they are not concentrating on the mall or putting in well known stores. this company is turning this mall into an 8th avenue in manhattan.. so if this area loves this mall the way they say they do e mail simon property today and bring this to clarkstowns attention also.
@rob, I wish it were as easy as “putting in” a well-liked store in a dying mall, but this isn’t possible. Simon’s probably happy to have anybody taking up residence in the Nanuet Mall at this point. Very few chains have such an immense customer loyalty that they can bring droves of people to a mall with no other attractions, and even then, most of them probably have outposts at Palisades. No businessman worth his salt would open a location at the Nanuet Mall, you’re guaranteed to lose money even if the rent was $30 a month. You have the megamall up the street, an eroded customer base, what is becoming a worse location everyday, and high startup costs. The only roads to salvation are upscale, ala Short Hills, outlet, ala Woodbury, or as a community space, catering to lifestyle brands, select local businesses, and open meeting space. Like it or not, Palisades beats the Nanuet Mall at mainstream shopping by miles.
ken, simon property was the cause of nanuet malls demise. they had plenty of ooprtunities to revitalize the mall before the e conomy went down. macys was the culprit they took away abraham and straus and sterns and filenes at palisades mall.filenes was much better than macys.if pyramid co who owns palisades should rennovate it and evryone here will be happy.this is not a whole foods neimans nordstrom bloomingdales area.they will not open only 15 min from gsp in paramus. i feel if palisades wasnt in fight mode for 11 years the mall would have been built better and looked better inside,so partial blame is the locals of this county.
well fellow rocklanders clarkstown said on monday 8/2there will be plans on nanuet mall in october but it wont be demolished until late summer 2011 so the mall wont be up and running until2012.clarkstown is trying to get a public meeting on what stores we want at nanuet and palisades malls.palisadesill hopefully listen to us for re.nnovating the mall and stores.we need to keep our tax dollars here . bergen county gets enough.speak up rockland county to pyramid cos and improvements will be done to palisades and we no one will have to hear who hates the mall.this is palisades is asking this tax cut because of thick heades people who dont patronize it.
@rob, With Paramus & palisades so close to Nanuet Mall, I don’t know how this site can remain viable as a regional retail hub. That said, Palisades has several strikes against it as well.
1. There are retail spots that never opened to this day.
2. Parts of the top level have been never allowed to open under court order by Clarkstown.
3. When you lose Legal Sea Foods & a Tony Romas & Burlington Coat Factory come in, that means that the higher income shoppers are trending away from Palisades despite having Target, Restoration Hardware or Cheesecake Factory.
4. If Bergen County removes it’s blue laws wich will happen sooner rather then later, Rockland county loses any remaining advantages to it’s retail hub status & every Rocklander knows this reguardless if it is verbalized or not.
5. Target opened another store on 59 in Spring Valley just off I-87. Having another Target store so close to the Palisades location, devides the market & prevents both stores from reaching there maximum potential.
I cant figure out how this doesn’t end badly for Rockland retail in the longterm, the alure of Paramus is just too strong even with blue laws. Remove them & …
@SEAN, i get what you are saying we have two macys also macys nanuet is very very old they need to get rid of it for the small selection they carry in comparison to palisades macys which is more modern and three floors.gov. christie let bergen county keep the blue laws as i found out from a friend of mine who works at garden state plaza.we need to get on pyramids back .one food court place pays 17000 a month i emailed clarkstown alex gormack is trying to get a public meeting.if we can get better shops in palisades such as coach, josabank,etc and nanuet into a mini woodbury commons i think everyone will be satisffied.
@rob, why do you feel Palisades is the natural for high end and Nanuet should be outlet or value driven? The atmosphere and clientele at Palisades isn’t exactly high end. Note that Brooks Brothers closed at Palisades recently. With Nanuet’s smaller footprint, it would probably do well as a boutique type center. I’m not saying that it could be on the level of the Westchester or Shops at Riverside, but maybe a rung or two below.
@Tim, brooks brothers closed in garden state plaza also.look in paramus bergen town center is discount garden state is upscale, paramus park is similar yo what nanuet was.we dont need two malls the same. palisades already has macys,lord and taylor jc penney etc.if pyramid would straighten out palisades with some better shops both malls would be different. nanuet could be a similarity of bergen town center who has century 21 dept store, nordstrom rack, bloomingdales outlet whole foods, saks off fifth etc.and a bunch of outlet shops such as guess, carters timberland nike etc.thats what im saying nanuet should be.the way unrmployment is we cannot afford a westchester type mall in this economy.
@rob, Understood. Take my word for it, when Bergen residents get tired enough of there property taxes going up, they will beg to have the blue laws abolished. It will go something like this: we demand that all those outsiders pay there fare share of the services they use. And if we open on Sunday, they will come & lower the berdon on us taxpayers. After all it’s the outsiders who clog up our roads & parking lots.
Now of course it’s those outsiders who made Bergen County, the shopping hub that it is today. I doubt that locals alone would have the same impact & sales volume that those malls & box stores became so use too.
Can we say the same for Rockland? I can tell you here in Westchester most of the volume is organic & not dependent so much on outsiders except for CrossCounty Shopping Center & the Galleria in White Plains. Both have a large shopping base from The Bronx & The Westchester Mall has a healthy customer base from Connecticut.
Another strike against Rockland is this… name a chain retailer found in Rockland & is NOT found in either Bergen or Westchester? You could have said Boscov’s, but they closed. Now you cant. That plus lower sales tax really herts Rockland in a big way.
Funny thing is that Bergen has retailers that even Westchester doesn’t including Century 21, Sacks Fith Avenue & IKEA.
I must note that Sacks did have a store in White Plains at one time but closed in 2002 & was replaced by a center that houses Cheesecake Factory, Whole Foods Market& a former Fortunoff. As for IKEA, an enormous legal battle by Pelham, New Rochele & Larchmont was able to keep IKEA from opening a store near the New Rochele Larchmont border near I-95. The road network cant handle that kind of traffic volume & the site has older residential areas all around it.
@SEAN, i agree with you if nanuet mall were turn into an outlet it would be like jersey gardens which just opened a lord and taylor outlet. these stores from the north carolina area dillards and hudson belk two fine stores would be bet ter for rockland than mACYS.and at least they would be no where else in the area. filenes was a different store here that westchester and bergen didnt have until good old macys bought them.
@rob, True, but I need to ask how are you going to compete with Bergen TC (discount), Paramus Park (middle), Garden State Plaza (high end) & Shops @ Riverside (really high end). Plus Palisades has been trending towards discount with the adition of Burlington Coat Factory. And that leaves Nanuet with?…
I said this several times already, but it bears repeating – the best thing you can do with the Nanuet Mall is turn it into a transit village. Being on Route 59 & having the Pascack Valley rail line nearby, allows for a unique chance to redevelop a large site into something that is badly needed.
Not only is there the PVL, you have local busses plus interstate service to Manhattan on Coach USA & if the new Tapan Zee bridge ever gets built, there will be rail service to Grand Central & BRT services to White Plains/ Westchester Avenue corporate centers.
@SEAN, i think turning it into a transit hub would be like a port authority bus terminal it wouldnt look good and what would happen to sears.it would bring crime there as how dangerous at spring valley terminal is at the train and bus station.if clarkstown and simon property would do the right thing for the mall then there would be no problem well as ive said many times pyramid needs to rennovate the mall and bring in good shops as josabank coach, coldwater creek j crew to bring them back etc.burlimgton carries some names as macys so they arent bad.burlington is a chain of stores they are even on route 17 in paramus.
@rob, you misunderstand, a transit village is NOT just transit. They include retail shops, various housing types, green spaces, sometimes government buildings & easy access to multi-transit modes. The Nanuet mall is well situated for such a redevelopment plan.
You are right reguarding the Spring Valley Terminal area. However a well designed transit village atracts people with disposable income. BTW, look at Westwood, Ridgewood, Summit, Scarsdale & Bronxville each community is a transit village in there own right. All have rail service plus those New Jersey towns also have aditional bus service to the Port Authority. Now tell me what does Nanuet have other then strip malls.
@SEAN, a transit village will never happen on the Nanuet Mall site. Clarkstown will never allowed additional housing developments that would add students to the Nanuet school district (the smallest in Rockland), and there’s no way that Simon and its partners who do residential development in mixed use centers would agree to limiting residential to 55 and older housing.
@Tim, Nonsence! Locals better get use to a transformation of there community in to something that is not sprawling & auto dependent. If Clarkstown & in particular Nanuet doesn’t open there eyes, they will be put in a bad conpettitive situation that is tough to get out of.
White Plains & Stamford have recognized this problem & made strides to correct it. By concentrating development within the downtown core including both housing & office blocks with better street retail, they prevented aditional sprawl development. Also both cities were able to leverage there access to public transit especially Metro-North. And what has both Rockland County & Clarkstown done? Oh yeah “we want out of the MTA.”
Good luck.
@SEAN, I agree with your idea, but trust me on this, the Town leadership will not sign off on any project that will add additional numbers to the school districts, especially the Nanuet district. The Nanuet district is not in the best shape, especially with the loss of Pfizer upcoming.
@Tim, Then let me ask the most basic of questions – Clarkstown & the Nanuet SD are going to do What exactly to keep the finances in line if the tax base cant be enlarged?
A zero growth policy may work as a shortterm gimic, however the longterm results are not promising for such policies. School districts are only allowed to CUT so much from budgets because the state requires constant funding for the classroom & associated functions like special education do to sec. 504 regulations.
There has been talk of merging several smaller village governments & school districts in Westchester in recent months. These include Mamaroneck town/ village & Larchmont as well as the town of Greenburgh & all of their villages, fire departments & school districts. The same could happen between Clarkstown & it’s villages/ schools as well.
@Tim, you and sean have good ideas a transit hub wont happen as long as macys and sears own their buildings so simon has the only option of turning it back into a mall again.turning outlet is wise macys could sell their building to century 21 dept store, keep sears,and put in a bunch of oulet shops as bergen town center does such as nordstrom rack, bloomingdales outlet, nike, tommy hilfiger ,carters,etc.and as i said all pyramid needs to do is get its act together to remodel the mall and get better shops into palisades.
@SEAN, look at this article from a member of the Clarkstown Town Board to see that the Town is thinking as I said:
George Hoehmann: Big Things in Nanuet’s Future
Clarkstown Councilman and Nanuet resident reflects on his community, the Nanuet Mall and Pfizer site.
By Robert Berczuk | Email the author | August 17, 2010
George Hoehmann is a big fan of Nanuet.
The lifelong Clarkstown resident has lived in the hamlet since 1997 and proudly serves as its representative on the Clarkstown Town Council. He first was appointed to the council in January 2009, after the late Ralph Mandia resigned due to poor health. He was elected to a four-year term last November.
Hoehmann said he is proud of both accomplishments. Even though he is a Republican, he was appointed to the board by three Democrats and a Republican, yet “nothing compares to being humbled to know that the voters elected me.”
Hoehmann, 45, has been married to his wife, Kathy, for 13 years. The couple has three children, Ashleen, 18, Thomas, 12 and Ciara, 8. He said he loves the home-town feel of Nanuet and enjoys taking advantage of what it has to offer, such as going to the Rockland Bakery after church on Sunday mornings, eating pizza at the Nanuet Hotel and Nanuet Restaurant, going to Lake Nanuet, browsing for a good book at Barns & Noble in the Rockland Shopping Center and watching his kids play ball at Tennyson Park, which he calls “a hidden gem for Nanuet.”
“It’s a great place for families . . . there’s a real sense of community within Nanuet and people pull together,” Hoehmann said.
While there are many aspects of Nanuet he enjoys, he also knows the hamlet and town face many challenges.
He said the redevelopment of the Nanuet Mall and Pfizer properties are among the most important issues facing Clarkstown that will have the most immediate impact upon Nanuet in the coming years. He sees these being closely linked to the plan for a new Tappan Zee Bridge and the corresponding transit hubs that are part of that proposal.
“I am excited, but concerned, about the impact that this might have on Nanuet,” he said.
Both the mall and Pfizer need to be redeveloped in a way that will boost the local commercial tax base — thus easing the residential one — and benefit local residents, he said.
“If these sites are appropriately redeveloped, the impact will be positive and draw added revenue keeping property taxes low and increasing employment and shopping opportunities for local residents,” Hoehmann said.
Simon Property Group, which owns the mall, is scheduled to unveil a plan to revitalize the mall later this year. The talks, so far, have included construction of another anchor store and the possibility of a theater and restaurants. Such additions would be a boon to Nanuet, Hoehmann said, and he wants to ensure any mall expansion project doesn’t get bogged down in red tape and local board and committee reviews.
“All of these improvements will make the mall a destination place again, much like it was when I was growing up here in the 1980s,” he said.
As excited as Hoehmann is about the mall, he is equally concerned about the Pfizer property.
In May, the drug manufacturer announced the closure of its biotechnology and consumer health care plants by the first half of 2014, eliminating about 1,250 jobs at its Pearl River site. The company has no plans on what it will do with the soon-to-be empty buildings.
Clarkstown, Orangetown and county officials are working together to try and come up with a plan to attract businesses to the site, Hoehmann said, in an effort to retain some of the lost jobs and replace some of the lost tax revenue, especially to the Nanuet Union Free School District.
“Collectively, several local governments and the business community organizations must continue to work to actively address the Pfizer property and its future,” Hoehmann said.
Both the mall and Pfizer issues revolve around economic development and the proposed new Tappan Zee Bridge and its transportation-related (train, bus and road) projects will greatly impact that development, Hoehmann said.
He is concerned there will be a push for more development that could further burden local governments and taxpayers if zoning laws are changed to allow for mixed-use zoning where only commercial zoning exists now, which could negatively impact local residents’ quality of life.
“While connectivity to the city via rail and rapid bus transit are all good things the cost as measured in change of community character is something we need to be watchful if not leery of,” he said. “We need to ensure that what makes Nanuet and Clarkstown so special is that we have services but that we also have parks and open space and room. If we fall into the trap of seeking added density we could overburden our schools and hinder residents’ ability to afford to remain here.”
Besides serving as a councilman, Hoehmann also gives back to the community in his professional life. For the past five years, he has been the chief operating officer of Camp Venture, a not-for-profit provider of family-like care and services to children and adults with developmental disabilities.
He helps oversee the agency’s $33 million budget and more than 600 employees, who provide services to about 1,200 people.
“Working to help people with disabilities is extremely rewarding — I absolutely receive more than I could ever give from the people I serve at Venture,” he said.
One of Hoehmann’s projects since joining Camp Venture was to cut costs by going “green.” Under his watch, it has installed solar panels on the first group home in the state, and added several other solar projects, which were recognized by the state with an Environmental Excellence Award in 2009.
@tim i emailed alex gromack from clarkstown he said that simon will announce plans for nanuet mall in october and demolition wont happen until next summer so we will be lucky if this mall will beup and running before mid to late 2012.macys is such an old store they should demolish it and turn it into bloomingdales which macys owns and macys is a more modern store at palisades.the other anchor i hope will be an out of state store thats not here such as dillards or belk. i hope pyramid will now wake up and turn palisades into a better mall before nanuet comes back.so we can at least have two stable malls in this area.
@rob, How is it that in one post, you think that Rockland cannot sustain higher end shopping and that Nanuet should be geared towards value or outlet, and in the next post, you say that Macy’s should convert the Nanuet location to Bloomingdale’s?
As for your constant promotion of Dillard’s or Belk, they would do as well at Nanuet as Boscov’s did. The names mean nothing to the NY/NJ market (maybe Dillard’s to the snowbirds, but not in a meaningful way to drive sales).
tim all im saying we have too many macys they own the nanuet building so they wont sell it to no other retailer but bloomingdales.belk is better than macys which reminds me of what filenes was at palisades. boscovs reminded me of a caldor i wasnt crazy about them.dillards is on lord and taylors level but also sell home merchandise.i think this area is tired of macys thats why i suggest that nanuet bring in dillards or belk. to make shopping more interesting in nanuet. boscovs was told to leave by simon because they were tearing the mall down but didnt.and right now boscovs is in bankruptcy.those are affordable stores im saying we cannot afford nordstrom saks or neimans.they wont fit in this type of area.
@rob, while I would disagree with your assessment that Rockland is not capable of supporting higher end shopping, I do think that a successful project is one that is a 21st century version of what Nanuet Mall always has been: a community shopping center. Put some interesting restaurants, a theater, and some other community uses among the stores, and I think you would have a successful project.
@Tim, Let me try to get between you & rob for a minute. Rockland County does have it’s wealthyer areas that could support a higher end center, but those residents tend to cross into NJ & shop in Paramus where the store selection is far better then at home Plus those shoppers automaticly save upwards of 8% by not paying NY sales tax on clothing & shoes.
Now let’s suppose the Palasades never opened. Shoppers like myself would never come to Rockland at all. There is no logical reason for visitors to go to Nanuet mall unless they were going to Boscov’s.
How would the county & clarkstown in particular pay for it’s services & schools? Your taxes would rise upwards of roughly 10% a year without the Palisades. So be thankful that we outsiders are covering some of your communities expenses. Because it’s only 10 minutes extra to go to Paramus.
@SEAN, I’m not thankful for anything, because I don’t live in Clarkstown or Rockland. 🙂
@SEAN, i agree with you sean thats what im saying if nanuet brought in dillards or belks it would bring in more outsiders from bergen or westchester counties which be new and different stores boscovs and filenes did that because there were no other location around like having 6 macys within a short driving distance.thats why im saying for macys nanuet to turn to bloomingdales they own them and the nanuet building.it would sstill be an affordable mall to shop in. bloomingdales,dillards or belk and sears.not upscale like riverside or the westchester.this area is saturated with macys and really they are not too appealing merchandise wise.
@rob, Um, bring Bloomingdale’s to Nanuet so that it’s affordable and not upscale like Riverside. Riverside, the mall that’s anchors are Saks and Bloomingdale’s. Also, have a better argument than the tired old “bring Dillard’s and Belk” line. It’s not doing much here or under the two names you’re posting under in the Paramus Park thread.
@Tim,
Bloomingdale’s has a bigger chance of going to Monmouth Mall than it does to Nanuet Mall (and as we all know, I want it in Monmouth Mall, but have come to the realization that’s an 85-15 shot against, even though they’re in the midst of a renovation). Anyway, their “open Sundays” location is Willowbrook, and Rockland will have to choose between Willowbrook or White Plains (which is a very nice Bloomingdale’s, btw)
So sad to see what has happened to Nanuet Mall.
@mallguy, Tell me about it. But don’t look at me. Rob is the one who’s hard up for Bloomies at Nanuet.
@Tim, I realize I’m going to drop this comment on you, but I’m directing to Rob & Mallguy as well.
Two of Roclands retail problems stems from geography & population. Situated about equil distent from Paramus/ North Hackensack NJ with lower sales taxes & White Plains NY wich has stores at all price points, makes it challenging for Rocklanders to shop locally. Especially if they want to avoid the crowds at the Palisades.
To put things in perspective, the cities of Portland OR, Minneapolis, Seattle, Pittsburgh& Oakland CA each have more residents than Rockland County wich is about 300000. How can you justify two malls in an area with that population count.
The argument of Bringing Bloomingdale’s to Nanuet is totally flawed. First White Plains has a flagship store & second go to NJ & you save 8% automaticly. So tell me why Macy’s is going to bother putting Bloomies there?
@SEAN, i am not hard up on bloomingdales.macys owns them and their building at nanuet mall. it would be better macys has not rennovated that store in yearsand we have a more modern store at palisades.bloomingdales would make it look newer at nanuet mall.as they did to the former sterns at willowbrook mall.Look guys there are not many dept stores left so its either bloomies, dillards , belk or bon ton. sears also owns their building so they are remainning at nanuet mall.and sean, palisades is losing more stores i heard clarkstown is getting on their backs.
@rob, As much as I’ve been posting about Nanuet Mall & what needs to happen to turn it around, I need to make something clear. I’m not defending Palisades Center by any means. The place isn’t aging well & is in need of serious renovations.
Have you been inside any of the malls restrooms lately? The wall tiles in most of them need to be both power washed & regrouted.
I try to avoid them as much as possible & go to either a store like Barns & noble or the restaurant i’m eating at.
If Clarkstown is Billy Joeling Palisades to do something about the malls current condition, I’m all for it. In case you didn’t get the billy Joel refference, I ment putting on “Pressure” otherwise Pyramid will be told to “Move Out” & make way for a new owner.
@SEAN,
I totally agree something needs to be done at Palisades Center! The whole warehouse look is so outdated. And that 4th floor between center court and Macys is so depressing! Considering all that was invested for Palisades Center to be built, Clarkstown is doing the right thing to stay on Pyramid. I’d love to hear some of the towns in NJ doing that!
Rob: The reasons Bloomingdale’s chose to locate at Willowbrook are due to the following:
– Willowbrook is an historically successful mall…one of the top 3 performing malls in NJ.
– Because Willowbrook is in Passaic County, the mall is open on Sundays and is the closest large mall to Bergen county.
– Much of Willowbrook’s trade area is rather affluent and a Bloomingdale’s there saves them a drive to Short Hills or Riverside.
It was an excellent decision for Federated to choose Willowbrook for a Bloomingdale’s location. It has also helped the mall to make more of an upscale trend (even though a few of the stores there baffle me)
@mallguy was an excellent decision for Federated to choose Willowbrook for a Bloomingdale’s location. It has also helped the mall to make more of an upscale trend (even though a few of the stores there baffle me). Tattoo Nation anyone? LOL
Is it fare to say that Clarkstown & it’s residents have a love hate relationship with Palisades Center? I mean the community loves the revenue it generates, but hates the traffic. Loves the store roster, & hates the idea of expantion adding a greater selection of retailers. Loves the visiters who come to spend their money, hates joining them. Well you get the idea.
Clarkstown needs to get over it’s colective cognitive disidence reguarding Palisades & find a way to improve apon it. If the mall fails what is Clarkstown going to do with this enormous property plus the Nanuet mall property? There goes your tax base.
@mallguy, As a follow up, Went to Palisades yesterday. As Tim & Rob already noted, the mall is rapidly losing stores & even my girlfriend was making the same comments that are being posted here.
Is it possible we could be looking at the largest dead mall on reccord if current trends continue? Personally I don’t thinkso, but I wonder what you & others think
@SEAN, While Palisades is located between 2 large shopping regions, (White Plains and Paramus) I believe with support, the mall can hold its own. It’s not receiving much support from Albany in terms of tax policy and that’s going to send even more New Yorkers to Paramus. As we have seen and discussed, Pyramid is not the best REIT out there. Palisades was built with great potential and fanfare and it would be sad to see it go.
The warehouse interior has got to go! It’s looked the same since the 1990s. It’s tired and old. The 4th floor needs to be fully leased also. Safety could also be improved, not only personal safety (which I don’t think is necessarily a problem, but if it moves into Dead Mall territory, it could), but traffic safety as patrons who drive in that parking lot have a death wish…and it’s worse than any NJ mall.
I give Monmouth Mall as an example of what neglect can do to a large, historically successful mall. Vornado is FINALLY addressing the Monmouth Mall issue and I hope Pyramid will.
@mallguy, I couldn’t say it better. Pyramid is a poor excuse for a mall owner. People here dump on Simon reguarding Palm Beach & Nanuet malls. It maybe justified atimes, however that small potatos compared to what Pyramid has done to palisades.
I need to make a cridicle point here, Clarkstown is no babe in the woods over Palisades or Nanuet malls current condition. You stated in an erlier post that Clarkstown is putting pressure on Pyramid to fix up the mall, but are they doing anything substantial? It looks like the answer is no at this point.
sean now you and mallguy see whats going on at palisades. I was there on tuesday and saw whats happening and i walked out. i went to paramus and what a differrence.pyramid is horrible.i wouldnt defend simon all they take care of is their money making malla roosevelt field and the westchester. they almost ran down bergen mall until vornado boughtt it. thats who needs to buy nanuet or palisades westfield or vornado. you guys call the maagement office in palisades and complain the more complaints they get maybe they will wake up.
Palisades may be a little run down but they really need to close that Burlington Coat Factory, that store makes the the mall look like trash. It didn’t do any good justice to Monmouth Mall, whose situation is still way worse then Palisades. At least Palisades still has alot of Entertainment and more upscale stores like Benneton, Esprit, Pottery Barn, and Abercrombie( the one in Monmouth Mall is closing;both kids and fitch)
@rob, I agree with most of your solution about Palisades, except Vornado. Right now, I’m not thrilled with them, specifically in what they have let Monmouth Mall become. Finally, they’re renovating Monmouth Mall and I will not change my position on them until we see the effects of their renovation on this property.
I think Macerich would be smart to buy Palisades. Look at what they have done with Freehold, Danbury Fair and Tysons Corner. All were successful to begin with, but once Macerich renovated them, they became even more successful! (even if they haven’t occupied the former Filene’s at Danbury)
@Gran, we lost bennetton in palisades annd ambecrombie may be next we lost brooks brothers palisades is losing store after store. i have been on monmouth malls web they still have better stores than we do. vornado just got bergen town center done now they will concentrate on monmouth. at least vornado takes care of their malls than pyramid does..
@mallguy, i was at danbury dicks sporting goods and two otherr retailers are taking the former filenes in danbury fair mall.they may be open by thanksgiving.
@rob, I’m directing this post to you as well as Gram & mallguy. Bringing Burlington Coat to Palisades changed the demos of the mall. Originally the customer base was more afluent & was atracted to places like Sharper Immage, Restoration Hardware & Legal Sea Foods. However the mall was farely well ballenced with it’s selection of stores & restaurants at all price points. Today that balance is almost gone. With the adition of Burlington Coat Factory, the mall is moving towards something resembling White Plains Galleeria or Cross County Center in Yonkers, demographicly speeking.
Now that’s OK if you want to serve the local market around Rockland County, but a 3.5 million square foot mall is way too large to serve a county of 300,000 residents. Besides I never herd of a mall being ordered to remain parcially dead to placate nimbys who have been taking there shopping dollars across the state line for years.
Now if Palisades goes under these nimbys will need to fill the finantial gap the mall leves behind. This also includes Nanuet Mall as well. All the while the nimbys continue to shop in Paramus & bitch about the traffic & parking there
@SEAN, NIMBY-ism is huge in Clarkstown. For all of the yakking and complaining that has gone on about the current state of Nanuet Mall and the grounds surrounding it, I can assure you that once the final redevelopment plans are announced, people are going to complain. Rocklanders want ANOTHER enclosed mall in Rockland, so they can avoid Palisades. The area is overmalled as is. Rocklanders also want “high-end” stores. They can’t support it. The general Rockland population won’t buy enough to support, and the ones who can afford it will go to NJ.
@SEAN, burlinton coat is a chain of stores like marshalls they carry calvin klein tommy hilfiger etc merchandise department stores dont sell. they are in westchester new jersey manhattan the carolinas.not like jembro near marshalls in nanuet who sell junk.or world bazar on level one near best buy in palisades.those are fly by night stores as long as burlington is a well known chain i dont mind them in palisades. i do mind stores like world bazar.
@Tim, That’s what I’ve been saying all along. take a look at the article below from the Bergen Reccord, This might give some perspective for prospects on retail in Rockland County.
There is a chart displaying vacancy rates.
North Jersey retail vacancy rate remains high, despite leasing activity
Friday, August 27, 2010
Last updated: Friday August 27, 2010, 1:20 PM
BY JOAN VERDON
The Record
STAFF WRITER
The vacancy rate for retail properties in northern and central New Jersey remained above 8 percent in July, unchanged from a year ago, as the struggling economy makes it harder for landlords to fill empty spaces.
The vacancy survey by The Goldstein Group, a commercial real estate brokerage firm based in Glen Rock, found close to 8 million square feet of vacant retail space along 22 retail highways. The vacancy rate of 8.16 percent is essentially the same as a year ago, when it was 8.18 percent, said Chuck Lanyard, president of The Goldstein Group.
Lanyard said he had been hoping to see more absorption of vacant space by July. “In light of the fact that we’re in such a continued uncertainty with the economy, we’re going to be in this state of flux for quite some time. Retail real estate is really going through some troubling times.”
However, he was quick to add that the vacancy rate in New Jersey is “much lower than the rest of the country,” with other regions reporting rates as high as 15 percent.
The vacancy rate for northern and central New Jersey jumped to 8.18 percent in July 2009 from 5.21 percent in July 2008, as a number of retail chains went out of business or closed stores to cut costs.
While the overall rate for the region remains high, demand for stores in Paramus and North Jersey continues to be strong, Lanyard said. All of the sections of routes 4 and 17 in Bergen County included in the survey reduced their vacancy rates compared with a year ago. “We are seeing a lot of activity,” he said, with electronics chains HH Gregg and Ultimate Electronics looking to establish a presence in New Jersey. Other businesses such as LA Fitness, Staples and apparel retailer AJ Wright are looking to add locations.
The Goldstein Group represents two restaurant chains that are actively seeking North Jersey locations — Smashburger, a new hamburger chain that opened last week at The Shops at Riverside in Hackensack, and Panchero’s Mexican Grill.
The vacancy rate for retail properties in northern and central New Jersey remained above 8 percent in July, unchanged from a year ago, as the struggling economy makes it harder for landlords to fill empty spaces.
The vacancy survey by The Goldstein Group, a commercial real estate brokerage firm based in Glen Rock, found close to 8 million square feet of vacant retail space along 22 retail highways. The vacancy rate of 8.16 percent is essentially the same as a year ago, when it was 8.18 percent, said Chuck Lanyard, president of The Goldstein Group.
Retail vacancy rates
Vacancy rates along North Jersey’s most important retail highways in July 2010 and a year ago, as tracked by The Goldstein Group’s midyear vacancy survey.
Highway July 2010 vacancy rate July 2009 vacancy rate
Route 4 – Paramus 6.7 percent 7.08 percent
Route 4 – Elmwood Park/Fair Lawn 8.79 percent 9.2 percent
Route 17 – Paramus 10 percent 11.5 percent
Route 17 – Ramsey/Mahwah 2 percent 2 percent
Route 17 – Rochelle Park/Rutherford 3.3 percent 3.7 percent
Route 46 – Totowa/Fairfield 10.9 percent 9.8 percent
Route 23 – Wayne/Butler 4.8 percent 5.8 percent
Route 3 – Clifton 3.5 percent 6.98 percent
Average vacancy rate for north and central New Jersey 8.16 percent 8.18 percent
Source: The Goldstein Group
Lanyard said he had been hoping to see more absorption of vacant space by July. “In light of the fact that we’re in such a continued uncertainty with the economy, we’re going to be in this state of flux for quite some time. Retail real estate is really going through some troubling times.”
However, he was quick to add that the vacancy rate in New Jersey is “much lower than the rest of the country,” with other regions reporting rates as high as 15 percent.
The vacancy rate for northern and central New Jersey jumped to 8.18 percent in July 2009 from 5.21 percent in July 2008, as a number of retail chains went out of business or closed stores to cut costs.
While the overall rate for the region remains high, demand for stores in Paramus and North Jersey continues to be strong, Lanyard said. All of the sections of routes 4 and 17 in Bergen County included in the survey reduced their vacancy rates compared with a year ago. “We are seeing a lot of activity,” he said, with electronics chains HH Gregg and Ultimate Electronics looking to establish a presence in New Jersey. Other businesses such as LA Fitness, Staples and apparel retailer AJ Wright are looking to add locations.
The Goldstein Group represents two restaurant chains that are actively seeking North Jersey locations — Smashburger, a new hamburger chain that opened last week at The Shops at Riverside in Hackensack, and Panchero’s Mexican Grill.
@rob, I think you misunderstand something, each chain has a demographic base they aim to serve. For example Target maybe a discounter like Wal-mart, but Target’s customer base is more inline with Nordstrom i.e more afluent than a tipical Wal-mart shopper.
Some of those shoppers also ate at restaurants like Legal Sea Foods. Legal recognised Burlington Coat has a different customer profile & Legal closed the Palisades location not all that long before BC opened.
It doesn’t matter that BC carries designer lables, it’s the customer base that counts. If A & F closes there Palisades locations, then it is not a stretch to see similar staples like Gap & others leave. Since these retailers have White Plains & Paramus locations, therefore is a Rockland location nessessary? You could say yes, but as chains reevaluate store performance & when there leases expire, some may choose to focus on better locations elsewhere around the New York area.
The only way Palisades can do better is if they eliminate that crazy clothing sales tax. Since NJ’s Governor won’t eliminate the Sunday Blue Laws Palisades would have a big advantage of them, I really wish they would close the Burlington Coat Factory and put in Nordstrom or Bloomingdales or something. With a sales tax no one would support these stores but with out a sales tax they would do better
@Gran, gov. christie wanted to repeal the blue laws but the residents of paramus are so stubborn about it but they okd five malls and the expansion of garden state plaza. nordstrom wont come here with stores in white plains and paramus. yes iagree bloomingdales but at nanuet mall when they revitalize it and should replace macys in nanuet because they own them and leave macys to operate at palisades.i have come to the conclusion that these stores see that people in rockland dont open their wallets at the malls as much as the residents of bergen county do.its amazing lord and taylorhas survived this long with two stores in paramus..
@rob, Paramus residents want their respective malls expanded not only because of convenient shopping, but also because it takes the property tax burden off them. As a result, Paramus and Mahwah (less because of retail and mroe because of the corporate home-office locations) have the some of the lowest property tax rates in Bergen County.
They still want their day of quiet on Sunday, but the amazing thing is that even with 6 day shopping weeks, the Paramus locations of the majority of the stores there are some of the highest performing in the region and chain(s).
And I still believe the role of the owner plays a lot into the success of a mall. If the mall is correctly marketed (Short Hills), continually updated (Freehold/Bridgewater) or has the best store selection (Garden State Plaza), the mall will thrive. Macerich, Taubman and Simon get this (formerly Rouse for the most part) get/got this and that is why those companies are the best in the buisness!
@mallguy, So Simon gets it? Explain Nanuet. 😛
Hopefully this gets the thread back on-topic.
@Tim, Nanuet NEVER was an “A” level mall to begin with. At best it was a “B” level property, in a “C” level market. The stores & product selections were always quite smaller than there nearby Paramus &White Plains siblings. Heck even there Palisades counterparts are larger than anything you would have found at Nanuet.
Until Rockland residents stop crossing the state line or the TZB to spend there disposable income, nothing will change & you may end up with two dead malls in one town that cant fight there way out of a shopping bag.
I hope that doesn’t happen, but as of right now is there any other possible outcome?
Look at several of the dead malls profiled on this site & the route causes, few of those exist in Rockland. However the result is the same as the others already posted.
@SEAN, sean i got through to pyramid on monday and told them off of whats happening at palisades,but one person isnt enough. call pyramid if more people call they will realize something needs to be done with the mall. their numeber is 315 422 7000 ask for ext.7781 and ask for gina vaccerelli thats who i spoke with. and even mall management 348 1000. i told them they need to rennovate lower rents and get better stores in the mall. the two reasons they cant get good tenants is the rents and the interior of the mall.
@rob, harassing mall management will get you nowhere. They’ll just chalk you up as a weirdo, a weirdo that has a hard-on for Belk and Dillard’s. If you think that the decision on rent charges are decided locally, you really don’t know the business.
@Tim, I agree. Telling Pyramid off goes nowhere fast. However expressing ones concerns in a constructive manner, may get some atention.
One of the issues that exists is the fact that Rockland County, isn’t an “A” level market to begin with. At best it is between “B” & “C”.
Nanuet was a “C” mall & Palisades dropped from “A” to “B”. This is based on both income & market size/ type.
@Tim, you dont even live here in rockland as you said.you probably live in bergen so you have your complete five malls so you shouldnt be so concerned about palisades or nanuet malls.we are spending our hard earned money in palisaeds and if its not satisfying the owners need to know. im sure you would be concerned if this was garden state or riverside.
@SEAN, all the things we see wrong with palisades and what palisades needs to do needs to be told how they are handling that mall and we have said plenty to each other about it. tim dosent even live in rockalnd.if customers dont say anything is making pyramid think they are doing no wrong.and palisades will drop to a c by christmas.
@Tim, one more thing dont call me a weirdo because i like belk and dillards. people like certain stores. nordstrom and neimans are over priced and stuck up stores. all im saying ny/nj are saturated with macys and have gotten to big for their britches since they bought may co.and i am an unemployed wall street clerk.
@rob, Do I need to seperate you & tim? This is not daycare.
Now kiss & make up. On second thaught, forget about the kissing part. LOL
Back on topic
I have mixed fealings reguarding Neiman Marcus, it’s more about the White Plains store rather then the company. As for Nordstrom, every time I’ve delt with them there CS has been great at all levels. Who ever does employee training is doing a top notch job. So what if you pay a few dollars more for good customer service, you are more likely to return & isn’t that most inportent?
@rob, you’re just a one-note pony. Belk is never coming, and neither is Dillard’s. Even if they did, Nanuet would be as dead as it is today. Also get off Macy’s leaving Nanuet. They are not leaving and they are not converting to Bloomie’s. Come up with some actual ideas that might have some basis in reality, instead of the same tired arguments.
Oh, and learn to capitalize as well. 🙂
@SEAN, not disagreeing with you. In your opinion, what makes Rockland a B or C market, outside of the obvious exodus of dollars to Bergen and Westchester?
I got an idea. What if Target was at Nanuet Mall? It will probably get some more people.
@Tim,
1. Population size of the market. When Palisades first opened, the mall atracted shoppers from all over the metro area giving the mall “A” status. Now most of those shoppers have been retreating to either White Plains, Paramus or further up the Hudson Valley where Pyramid has other malls with the same anchor lineup as Palisades. This caused stores to close & dropping the mall to a “B” level
2. Nanuet Mall didn’t atract many shoppers from outside the trade area wich I said in prior posts is around 300,000 people. National chains will reevaluate leases & keep there strongest stores. This relligates Nanuet mall to “C” status by default & may take Palisades with it.
3. Income. Rockland County, by no means is in the poor house as far as wealth mesures are concerned, but it doesn’t come anywhere close to it’s neighbors east & south. The other issue stems from the fact that those who do have higher incomes, tend to NOT spend it locally. Why should they if all they need to do is drive 15-25 minutes & they automaticly save 2.5% to 8% on most purchases.
4. Clarkstown & the nimby atitude contribute to this problem in a big way. If they don’t do something quickly they will go from a community with two malls to one with none & have no tax base to speak of. This will cause a rapid rise in property taxes & most nimbys will be screaming & the others will just move out. Nobody wins in that situation.
@jhshifris, Target has a store at Palisades Center and another one at Spring Valley Marketplace, which is about two miles from Nanuet Mall. Not feasable.
@Tim, Here are some interesting facts reguarding the Spring Valley Target store. At one time the Spring Valley Marketplace was a thriving strip mall that had a enormous Shop Rite, an 11-screen UA theatre & a pergament home center. At some point after Palisades opened, the center fell on hard times & was saved by Target. If you think about it Target opening there was a bit of a surprise at the time, being just a few miles from there Palisades location. Perhaps they read something in the tea leaves reguarding the future viability of such a large mall? Personally I doubt it. There’s too much money involved.
@SEAN, What do you think what i have been saying. We have doubles of Targets, Bed Baths,Macys.Christmas Tree Shops also saved that plaza. Why do you think I have been saying the Macys in Nanuet is old and delapodated to tear it down and rebuild it as Bloomingdales so they keep their property and we have one of each store here in each mall.It would reduce having double anchor stores here.
@rob, having duplicates in Palisades is due to the vastly different clientle going to the mall. If it wasn’t for the mall and the large area that it pulls from, Rockland wouldn’t have two Macy’s, two Home Depots, two Bed Bath, two Modells, two Staples, and two Targets.
@Tim, Yet Paramus has two of almost everything & does just fine. Why? because the population is there to support it. You cant say that about Rockland County.
Rob, the population isn’t there to put a Bloomingdale’s, despite what consentrated wealth might exist. Besides it’s only 15-20 minutes to Hackensack where you avoid sales taxes.
How many times must I repeat myself on that point to get it to register?
This thread is still going? Nanuet mall exists and apparently has not shut down when this article was published two years ago. The mall sucks, it deserves to be shut down. Only way it can survive is if it turns into a high end mall with top of the line stores. Something other malls in the area doesn’t have (strip malls included). I think people would rather drive locally instead of driving 20+ miles to the nearest chanel, guess, coach, or gucci store. Nanuet and the nearby cities are pretty rich after all.
I agree with Sean’s recent thoughts and that was my point as well in my earlier posts dated back in 2008. Demography, geography and tax incentives (to shop in nearby Jersey) should not be overlooked when evaluating the Nanuet Mall.
The high end shops that most posters seem to favor could get reworked into a smaller scaled version at the Nanuet site and similar to what exists at Tice’s Corner in Woodcliff Lake (upscale outdoor/outlet strip mall theme). But the Nanuet site should be redeveloped as mixed use or as housing in my opinion.
Also, eliminating to two mall system breathes new life and opens the door to a resurgence of shopping & community experiences on Main St. in New City, Nanuet, Nyack, Pearl River, Suffern, etc.
The questions that should really be dicussed then are what densities and restrictions would be set on the housing options, what % will be housing, retail, office/comm, what should the new physical layout look like, what environmental limitations currently exist at the site, etc. and NOT how can we rewind back to the glory days of the Nanuet Mall.
@Jeff, I get what you and gambit are saying.Sears and Macys owm their buildingsat Nanuet Mall. See Garden State Plaza offers a variety of stores the middleclass Macys, J.C Penney, Old Navy, and some other mid priced shops and the the high end Neimans,Nordstrom, Lord and Taylor coach, louis vitton etc.not like the Riverside and the Westchester malls which are totally high end. That is why im saying it would be a good mix for nanuet mall and for different households in the area.
@Jeff, Some commenters have the delusion that you could squeeze the Westchester into a market that cant support the Palisades wich is currently a third empty & is moving downscale.
Mixed use is the way to go. If Clarkstown doesn’t get it’s act together , they will be left behind as dollars move to Bergen & Westchester Counties.
@SEAN, I do agree with you about Clarkstown they better get their act together By christmas palisades will lose more stores,not just because of the mall but some stores are having problems abercrombie and Barnes and Noble.I wish Clarkstown would have a public meeting so we can stress our opinion about palisades and nanuet malls Barnes and Noble is closing a store in manhattan and will be turning it into Century 21 dept store.
@rob, Which B&N in Manhattan is closing?
@rob, That would be a big blow for Palisades if they were to lose B&N…and I don’t think Borders would move in there.
The first time I visited Palisades about 6 years ago, I thought the decor was pretty tired looking. Let’s hope we see a renovation announcement for Palisades. Looks like Pyramid has the same problem of “being in denail” that Vornado does.
@mallguy, the one by Lincoln Center.
@mallguy, Band N on upper east side at 66th street. Vornado did a remarkable job on bergen town center formerly bergen mall.I think they take pride in the malls they own over pyramid. I have alot against pyramid how they are operating palisades but Vornado are good.
@rob, Considering the new B&N on 86th recently opened (and BTW, I think that is one of the ugliest around…it’s basically in a basement!!!)
My biggest concern about Vornado comes out of the way they’ve been running Monmouth Mall. For years, they let this place decay into what it is now. There is absolutely no reason Monmouth Mall should be in the shape it’s in and as I’ve said on the Monmouth Mall thread, I blame Vornado! While they did attract B&N and Buffalo Wild Wings, Boscov’s left and the store is still unoccupied, nearly two years later. Furthermore, the mall hasn’t been truly renovated since 1987! To be fair, the mall has just begun its renovation and I really hope it’s successful. If it’s successful, then my opinion will definitely change about Vornado. Haven’t been to Bergen Town Center in a while, so the next time I’m in that area, I’ll have to check out how far it’s come.
@Tim, My friend John told me about Barns & Noble closing that location. Bummer! I’ve been going to that store fore years. Well I can go to the Union Square or Broadway & 82nd locations instead.
@mallguy, If B & N leaves Palisades, is it fare to say the mall has jumped the shark? I hope that is not the case.
There’s absolutely no way that Borders will ever open a location at Palisades, not with there finantials totally upside down.
@mallguy, If you get to Paramus you wont recognize the old bergen mall, cerntury 21 ,Target, Filenes BASEMENT bloomingdales outlet nordstrom rack, whole foods market Saks off fifth, Marshalls Bobbys Burger Palace etc. Boscovs had company problems they had filed bankruptcy they closed here in nanuet ny too. It took Danbury mall four years to finally occuoy the former Filenes dept store with Dicks Sporting Goods and Forever 21 so im sure they will replace Boscovs with maybe Century21 dept store the way they are opening new stores.
@mallguy, I checked Monmouth Malls website it said that their rennovation is going through 2011. At least they are doing something with that mall just like pyramid with the palisades mall.who wont do anything to improve palisades.
@rob, It remains to be seen what will be put in there. If you notice the “after” on the construction page, they are going for a bit of a chic look…quasi Freehold Raceway Mall. I’m actually impressed by it! I hope it’s just not too little too late. If they don’t make make it into an upscape department store, that space would best be suited for Macy’s to move over there…bigger space and there will be no more need for a Kids sattelite store. Century 21 could go into the new lifestyle space created by the Macy’s void.
@rob, Regarding Danbury Fair, I am still surprised that Nordstrom did not take the opportunity to grab up that space. I read chatter about it and thought it was a good idea for them considering Danbury Fair is CT’s largest mall and one of its more successful malls.
@rob, I do agree…phase 1 will be done by the holidays. But again, I’m really annoyed they let it go this long. Just hope it’s not too little too late.
@SEAN, Don’t see it happening either. Defintely see that as a death knell to Palisades…then it’s a ticking time bomb for some of the anchors like Lord and Taylor.
Funny how the Nanuet Mall thread discusses every other mall except Nanuet. LOL
Any updates to what’s happening? What about the current situation? What’s going on there now, and how does it look? What’s left?
@mallguy, Do you have any idea what Clarkstown is doing reguarding both Nanuet & Palisades? By the looks of things, cant be much. I doubt they have the guts to take on a large retailer or developer.
When Wal-mart opened in White Plains a few years ago, several employees were caught smoking & littering durring there break. It was bad enough that some of the top brass were summond to city hall & were read the riot act so to speak. Oh! To be a fly on the wall durring that meeting, it must have been incredible to watch. FYI former WP mayor Joe Delfino had a short fuse & was known to lose his cool every so often, yet he managed to bring the downtown back from disaster.
@Tim, From what I herd about a week ago, outside of Macy’s & sears there’s about ten stores remaining. Haven’t got a clue what they might be, or if that is an accurate figure.
As for other malls being discussed on this thred, you need to look at the big picture. Palisades is a few minutes east, White Plains is a few miles east of the TZ Bridge offI-287& Paramus/ Hackensack NJ are a short drive south southeast. Nanuet Mall cant be looked at in a vacume, rather a comprehensive & regional view must be taken to truely understand where Nanuet Mall is & how it can be revived.
If for some reason it cant be renewed as a mall, then a redevelopment plan is in order. What that plan would consist of is totally unown right now, but someone better come up with an answer soon.
@SEAN, I still go to the barber in Nanuet, all there is two junk stores, childrens place, rainbow shop.mandee, radio shack, gnc, dollar store and two food court places and Sears and Macys.
@rob, looking at the mall’s website, it looks closer to 50 tenants. A lot of different uses (doctors, offices, a radio station), but certainly more than 10.
@rob, also, food court shows 4 tenants (pizza, cookies, yougurt, hot dogs).
@Tim, I dont count half the places that are in there they are junk and unknown stores.What i say is half of 50 stores are 25 of real stores left.You wont find this garbage in the paramus malls.Whatever Simon property put in there is pocket money for them and not luring customers to buy in those godforsaken stores they have there right now. I get my haircut there and I leave and I even get my haircut in palisades they are the same owners of the barbershop in nanuet.
@rob, your opinion of the stores notwithstanding, there are still 50 tenants left in the mall, which is a bit different than less than 10. If we are trying to give an accurate picture of the current state of the mall, facts should not be infused with opinion. Then again, we are all posting on a column that says “Soon to Close”, almost two and a half years after it was written!
@Tim, If you do not live in Rockland why are you so concerned about the malls here.If you live in Bergen your malls are fine . As I said what ever stores are left like childrens place mandee are normal stores not bano bazar or neelam they are not major chain stores.What ever F.C PLACES left i would not touch their food there is not enough turn over.
@Tim, are we talking about stores or tennents. There’s a fine line between the two. When a mall is taken over by non-retail tennents such as doctors offices & junk stores, that means we are witnessing a property that may not be able to support retail opperations.
OK, this thred popped up over two years ago & perhaps jumped the gun on the malls demise, so what. Does it change the fact that Nanuet mall is in big trouble? No it doesn’t. It’s time to move on & try to figure out what the best use for this property might be.
Remember Palisades, White Plains & Bergen County play a criticle roll in such a solution. That’s why a good portion of this thred was devoted to those related topics. As I said before you cant look at Nanuet Mall in a vacume & why a big picture/ regional perspective is importent to really understand the ecconomic forces at work.
@rob, does one have to live in the immediate area of the mall they are talking about in order to comment? Is there a certain radius one needs to be at in order for their comment to matter? If you care as much as you do, why don’t you go over to the nanuet management office and express yourself the same way you did at palisades and with the Clarkstown supervisor?
@Tim, There is no management office at nanuet mall for a few years.
@rob, I’m going to call a friend of mine who is the marketing director at another nearby Simon property to get some answers.
I already said this isn’t daycare, so you & Tim better behave or I’m putting both of you in time out!
@SEAN, understood, but not sure how extended conversations about Monmouth, Freehold, Danbury Fair, and the B&N at Lincoln Center concern Nanuet.
@Tim, sometimes topics come from different places as odd as it may seme. It’s preferable to you & rob having a fight over Dillard’s & Belk comeing to Nanuet Mall, wich will NEVER happen.
@SEAN, also preferable to you and other championing mixed use at the nanuet site, which will also NEVER happen?
@SEAN, People have opinions I know Belks and Dillards probably wont come here but if people are satisfied with stores they have visited it doesnt hurt to suggest them to a mall thats in a bad situation.I really dont care i shop their webstes and when i visit my family in North Carolina i shop their stores. There arent many department stores left. Tell Tim the reason Barnes and Noble was mentioned they are closing stores and there is one in palisades and in Rockland Plaza in Nanuet, there might be another empty store in palisades i hope not.
@rob, You did a good job summerizing it without my help.
Tim,
You are assuming that Nanuet Mall is still a viable retail location. It very well maybe, but what if it is no longer a prime spot? What is Clarkstown going to do? Oh wait they have bigger fish to fry, Namely keeping Palisades afloat. If Palisades management & ownership continues to act like the Mets, i.e lose store after store, The idiot polititions & nimbys are going to do what, celebrate two dead malls? Say we told you so about the bad idea that was Palisades Center? NO! They will bitch about there unfare tax burden while still shopping in Paramus. Some others will sell there home & move out & say how they hate living in New York.
@SEAN, Did you by chance get any info from your friend about what simon property plans to do with Nanuet Mall.
Sean Did you by chance get any info from your friend on what Simon Property plans on Nanuet Mall.
@rob, looks like Sean’s source dried up. Did the town supervisor tell you anything?
@Tim, Not quite. I’ve been away the last week or so. As far as my source goes, reaching her can be challenging. Paula is very busy & doesn’t have a lot of time to spare. I’ll keep trying, but I don’t want to anoy her.
@SEAN, Dont, worry about it i was just wondering. I am just curious if simon property is going to keep their word with new plans to be announced or just keep leading all of us on the past couple of years. Still no change at palisades, s till no Tony Romas.I give up with these malls i may do my christmas shopping in Paramus this year.
@rob, Me too, or at Roosevelt Field.
After leaving Palisades saturday night, my girlfriend told me that do to all of the construction in the parking lots & the general vibe within the mall, she rather shop in Paramus as well.
Interesting article from Retail Traffic.
Simon Unveils New iPhone App
Oct 21, 2010 10:15 AM, By Elaine Misonzhnik
In the wake of its partnership with the developers of the Shopkick mobile application, Simon Property Group has unveiled an iPhone app that will be active at more than 180 of its malls.
Unlike Shopkick, which concentrates primarily on offering shoppers deals from participating retailers, Simon’s new iPhone app promotes Simon’s properties and provides a wide range of services specific to its malls. Shoppers who download the app will be able to access retailer discounts at their favorite centers, get information on mall events, be able to draw up mall maps and lists of available retailers, restaurants and entertainment venues and get help with parking.
The application comes following Simon’s appointment of Patrick Flanagan as head of digital marketing some six months ago. Flanagan, who’s now charged with taking Simon’s properties into the smartphone age, helped develop the app in house. It can be downloaded for free from the Apple iTunes App store and is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices. Simon plans to roll out an Android version of the app by the first quarter of next year.
Mikael Thygesen, Simon Property Group’s chief marketing officer, spoke with Retail Traffic about the application.
Retail Traffic: How was the application developed?
Thygesen: We designed it internally and did customer research to test some of the concepts and validate the functionality of the tools. The focus of the app, really, is to provide Simon shoppers with information on what’s going on in their favorite mall. It might be offers and promotions from retailers, it might be events, it might be new stores.
We actually hired a new head of digital marketing about six months ago and this was one of his first projects. It’s part of a larger initiative to leverage technology to enhance the shopping experience and this is an example of that.
RT: Is the application already functional?
Thygesen: It’s functional; I am using it [right now] as I travel from property to property. One of the things we are doing is leveraging an existing capability we have. We already aggregate offers from our retailers and relate them online to our customers, so we just added a new communication channel. We used that existing functionality as the foundation for the retail promotions engine.
RT: Can you walk us through how the application works?
Thygesen: You can download the Simon Mall App from the iTunes store, it’s free. You download it, open it and it will identify malls nearby—you can designate what your favorite mall or malls are. There are nine icons when you pull the app up: you can access all the deals from the retailers at that mall; there is an event icon, where we would list all the events, and that might include new store openings, performances, other kinds of events; you have a store icon that lets you quickly sort through all the retailers at the property; you have general mall information; you have different icons for information on the dining options and entertainment; a mall map if you are an out-of-towner and want to know how to get from point A to point B.
We also integrated social media into our functionality. With Foursquare, you can identify yourself as being in the mall, so people can reach out and get together. We have Facebook, so you can share an event [you like]. And then finally, the other piece of functionality is the parking service. If you want to make sure you can get back to your car (because sometimes you forget where you parked), there is a GPS capability. It guides you back to your car using GPS and Google maps.
RT: Do you know how many people have downloaded the app so far?
Thygesen: I don’t know. We just announced the launch [this week], so it’s a little early. I am going to give it some time. One of the things we will be doing is obviously promoting it to our shoppers and that is rolling out as we speak. We haven’t actively marketed it yet.
RT: When will the Android version of the app become available?
Thygesen: We will be rolling out an Android version probably in the first quarter of next year. We will give it a little time to see how everybody reacts to the iPhone app and we want to get feedback from our shoppers. The strategy is for us to regularly update and improve the app.
We see this as an important communication channel for us with our shoppers going forward. And I think it will be increasingly so as smart phone adoption use increases. The forecasts that I’ve seen say that over the next two years it will really explode. Android is doing extremely well in the marketplace already. That’s one of the reasons we see this as an important area for us to be involved in.
RT: You recently rolled out the Shopkick app at some of your centers. Will there be any overlap between the two applications?
Thygesen: We view them as being complementary. Shopkick is more of a cross-retailer marketing platform. It’s not exclusive to Simon malls. What we are doing with our app is targeting our core customer on a regular basis. It’s not as broad, it’s very focused on Simon and its malls, in particular a mall, and we dive deeper in terms of information we offer shoppers. It caters to a different need—giving a lot of information for core shoppers who visit our malls on a regular basis.
That’s all well & good, but how will that revive malls like Nanuet & Palm Beach that are really struggling or near dead.
@SEAN, um, Simon gave Palm Beach back to the bank and it’s been closed for almost a year now. Not sure what this has to do with the Nanuet topic. How’s that source of yours working out?
@Tim, I haven’t herd back from Paula. She handles both The Westchester & Galleria marketing, making her extremely busy.
I mentioned Nanuet Mall & Palm Beach Mall in reference to the fact that an app for the Iphone is great, but it is pointless if a property you own is dead or nearly so. I forgot that Simon doesn’t own PBM anymore, however you understand the point I was trying to make. I also thaught the article was a good read & worented further discussion from you & other regular posters for there own analysis.
@SEAN, I was at palisades mall today they are losing fye on 3rd floor and they lost candy store lindt. I heard also someone talking that barnes and noble is closing i bet after the holidays Simon property is so full of it i dont think they have any plans on nanuet mall I think they are leading the county and the public astray. The parking lots are not as full anymore as what i see at the paramus malls.
@rob, WTF? I’m not surprised about FYE leaving Palisades, but where is the info about Barns & Noble’s closing comeing from. There have been news stories about B & N closing 25-stores, but the only one known to be closing is Lincoln Square.
@SEAN, I HEARD A MALL SECURITY GUARD TALKING TO SOMEONE FROM BED BATH AND BEYOND, THIS WAS LAST WEEK.
@rob, Hmmm, interesting. I would keep our eyes on the following…
1. Target
2. Bed Bath & Beyond
3. Best Buy
4. Restoration Hardware
5. AMC
6. Lord & Taylor
7. Cheesecake Factory
If Barns & Noble leaves Palisades these retailers & venues would be the most likely to jump ship next do to common demographics between them. I’m not saying it will happen, but the ods for it to become reallity do rise
Footnotes
1. The AMC theatre would most likely go to another circuit.
2. Restoration Hardware recently remoddled there Palisades location.
3. Cheesecake Factory has never closed any of it’s restaurants since they began in 1978.
As a result I don’t think that those businesses are going anywhare. However if the mall continues to blead stores, then all bets are off.
@SEAN, I agree with you pyramid cos is the worst mall company. Thats what will happen if they dont wake up, i wish westfield owned palisades because they take care of the garden state plaza,and palisades would be in better shape.
@rob, who do you know at Simon that told you they have no plans?
@rob, No dout about that. BTW, I was at GSP Saturday & it was totally nuts! Snookie from Jersey Shore was there & I need to ask ,this is what the courts call probation for celeberties? Also the host of What not to ware was outside Lord & Taylor as part of a fashon show. As I said before totally nuts!
@Tim, It was on the news in august that they would have a plan in october still nothing. They said they had a plan after Boscivs closed still no announcements so they are leading us all astray. I absolutly know no one at Simon. They and pyramid are the worst mall owners the best one is westfield.
@rob, Was that Simon that said October or Gromack that said that? I haven’t heard any Simon folks talking. Any luck reaching anybody at the mall itself and asking?
@Tim, I t was on news 12 hudson valley who got it from clarkstown. Whats the difference . I havent contacyted gromack since the summer. In plain english the mall still sits empty and dead,lets leave it at that.
@rob, Isn’t that just perfect for holloween? A dead mall! Boo!
@rob, I was at Palisades yesterday & did some fact checking. As it turns out Barns & Noble as well as FYE ar NOT closing as predicted. It lookss as if the security there are spending too much time passing out false information. Perhaps they should go back to the job they were hired for in the first place & not crank up the rumor mill!
I got my info streight from employees of the stores & one particular Barns & Noble employee told me he is going to be fact checking on this thred because he was interested on what Labelscar is all about.
@SEAN, I saw fye with all the signs on everything in the store which looks like it was closing. Maybe not now but maybe after the holidays. When you see a sign everything up to 50 percent off it sure likes they were cllosing.When a store is closing they start at 10 percent off. Who knows there is so much musical stores in that mall you dont know if you are coming or going. I am sticking with paramus at christmas.
@rob, #1. If FYE was closing there would have been going out of business signs posted everywhere. I was told it was an inventory move hence the huge markdowns.
#2. I prefer Paramus to Palisades anyway.
@SEAN,
FYE has done it before…I’ve been fooled..I thought they were closing,so i bought a couple DVD’s and when I asked when the “closing date” was the cashier looked at me like I had 4 heads and rudely said “we’re not closing” and i said “then why do the signs looks like the one’s stores hang up when they’re closing” he said “do they say ‘everything must go anywhere on them? I don’t think so”
Needless to say FYE didn’t get my business before(R.I.P Sam Goody/media play) and hasn’t since
@SP, Thanks for the info. The best FYE stor I could find was the Trumbul Shopping Park store near Bridgeport CT. They carried everything under the sun.
@SEAN, Did you see there was an article in 12/02/10 yesterdays paper that nanuet mall will be smaller and start construction in 2012 and be completed in 2014 so we still have to wait another year until 2012 until they start and next month to get the details. I have to tell you i went to garden state plaza on black friday i almost got trampled for a free 20.00 gify card at Lord And Taylor. The deals were great but i will not do a black friday ever again.
@rob, I just read it & as the old saying goes, I’ll believe it when I see it. For the benefit of others I’m posting the article below.
Renovated Nanuet Mall expected by 2014
By Hema Easley
After years of waiting, Rockland residents can expect to see a renovated Nanuet Mall by 2014, albeit one that is slightly smaller.
That’s what representatives of Simon Property Group, owners of the mall, have told Clarkstown town officials in the course of several meetings this year.
The company expects to present a detailed site plan to the town early next year, and hopes to complete the approval process in 2011. Demolition of a section of the mall, and renovation and reconstruction will likely take place in 2012 and 2013.
A formal opening of the new, renovated mall will likely take place in 2014, Clarkstown Supervisor Alex Gromack said.
“The good news is that they are committed to doing a major renovation of Nanuet Mall,” Gromack said. “From what I have gleaned, they are not just talking about a facelift.”
Les Morris, a spokesman for Simon Properties, declined comment.
The group also owns the Jefferson Valley Mall in Yorktown Heights and The Westchester mall in White Plains.
David Alvarez, owner of Banchetto Feast restaurant at the mall, welcomed the news. But he lamented the delay in renovating Rockland’s oldest mall, which has been losing business since the Palisades Center opened in West Nyack in 1998.
Empty and shuttered stores now dot the mall.
“There is no reason they should have waited for so long to redevelop the site,” said Alvarez, who has a 25-year-lease on his restaurant. “The community needs another option, another shopping venue.”
Talk about an updated Nanuet Mall with a popular anchor store such as Nordstrom has been making the rounds for years.
In January 2006, Simon told The Journal News that the Indianapolis-based company was considering a $50 million revitalization that would turn the Nanuet Mall into a “lifestyle center” with a new look and high-end stores.
Gromack, who had informal discussions with a Simon executive, said at the time that the plan envisioned a Woodbury Common kind of outdoor complex with a movie theater and lush landscaping. That plan was scrapped without an explanmation .
The company later approached the town, saying it wanted to retain the site as an indoor mall.
But talks have stalled since then, likely because of the recession.
But with the economy rebounding, Gromack said, Simon seemed poised to move forward.
Simon Properties was looking to make the renovated mall a little smaller so that it could keep within the original footprint and not have to seek variances, Gromack said.
Clarkstown has encouraged the company to hold several informational meetings prior to building to seek input from town residents. The company has shown a willingness to do that, Gromack said.
“We are very encouraged. We can’t wait for them to come in with definitive plan,” Gromack said.
It’s a shame if the mall closes. I remember going to it when I was younger and even now it’s one of the best looking malls I’ve even been to and much nicer than the Palisades Center. There’s no reason why the can’t both exist and serve different crowds. For example, the Nanuet mall is great for us people that prefer a quieter less hectic experience. Maybe it could have more premium outlets…
@Julien, I agree they should do a bergen town center type mall. I think the owners of palisades mall will do something to improve while nanuet mall is being redone. Nanuet should get rid of macys because they have a bigger store at palisades and keep sears, and either put a century 21 dept store in macys or a bunch of outlets like lord and taylor nordstrom rack etc.
@rob, same old, same old. How many times does it have to be repeated that Macy’s owns its building and land at nanuet, so it’s not going anywhere? At least you’re off the Dillards/Belk kick.
@Tim, Are you two fighting again? Time to get the “Super Nanny.”
Check out this great article from Retail Traffic.
Growing Restaurant Chains Help Landlords Create Signature Menus
Dec 16, 2010 11:44 AM, By Mike Janssen
The economic troubles of the past few years may have put a damper on consumer spending, but industry observers say that through it all, shoppers appear to have maintained a healthy appetite for dining out. Now, with the economy showing signs of recovery, new concepts for restaurants are emerging. Local and regional chains are vying to squeeze in among the national contenders, appealing to developers who want to snag diners with a diverse menu of distinct and flavorful options.
Overall, the U.S. restaurant industry added 2,600 new eating and drinking locations in 2009, according to a report from the National Restaurant Association (NRA), citing data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s well off the pace of 11,000 new locations per year averaged between 2002 and 2008, but given the depth of the recession, the growth was viewed as a positive sign.
The stakes are high for landlords—they know that a shopper who eats at the mall is likely to stay longer and spend more. “We look at the clusters of restaurants at our centers as becoming another anchor,” says Guy Mercurio, a vice president who oversees restaurant leasing for Santa Monica, Calif.-based regional mall REIT Macerich Co. “The number of people that they bring in by combining several concepts can equal the number of people that go into a department store.”
Shoppers can spend up to 40 percent longer at a property if they eat there, according to one study Mercurio cites. In addition, he says, a slate of restaurants can draw upwards of 2 million diners a year, many of whom might not have visited the mall otherwise.
“We’re essentially trying to stretch the shopping day and the shopping hours,” he says. With the right restaurants, “we believe we will draw more people from a greater distance, and they’ll stay longer at our center.”
Over time, landlords and restaurateurs have changed their thinking about what kinds of restaurants will accomplish that goal. They now emphasize that today’s diners are looking for unique, lively experiences. Customers who once sought out reliability and consistency now desire authenticity, says Rob Wilder, co-founder of Washington, D.C.-based restaurant operator ThinkFoodGroup.
“The big trend over time has been that restaurants are entertainment,” says Wilder, a business partner of Washington–based Spanish chef José Andrés. “They’re social. Families get to sit down with their kids and focus. There aren’t those demands you have around the kitchen table.”
The new Dining Deck at Macerich’s Santa Monica Place was conceived as a third anchor for the site.
In keeping with that trend, observers say, restaurateurs increasingly aspire to create a fun and casual atmosphere. They’re shying away from excessive formality and adding a wider array of entrees at varying price points, including kids’ menus at restaurants that previously overlooked younger diners. Some expanding chains even introduce movies, live music, games or bowling into the dining experience.
These developments come as restaurateurs show growing optimism about their prospects in coming years. An NRA survey in September found that 43 percent of operators expected higher sales over the next six months compared to the same period the previous year. Meanwhile, 38 percent anticipated an improving economic outlook over the next six months, up from 25 percent in August. They also reported rising customer traffic, and net same-store sales rose for the first time in six months. In addition, the NRA’s Restaurant Performance Index stood at 100.3 in its October reading. Anything above 100 signifies expansion in the index of key industry indicators.
Eating out, but eating less
Compared to retailers, observers say, restaurants weathered the recession relatively well—though not all equally. Customers continued to eat out but sought to save money by sharing portions or trading down to cheaper locations. That resulted in steeper declines in revenues at the highest-end restaurants, such as steakhouses, says Bryant Siragusa, professional director of mall restaurants and entertainment for Chattanooga, Tenn.-based regional mall REIT CBL & Associates Properties Inc. Companies taking employees out on expense accounts traded down to upscale casual locations, whose usual diners in turn traded down to casual dining. The lower-end restaurants saw less of that churn.
MGHerring Group aimed for a diverse range of dining options at its Villa at Fairview near Dallas.
At restaurants at Macerich locations, “frequency and customer counts are fairly normal, almost where they’ve always been,” Mercurio says. Yet diners have been a bit more frugal, spending less by getting wine by the glass rather than buying full bottles, or by sharing salads or entrees.
To accommodate such thriftier diners, some restaurants began offering more specials, such as bundling courses together into fixed-price menus, says Mercurio. Customers have also cut back on their lunch budgets, so restaurants might switch up menus and present the midday crowd with a cheaper, fast-casual, but still somewhat upscale set of dishes. At night, the restaurant returns to full-service.
Meanwhile, some landlords responded by adopting a more cautious approach during the downturn. “A restaurant’s track record and their historical sales are more critical now,” says Jason Kasal, vice president and leasing director for Oak Brook, Ill.-based Inland Southwest Management. “We’re more closely vetting a restaurant’s management team and their menu.”
At CBL, the focus remains on long-term prospects. Many of the group’s leases with restaurateurs extend to 10- or 15-year terms, Siragusa says, meaning that the company must look beyond short-term economic hardships. “Trading down to cheaper options may be happening now, but it won’t always be that way,” he says. “Just because fast casual is popular, CBL isn’t going all fast casual.”
Landlords now signing deals face an increasingly varied array of options. With higher-end restaurants and national chains reining in aggressive expansion, local and regional players have seized opportunities to fill the void. That can prove to be an asset for a landlord seeking to distinguish a property with an up-and-coming hometown restaurateur who can bring novelty and buzz to the site.
Among national chains, Cheesecake Factory, for example, was once opening 20 locations a year, says Peter Haback, vice president of restaurant leasing for Chicago-based regional mall REIT General Growth Properties Inc. This year, they opened three. P.F. Chang’s was once expanding at a similar pace but it opened only six locations this year.
CBL’s Siragusa says that trend appears to be ending. “Most of the national chains have flipped the switch and have started looking to expand again,” he says. “I’ve also seen a big emergence of smaller chains that really have the ability to go national.”
Keeping tabs on new concepts
So who are the expanding chains to watch? Leasing agents cite a number of up-and-comers. One is Bravo Brio Restaurant Group, a Columbus, Ohio-based chain that just went public with an October IPO. The company’s Bravo! Cucina Italiana and Brio Tuscan Grille brands are likely to be in high demand, says Siragusa.
Siragusa also points to Cheddar’s, a Texas-based chain akin to T.G.I. Friday’s, Applebee’s and Ruby Tuesday; and to BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse, a California-based company that sells its own custom brews. Likewise, Cooper’s Hawk, a Chicago-area chain that makes wine on site, may be seeking to expand. The eatery just won a Hot Concept award from Nation’s Restaurant News.
Diners and developers know Florida’s Darden Restaurants for its widespread brands such as Olive Garden, Red Lobster and LongHorn Steakhouse. Darden is now building out with Seasons 52, a premium casual American grill with a seasonal menu.
In addition, it’s doing its best to keep its more mature concepts as fresh as possible. The firm recently announced a plan to remodel all of its nearly 700 Red Lobster locations in a style reminiscent of the seaside village of Bar Harbor, Maine, while introducing new menu items in the $8.99 to $18.50 price range. Thirty-three percent of restaurants will be remodeled by June 2011, with the goal of all Red Lobster restaurants receiving a remodel by 2014.
Local eateries, such as the Dallas-based Purple Cow, can strengthen the mix and leave malls less reliant on national chains.
Macerich’s new Santa Monica Place in Santa Monica, Calif., will feature a True Food Kitchen, a growing chain that Macerich’s Mercurio expects to be popular. The restaurants sprang from a partnership between noted health guru Dr. Andrew Weil and Fox Restaurant Concepts, a Phoenix-based company. You might expect hippie grub such as “tofu and cabbage,” as Mercurio says, but True Food instead presents healthy organic food, juices and smoothies, as well as wine, beer and specialty cocktails.
Entertainment-themed establishments form a subcategory of their own. Looking for bowling? There’s Lucky Strike and Ten Pin Alley. Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill brings live music into the mix, and AMC has been opening dine-in movie theaters. Chuck E. Cheese, long popular among kids, continued to expand and even reap positive revenues during the recession, says CBL’s Siragusa.
Such entertainment elements might add flash to a restaurant, but the food remains the top priority, says Jason Kasal of Inland Real Estate. “If they get the food right, then the entertainment usually works,” Kasal says. “But if the focus is on the entertainment, the food doesn’t usually work as well. It’s difficult to execute both really well.”
Kasal also likes working with restaurants that use social media and Web marketing tools such as Twitter, Facebook and Groupon. Such efforts demonstrate that the restaurateurs care about improving their offerings and responding to feedback from customers. “Those are the ones we’d like to be associated with,” Kasal says.
Local or national?
The array of expanding national chains, along with the local and regional restaurants seeking to grow, gives landlords a mix of choices. They now consider not just whether their restaurants are local, regional or national, but also the range of cuisines represented and how the restaurants will complement their surrounding retailers.
“The goal is to provide something in each category,” says Gar Herring, president of MGHerring Group, a Dallas-based developer. MGHerring recently added six restaurants to its Village at Fairview in the Dallas area, and three more will move in by the end of the year. Some are regional, others national, and the cuisines include Asian, Tex-Mex, Italian, seafood, burgers and baked goods.
Steakhouse Bailey’s Prime Plus suits the Village at Fairview’s upscale shoppers.
By selecting these restaurants, MGHerring sought to offer enough variety that shoppers wouldn’t have to decide on what they wanted to eat before they arrived at the center. For those doing a little more advance planning, such as scheduling an event, Fairview also employs a dedicated restaurant concierge to field questions and requests.
For its part, Macerich doesn’t follow set formulas when balancing local, regional and national tenants, says Mercurio. But having all of them is key. “You appeal to a wider range of customers, and it becomes more of a destinational draw,” he says.
It’s an approach that has worked well for Macerich, Mercurio says, and it informed the buildout at Santa Monica Place, a refurbished center that the company opened Aug. 6. The site boasts regional and local restaurants, a food court with about a dozen options, and a market featuring local vendors of artisanal meats, wines, seafood, coffee, baked goods and other foodstuffs.
The assortment of upscale offerings sounds like a foodie’s dream, and indeed, one restaurateur says developers will need to up their game to get the attention of choosy diners. “People are somewhat jaded and really want to seek out something unique,” says ThinkFoodGroup’s Wilder.
For malls to remain competitive, Wilder says, they’ll need to become financial partners, which could mean spending up to $10 million to help a signature restaurant get built. Restaurants are a high capital business, fueled in part by the regulation and construction demands that restaurateurs must contend with. Diners “want somebody who’s going to push the limits a little bit, and that’s never going to be an old-fashioned mall deal.”
Wilder and Andrés, his business partner, have talked with developers but have yet to find the kinds of deals they’re looking for, he says. It’s too early to tell whether developers will change their minds, but ThinkFoodGroup isn’t ready to compromise.
“The hotel world has gotten with the program,” Wilder says. “They’re willing to build a restaurant and turn the key for us. And if you want us, you’ll have to do that.”
@Tim, grow up
@Tim, macys can sell it to simon or clarkstown they sold their bergen mall store to vornado.
I live in Spring Valley and listening to people I can say that the Nanuet Mall is pretty much missed. Everybody hates the Palissades Center. What’s needed is new investors to revive the place. It’s a really beautiful mall and I’d hate to see it demolished.
@Patrick, if people would patronize palisades there wouldnt be musical stores. The Nnauet Mall to me isnt so beautiful the main isle is so narrow in its day it was hard to walk when it was crowded. I prefer Paramus Park or Garden State Plaza they are much nicer malls. I think Palisades will rennovate before Nanuet mall does and it will be smaller so selection of stores will be very limited so people will still trek to Paramus or to Palisades especially that Macys at Nanuet Mall is so run down inside and out. Nanuet mall will never be like it was years ago so the community has to accept that. I never have seen grown people be so upset over a mall.
@rob, And yet when push comes to shove Rocklanders rather shop in Paramus where the store selection is better & you can save an automatic 2% to 8% without doing a thing.
Although understandable, some of the cries you here reguarding Nanuet Mall are more of a sentimental nature. At least that is what it semes to me.
@SEAN, I was in Palisades yesterday fye is closing I asked the sales person. Its looks like another junk store is going in next to best buy. Tony Romas is finally on its way .I tell you I was at Trader Joes for the first time I would love to see them in Nanuet Mall its a nice store.
I find it odd that Simon wants to reduce the footprint of the Nanuet mall. The only logical choice would be the “new” wing anchored by A&S/Boscov’s; and that was only built in ’93 (’94? I forget exactly). I would however, approve of removing the upper parking deck (which I never understood in the first place, considering the size of the parking lot) as it blocks a significant part of the mall from the road, not exactly the nicest view. I almost hate to admit it, but I’m one of those people who believe it should be torn down and the land put to other use, even though I actually worked there (Boscov’s and Bombay Company).
By any chance, does anyone think that Nanuet Mall should be demolished completely and rebuilt, complete with a Wegmans. That would be a big plus for the area. A very big one.
I’d vote for it, though I would hope that they’d keep the Boscov’s building since it’s one the nicer looking anchors.
@Michael Schaeffer, i agree with you either wegmans or even stew leonards.There is so much sentmental feelings with residents of nanuet over a mall. I lived in dutchess county and the duychess mall in fishkill was torn down but nobody shed tears there as these people do here. South HIlls mall in Poughkeepsie went dead after the Poughkeepsie Galleria opened again there were no tears or anger as they do here. THE PEOPLE here have it stuck in their heads that the demise of nanuet mall was palisades malls fault. It was the fault of SIMON PROPERTY FOR letting the mall go down and also macys who took away sterns and abraham and straus. Simon forced Boscovs out as well.
@SEAN, i was at Nanuet mall today waiting for a bus and i asked a security guard if there was any news from simon and there is still nothing. He said the building is falling apart .pipes are freezing in the old boscovs building partrs of the roof may fall and the luggage store has a hole in their ceiling.The mall sounds like its falling apart plus the pot holes in the lots. So it sounds like nanuets beautiful mall is in just as bad shape than palisades mall. The Sears building seems to be the only one in deccent shape macys building is rotting away.as well. I swear simon property will wait for something bad to happen before they will do something it seems.
@rob, FYE closed yesterday & I cant imagine what is going to take it’s place.
@rob, interesting stuff! Which guard did you hit up: the big one or the little guy?
Life long rocklander. The palisades mall ruined my county. Hate to see the old mall go
@Al, The palisades mall ruined my county. Please tell me how?
I have tried to explane the facts over & over again. First most of the locals drive to NJ to save 8% on retail purchases & why shouldn’t they? Second outside of Boscov’s there was nothing unique at Nanuet. Third Palisades Center created it’s own market by merging three retail concepts into a single complex i; e mall, big box center & entertainment center.
Now you can question the viability of such a large center in a county with a smaller population than Pittsburgh, but Palisades did NOT kill Nanuet Mall. Tax policy has a serious roll in this issue as well as nimbyism when it comes to where locals in Rockland spend there disposable income.
@Al, Sean is right Palisades mall did not kill nanuet mall simon property and macys did. Simon Property did not focus on doing anything to save the mall while times was still good. They owned Bergen mall in Paramus and almost ran that mall down untill vornado thank god bought it and now its back to life.If macys hadnt taken away Sterns and abraham AND Straus Nanuet mall wouldnt be in the shape its in now.The people in this county have it stuck in their heads that palisades did this how come paramus can handle 5 malls and this county cant handle two. I used to live in dutchess county two malls died dutchess mall in Fisgkill and South Hills Mall in Poughkeepsie people didnt blame Poughkeepsie Galleria like people do here.
Rockland County residents i never saw people cry over a mall. Instead of pointing the finger at Palisades Mall why dont you point the finger at Simon Property and call them and complain to them of what they did to your beloved mall. I can see if this was a mall like Garden State Plaza i really didnt think it was that great of a mall like the paramus malls before Palisades was built. I never shopped Nanuet mall much the macys in paramus are better than the dump at nanuet mall. I only did when Abraham AND Straus and Sterns was there.
@rob, In the JN today there’s an article on the struggles with small businesses on main street. Afew commenters blame Palisades Center & parking meeters for downtown Nyacks problems. If putting a few quarters into a meeter stops you from shopping in a particular area, then you didn’t really want to go there in the first place.
To that point, if the locals as you said really wanted to support Nanuet Mall, they would. Instead of admitting the truth they blame Palisades for it & then drive to Paramus as I had said repeatedly to save on sales tax.
many Rocklenders suffer from an acute case of retail cognitive disidence. They want Nanuet Mall for nastalgic reasons, but will NEVER shop there because Paramus is in there back yard.
@SEAN, Did you ever contact your friend, the marketing director, about the Nanuet Mall? I am a 17 year old and LOVED that mall before it was dying, it had such great stores! I love that mall so much and would like to know what the heck is going on with it.
Thank-you so much!
Andrew
@SP, Well, now it’s actually closing, or has already closed, in the Pal. Mall.
@SEAN, I was at Palisades mall today and they put a store in fye kids for less. The management are putting in any store to get rent making the mall look like a junk mall with stores you would find in the bronx. Nnauet Mall is the pothole mall the lots are getting so bad that the buses are having a bad time driving in there. Simon Property is waiting for something bad to happen before they will do something they are leading the public on again if they clearly dont want this mall sell it to vornado or westfield.
@rob, who can fill potholes in February with snow and then the snowmelt filling the holes with water? Pothole repairs typically happen most places in the spring.
MY GF wants to try the new Tony Romas that just opened. I hope it is better than Buffalo Wild Wings, 90% of the menu items at BWW are over 1000 cal per item. At least you can find healthier items at the Cheesecake Factory. It’s a challenge there, but can be done.
@Tim, There’s an enormus pot whole at Bryant & North in White Plains. http://www.wpcnr.com has 3 photos of it.
Isn’t the Palisades Center parking lot really a giant pot whole in the way it has settled over the years?
@Tim, The pot holes are not just from this winter they have been like that at nanuet mall for a couple of years they do not maintain that mall much anymore. Its just getting worse because of the storms we just had palisades lots arent too bad at all.
@SEAN, Let me know how Tony Romas is and then i will try it. I want to finish off a cheesecake factory gift card i have first. I just hope it will do well especially after losing legal seafood and fox sports grill.
@rob, You got it, just don’t rib me or have Tim become your “Roomate.” LOL
I’m going to check out the menu to see what’s good.
@SEAN, Dont worry Sean Tim and I would never be roommates ha ha. I dont think my girlfriend would be too happy. How do you feel what Palisades is doing putting in a non known store such as kids for less.
@rob, When I see stores like Kids for Less come in to a mall like Palisades, it smells of desperation to me. I wonder what you think.
Thanks for being a good sport with the roomate remark.
@SEAN, I think Palisades is desperate because of the interior of the mall turns off stores such as coach, josabank, chicos etc. Its easier for Garden State Plaza and Bergen Town center because they are nicer looking malls. I also see because of rents and thats why some stores that are already there are moving to smaller spaces to save on rent.
@rob, In this area most malls charge around $100 or more psf rent + CAM charges. Knowing what we do about the centers in the tri-county area, why pay such high rents in a property like Palisades or Nanuet when Paramus or White Plains will most likely get you a greater return on investment?
As a footnote Restoration Hardware recently closed there GSP store & closed there Roosevelt Field location almost 2 years ago & yet the Palisades store was remoddled within the past year. I think PS is desporite to hold on to some vestage of the afluent customer base it once had, but has moved south & east.
@rob, Tony Romas was interesting. They opened Jan. 31 & still had a few things to grill out. Although the wait was 50 minutes, it moved quickly & we were served rather quickly I thaught. As far as quality of the food goes, it was better than Buffalo Wild Wings but it wasn’t as good as I projected it to be.
I had Mojo chicken wich needed a little more spice to live up to it’s name & my GF had the Bison Burger wich got cold quickly.
We would go back, but would order other items instead.
@rob, The residents of rockland county should boycott nanuet mall the pot holes are like craters.You all shouldnt give one dime to that mall until simon property does something. Macys doesnt do anything to improve their building. As much as you all hate palisades mall the macys there is three floors better selections and furniture.The mall is falling apart day by day get ouy of the memory zone of the mall in the 70s and 80s.
@rob, The residents of rockland county should boycott nanuet mall.
I thaught by shopping in Paramus, the residents were boycotting Nanuet Mall so to speak.
@SEAN, I was laughing last night they were talking on news 12 about the potholes in Nanuet mall.They were showing them they are like craters. They said Simon Property was going to take care of it. I felt like calling them and saying dont hold your breath as they been saying they have plans for the mall for which there still have been no announcements they really are so full of it. SO Rockland Counrty what do think of your beautiful mall now.
@rob, With the pending rain could we create lake Nanuet where the mall sttands?
@SEAN, You got it and also lake Palisades by 59 and 303.
@rob, Saw the YouTube video mentioned here & the mall is creepy, but it always semed that way to me since it had some dark spots throughout the main hallway. That is not to say that Palisades is some how a ray of sunshine.
@SEAN, I know I used to go get my hair cut in nanuet I go to palisades. I know Palisades isnt a ray of sunshine but at least its alive. They just got a new mall manager since that came about some of the junk stores have left. Forevr 21 is taking over four stores on the third floor. KFC is finally rolling in the food court after its announcement last year. SOME stores are remodling Disney store, Brookstone. Now if they would rennovate as mm is and put in a few more nicer stores then maybe we can all appreciate instead of hating palisades.
@rob, Wait a minute, Peter Janoff is out as Palisades manager? There maybe a future yet, but there’s a lot of work that needs to be done including a total top to bottom renovation.
@SEAN, Oh I agree at least the junk stores are out world bazar etc, At least some empty stores are getting replaced. Where Dunkin Donuts used to be would be perfect for a Panera Bread. There is still alot they need to do at Palisades.
@rob, Hey Rockland County, I would not give Macys or Sears at Nanuet Mall any business until those potholes are done they are getting worse. They are ruining cars and the buses. GO to Macys at Palisades or Paramus Park or Sears at Paramus Park, and maybe Simon Property will wake up. They are so full of it its March and still no announcements of plans. At least Palisades Mall is putting some stores in and some are rennovating. Now what do you all think of your beautiful Nanuet Mall.
@rob, I guess the fact that they started repairing the holes today will get zero play here or anywhere, seeing people only like to complain. Drove by at 9 AM this morning, and the whole stretch of road between Macy’s and Middletown was coned off and they were running asphalt from a big dump truck.
@Tim, Yeah Rob , what do you say now. *crickets* I admit took a bit long, but it is finally getting done.
@Tim, Patching the holes up isnt the same as they should pave if we get another big rain it will happen again and if nothing gets done with this mall it will be worse next winter. I have come to the realization that Simon is all talk and if no announcement happens by summer I wont care either way its a complete eyesore for the area.It maybe the economy holding it up but dont say you have plans and keep the area wondering like they have been doing since Boscovs closed.
@rob, lol, so I guess the answer is “no, simon gets no props for rectifying the situation.”
@SEAN, I was in Palisades mall today it seem things are looking up for that mall a BIG STORE CALLED ORVIS is opening across from Best Buy and I HOP restaurant is opening on the 4th floor i just hope it wont be a long wait like Tony Romas.KFC is under way in the food court, Its always the way one store opens another closes good earth potao closed in the food court and robot galaxy is closing as well. So i hope this mall manager will replace them soon. You know where dunkin donuts was would be perfect for a panera bread. Now if they would rennovate it would really get palisades going again.
@rob, Anouncing Palisades newest restaurant opening! It’s!… wait for it!… IHOP! That’s right I said IHOP. Now before you reply back, stop laughing & get off the floor.
Are they that desperite, or is there no more room for mid-price restaurants at the mall as far as the customer base is concerned.
Are you still laughing? My GF & I couldnt believe our eyes.
@SEAN, SEAN, whats wrong with IHOP, ITS A NATIONAL CHAIN, and they do very well at spring valley markeyplace you can never get in they will do very well at the mall. It fits in of what people can afford when they are at the mall or especially at the movies or imax. Upscale restaurants are good in malls such as Riverside or GSP. Mall workers can go before the mall opens and i said families can go before the movies or mall opens. At least they are trying to get better stores and got rid of the junk ones. IHOP fits in with palisades of the base of stores and entertainment it has.
@rob, Where else will you find both IHOP & Cheesecake Factory under the same roof?
You asked what’s wrong with IHOP? It is not
nessessarily IHOP, but how it fits in to the rest of the mall. Like minded retailers & restaurants tend to cluster together. If the mall is becomeing value oriented, you will end up losing Restoration Hardware, Lord & Taylor, Cheesecake Factory & the remaining upper middle class shoppers who still go there.
A mall that size cant opperate soly on a single demo group & they maybe headed in that direction if they are not careful. The last thing that Clarkstown needs is 2 dead malls & no tax base to speak of.
@SEAN, WHAT DOES iHOP HAVE TO DO WITH Lord and Taylor they are at the opposite end of the mall and IHOP is on the 4th floor. I used to work at Lord and Taylor and they are meeting their plans not as high as the Paramus stores but they would not have lasted 13 years. Customers are finding the quality much better at L and T THAN MACYS IN THE CLOTHING and even comparison to J.C PENNEY.This area is not a WESTCHESTER OR SHOPS AT RIVERSIDE AREA. I find LORD AND TAYLOR MORE reasonable than NORDSTROM , BLOOMINGDALES OR SAKS. tHEY OFFER BETTER SALES . As for Cheesecake they seem to be doing fine. If RESTORATION CLOSES its GSP store and if they did in Palisades it would be a company thing not because of IHOP being in PALISADES. iTS A GOOD LOCATION FOR FAMILIES NOT JUST SHOPPING AT THE MALL ALSO FOR THE MOVIE THEATRES. One more thing TGI FRIDAYS AND CHILIS ARE COMPARABLE AND they are both across from each other on the 4th floor.
@rob, One word, demographics plain & simple.
@SEAN, Its a middle class mall. Not everyone in Bergen County looks for SAKS OR NORDSTROM, or .HOUSTONS OR GAND LUX. iN THIS economy Palisades at least or even the new manager is doing right for what customers can afford eating out or shopping, and at least People especially who live on the border of Bergen/Rockland. Palisades will never be a WESTCHESTER , maybe hope for that if Simon Property ever decides what they are going to do with Nanuet Mall,maybe it will be a Westchester style mall.I have said it many times Rockland County is not a rich county like Bergen County is. I must say for a high volume mall such as Garden State they have lost a number of stores as well.
@rob, I realized what you are getting at, however when Palisades opened in 1998 it was atracting both the value shopper as well as the high-end shopper. I don’t know what happened exactly, but the mall lost that balance over the past few years causing many of the shoppers from Bergen & Westchester to go elsewhere my self included.
Yes GSP has lost several stores including Sony Style & Restoration Hardware, however You cant say that GSP will have any trouble filling those stores. Remember there are spaces at Palisades that never opened til this day & I’m not talking about the 4th level near the ice rink.
If you are a fashon or high profile retailer trying to make a splash are you looking at GSP or Palisades. I realize the question is a bit loaded, but I think you know the answer.
@SEAN, I can say that the only high end anchor was Lord and Taylor. Filenes was on Macys level. Palisades lost the balance after Macys took over Filenes. Filenes was the attraction because they didnt have a store in Bergen County or Westchester so that drew people to Palisades having a different store to shop . We are saturated with Macys. Westchester has three Yonkers White Plains and Yorktown heights. I agree GSP never has a problem because of their location. At least the mall manager is trying to fill up these empty stores with well known stores instead of junk like the other one was doing.
@SEAN, Let us also remember that Rockland County is going to lose out to Bergen and Westchester Counties for 2 primary reasons:
1-Taxes: New York state has a higher sales tax than New Jersey and Rockland’s sales tax is higher than that of Westchester’s. (you guys in NY allow the individual counties to add on to the state sales tax) There is also a sales tax on clothing in NY where there isn’t in NJ.
2-Location: The shoppers the more affulent stores want to target primarily live in Bergen or Westchester Counties. Combine location with taxes, these businesses are more willing to locate to Bergen or Westchester Counties over Rockland Co.
@rob, Without looking it up, how many Macy’s stores do you think are in the entire NYC region including suburbs??
Mallguy, I think you are on the right track with your analysis. In a nutshell it is fare to say that Rockland County is being squeezed. I posted similar comments way back up the thred several times. Now it semes more evident.
If Palisades needs to go strickly value oriented to remain compettitive, then that’s what they need to do. However they could lose Lord & Taylor in the process & the only anchors left would be Kohl’s & Sears that could fill the void. That could be the final nail in the coffen for Nanuet Mall if Sears took L & T’s spot.
@SEAN, At least 15 and within a radius of 10-25 minutes from Paramus being so close to and over to Rockland westchester.also the locations in the 5 boroghs. Many people I talk to are not thrilled with macys quality and the mens dept sucks. Many do like Lord and Taylor for personal service which macys does not give customers. I still keep in touch with my former co workers in Palisades Lord and Taylor and they arent doing bad. Sears is ready for the cofin, their clothes are so tacky I go to J.C Penney over them.
@Rob, Actually it is closer to 50 stores when you stretch from Poughkeepsie to the north & Toms River to the south including Long Island & coastal Connecticut.
@SEAN, I thought you meant the immediate metro area of nyc and westchester. I used to shop in poughkeepsie when G. FOX AND FILENES WAS there I used to live in Fishkill.. there is also MACYS in Galleria at Crstal run in Middletown and Hudson Valley Mall in Kingston. You are right with the number no doubt that is why i am saying that we are definately saturated with Macys after all the mergers.Thats why I was on the Belk and Dillards thing last summer. This area needs some new and different stores and I know they wont come this way because the taxes are cheaper down South.
@Rob, I know you don’t like Macy’s, but not all of the stores are created equal. Take for example GSP & Roosevelt Field vs Palisades & Nanuet. The former are flagships & carry just about every line unlike the latter.
My father doesn’t like the sales tactics that Macy’s & Kohl’s employ. That is marking up an item 40% & then the sales ad says take 30% off .
@SEAN, I agree with your father I dont like Kohls sale tactics I like their merchandise. Macys private labels quality is horrible. They have the worst buyers. When I buy Kohls private label or when I shop Dillards or Belk on line the quality is ten times better and also Lord and Taylors.Macys needs to cut back the expense of their flower show and Fireworks so they can use better vendors for their private labels and pay their employees better so they will stay and not always looking for help. Terry Lundrgen needs to improve merchandise instead of sitting in his big chair wondering how much money he is going to get.
@Rob, So what you are is in effect is to light some fireworks under Terry to get him to change his stratigy. LOL
The larger an operation is, the less flexable it becomes do to ever increasing complexity. Macy’s, Target & especially Wal-mart are examples of this. When you don’t have flexability you lose the opertunity to respond to local tastes, witch can be off putting to some customers. That’s where Macy’s & Wal-mart come up short.
@SEAN May Company was a big operation of stores , Filenes, Hects, Marshall Fields etc., I feel they concentrated on customers needs and to keep the standard of quality of their merchandise. M acys on the other hand wants to be the big power house not considering the customers needs or the standard quality of their merchandise like also their bad tactics of sales.I firmly believe Terry Lundregen is not operating Macys to customer standards but to his own so he can make as much money as he can over the employees of the stores, Right now almost every location is looking for help on careerbuilder, so what does that tell you that they are are a terrible company to work for.
@SEAN @rob Loving this Nanuet centric talk! Oh, and happy third anniversary to this article. As spot on as this discussion thread.
@Tim, Oy vey. It didn’t go as planned, but Nanuet will go as soon as the morphine drip is removed. What will be built in it’s place is still an unknowable unowable right now.
Tried to reach Paula as I post, but I missed her.
@SEAN, At least you tried I have come to the conclusion that Simon Property only said they had a plan in Decenber and really didnt. They have been doing this for the past 6 years. If they dont want the mall they should sell it to Clarkstown. That mall is a total eyesore to the town of Nanuet. Once and for all they or Clarkstown better do something and they have the nerve to cry about not making enough revenue on sales tax.
@Rob, I’ll try again soon. If or when I get an answer you know I’ll post it here.
I need to post a question to you; if Clarkstown cant handle a 3.5 Million sq ft mall property that is struggling, how are they going to handle a dead one? This goes well beyond ownership of the property. Lets be honest as much as you dislike what Simon did to Nanuet, an equal amount of blame falls on the town. Look at how Clarkstown stunted the growth potential of Palisades & allowed an eyesore to exist that’s 20% dead with little chance of ever being properly corrected
@SEAN, In answer to your question, I dont remember , i dont think it wasnt as much clarkstown as was the residents of the area. They were the ones so against Palisades for 11 years so they didnt want any addition, It was when I was working at Lord and Taylor they wanted to take the third floor spaceand they werent able to do so back in 2000.Pyramid didnt do enough to fight clarkstown. Simon PRPERTY had plenty of time to do something even before the ecocnomy went down hill as I said before they only concentrate on their jewel malls Roosevelt Field and THE Wesrchrster.
@Rob, After reading the Retail Traffic artical, this may raise a few red flags in reguards to the viability of Nanuet Mall & several others around the country with weak anchors. Right now all Nanuet has is Sears, Macy’s & not much else.
There’s enough empty square footage at Palisades that a Sears esentials or what ever it’s called could open there, but that very well maybe the end of Nanuet Mall’s existence.
Nanuet Mall maybe demolished, rebuilt.t
Written by
Hema Easly
NANUET — Engineers and architects for Simon Properties have been taking measurements and drawing plans at the Nanuet Mall, and have told the town of Clarkstown they will be filing for a permit to demolish Rockland County’s oldest mall.
Supervisor Alex Gromack said he believed Simon Properties, owners of the mall, would build a new shopping center in its place.
“They are not talking about renovating. They are talking about tearing down the mall and starting new construction,” said Gromack who has been talking with Simon officials about their plan to revive the shopping center which has been losing business for years.
Gromack has said in the past that the opening of a new mall will likely take place in 2014.
Kevin Ryan, a spokesman for the Simon Properties, declined to comment. The group also owns the Jefferson Valley Mall in Yorktown and The Westchester mall in White Plains.
Read more about this story tomorrow on lohud.com and in The Journal News.
@SEAN, So what do you think of this plan. See my gut feeling they will tear down macys and make it Bloomingdales so Macys inc will keep the property. They have to do something with the macys building its so old are people here that stupid that there is a more modern three floor macys at palisades.and better selection and more vendors than Nanuet carries.
@rob, Truthfully I don’t know what Simon will do, because What Clarkstown will allow may decide the projects success or failure. We have gone over time & time again how Clarkstown screwed up Palisades by forsing Pyramid to keep a large Percentage of that mall empty even after a decade in opperation do to unsubstantiated fears of increasing traffic volume by nimbys. BTW, Palisades it self is not off the hook by any means reguarding it’s physical condition.
Questions that need to be answered
1. What kind of retailers, restaurants & entertainment venues do they want to atract.
2. Are they keeping a similar footprint to the existing mall?
3. Are they adding or subtracting parking spaces from current totals?
4. Will garages be constructed instead of surface parking?
5. Are we looking at an enclosed or open air center with how many levels.
6. Are we looking at a single use or a mixed use type of project. If mix use, what other non-retail uses would you like to see.
7. will there be oppertunities for commuter parking & or transit connections to points throughout Rockland & points beyond?
I’m sure there are other questions you can come up with that I missed.
@SEAN, Many people with their comments in lo hud dont even want a new mall. I think Simon will knock down the mall and walk away and i have a feeling vornado will pick it up. Some people did mention they want a Bergen Town Center style mall as well. I really think that would be the best option for Nanuet Mall. I still think Simon and Clarkstown should give the residents of Rockland a meeting to say what should be at Nanuet Mall. All i have to say Pyramid and Palisades management have two years to improve the inside of the mall.
@rob, We both know why those anti mall comments were made… they are shopping in Paramus to save on sales taxes.
I need to ask. whhy only two years for Palisades. How did you come up with that figgure. I’m not nessessarily disagreeing with you, but I’m just having a bit of trubble wrapping my head around that one.
The reall fly in the ointment is Simon being able to obtain the nessessary loans & credit facilities to rebuild Nanuet. As large as Simon is, if the Wall Street & the banking big shots don’t believe in the success of this venture, it’s a non-starter. If Palisades continues to move towards value oriented retailers like Bergen TC has, that maybe a challenge for Nanuet if they try to follow in that path since they lose in the sales tax department. However they have one small advantage in the fact they will be open Sundays.
@SEAN, I only said that because of Nanuets prediction of reopening in 2014. We are nearing half the year already and the mall wont be knocked down until September. What did this area do before Palisades they went to Paramus including myself. People contradict themselves back then they hated Nanuet Macys because it was old and no selection. Now they treat like it was gold because they dont want to go to the Palisades Macys. They want high end we have Lord and Taylor at Palisades. If Macys thought this was a high end area they would have put Bloomingdales in the former Filenes instead of Macys.
@rob, What could Nanuet bring to the area that is unique to the market. That is a tough question & it must be answered.
By contrast the mall in the Medowlands has some interesting elements, but it needs to be completed & all indications are pointing that way.
@SEAN, Well the only two ways on making Nanuet unique is an open air shopping center or a Bergen town Center style enclosed mall, to make both Palisades and Nanuet different. The only thing is maybe either more restaurants or movie theatre.Simon knows what it is up against between the economy ,Paramus and the amount of money residents of Rockland can spend, i firmly believe that they know that this is not a high falutent area except maybe some so that amount have to go to GSP. At least the malls in Paramus are different BTC is outlet, GSP is high end P PARK middle class as NM WAS.
@rob, And there in lies the rub. We have no idea what the new centers target demographic will be, and reguardless of what it is Paramus, White Plains &Palisades Center already have an advantage in that most centers know what posission on the retail latter they hold & are well established.
If the new Nanuet Mall is… 1. High end it will get crushed by Riverside, GSP & The Westchester. 2. If Middle end you got Paramus Park & Palisades. 3. If Value oriented there’s Woodbury Commons, Jersey Gardens, Secaucus & even Palisades has moved into that space as well.
So as you can seeNanuet has a very small nitch it can fill & with local residents that have no problem traveling outside the local area for shopping, this becomes a vary tough nut to crack for Nanuet as a pure retail center.
Return of the Mall
May 5, 2011 8:08 AM, By Elaine Misonzhnik, Retail Traffic Associate Editor
The enclosed regional mall—the uniquely American retail property that sprang to life in the 1950s and 1960s—has been declared dead (or dying) for years.
Stephen D. Lebovitz, president and CEO of CBL & Associates Properties Inc., a Chattanooga, Tenn.-based regional mall REIT with an 82.1-million-square-foot portfolio, recalls conversations with tenants in the not-so-distant past in which retailers insisted their future lay elsewhere—at lifestyle centers or town centers or mixed-use projects. The experience was not limited to CBL—mall executives across the board were having similar discussions with their tenants. At the time, many believed the format had outgrown its usefulness and was out of step with modern customers. “A lot of the retailers went so far as to say they prefer lifestyle centers over regional malls,” Lebovitz says.
The list of grievances was long.
Malls were too large.
Their temperature-controlled environments were too artificial.
Department stores—the original conceit around which the concept was developed—were not the draws they once were.
Mall parking lots were too sprawling and mall parking garages too arduous to navigate.
Formats like power centers, lifestyle centers and mixed-use facilities were newer, hipper and more convenient.
And, of course, there was the constant growth of internet retail, which continues to slowly eat away at traditional retail channels.
In response to these factors, mall owners were pressured to adapt and change. Many constructed lifestyle center add-ons to existing malls or explored how to make properties mixed-use. Others redeveloped dated centers to make them fresher and brought in the best elements from other retail concepts. In addition, firms stopped building new regional malls entirely. (In fact, 2011 will mark the fifth anniversary of the last ground-up enclosed regional mall in the country.)
“The regional mall has been going out of style for 30 years,” says Richard S. Sokolov, president and COO of Simon Property Group, the Indianapolis-based REIT with the largest regional mall portfolio in the country. “If you just Google ‘The regional mall is dying,’ you’ll come up with hundreds of articles.”
But a funny thing happened over the past three years.
As the Great Recession unfolded, regional malls—rather than being pushed to the brink—weathered the storm better than any of their supposed replacements. The very things that made fortress malls seem so outdated—their size, their enclosed environments, their dependence on anchors—proved to be powerful assets instead.
Quarter after quarter, U.S. regional mall REITs have outperformed shopping center REITs, beating analyst estimates and occasionally posting NOI growth. By 2010, class-A regional malls shot up to the top of both retailers’ and real estate investors’ list of preferred product types.
After bottoming in December 2008, seasonally-adjusted sales-per-square-foot figures at malls have been increasing, according to ICSC Research. The monthly average for 2010 was $386.43 per foot—a nearly $20 per square foot increase from the previous year (although shy of the $415.71 per square figure posted in 2007). Overall, national mall sales rose by 4.6 percent in 2010 over 2009—the best performance for the sector since 2006.
Malls took some cuts in occupancy rates, but not nearly as much as other sectors. From the first quarter of 2008 through the first quarter of 2011, regional malls experienced a vacancy increase of 210 basis points, according to the CoStar Group, a Washington, D.C.-based research firm. Over the same period, the vacancy rate surged 260 basis points for lifestyle centers and 240 basis points for neighborhood shopping centers. During those years, rents at regional malls fell $0.95 per square foot, less than at any other retail property type, in CoStar’s estimates. Lifestyle centers suffered the greatest fall in rents—a staggering $7.38-per-square-foot.
“The regional mall has never been more vibrant than it is today,” Sokolov says. “It’s an extremely efficient channel of retail distribution. The performance of regional malls has been very consistent, very stable, and as we enter a period of economic growth, the malls are very well positioned to take advantage of it.”
Indeed, the very tenants that talked of severing ties with enclosed regional malls a few years ago are returning to the bargaining table. Moreover, some retailers that always favored power and lifestyle centers in the past are now coming around as well, says Lebovitz. “Over the course of the recession, foot traffic fell at lifestyle centers and the sales targets did not meet their original expectations,” he says. “And a lot of those retailers have now come back to the mall as their preferred type of real estate.”
Regional mall owners have recently started to sign leases with Dick’s Sporting Goods, Bed Bath & Beyond and The Container Store, in addition to negotiating deals with supermarket operators, warehouse clubs and discounters.
After Westfield redeveloped and expanded Westfield Culver City in California, its tenant sales increased.
“The verdict is malls are very much alive,” says Joseph F. Coradino, president of PREIT Services LLC, a Philadelphia-based REIT which operates both malls and power centers. “The retail tenants that have begun to expand are increasing their occupancy in malls, [including] some of the new concepts. Even Burlington Coat Factory and Toys ‘R’ Us are now opening pop-up stores in malls.”
To be sure, challenges remain. There continue to be wide disparities between top-tier malls and lower grade assets. Many mall owners are exploring offloading the lowest quality assets in their portfolios. And there is little, if any, room for new enclosed regional mall development.
Instead, what’s likely to emerge over the next several years is a retail landscape with somewhat fewer regional malls than exist today. The malls that will remain, however, will not be dying beasts. Instead, these survivors will continue to be retail stars and the centers of their respective markets.
Forces of nature
So how to account for the mall’s comeback?
An important point that many retail industry insiders forgot during the boom years was that malls became a hugely popular retail concept for a reason. The developers that created the country’s first regional malls picked their sites based on strong demographics and wide trade area pulls, says Chris Macke, senior real estate strategist with CoStar. Because of their size, malls have been able to assemble a broader selection of retailers in one place than any other retail format, better positioning them to fend off competition from the Internet.
“It’s about having great real estate, a great location and critical mass—at least 500,000 square feet of space, and great retailers,” says Michael P. Glimcher, chairman of the board with Glimcher Realty Trust, a Columbus, Ohio-based regional mall REIT with a 21.6-million-square-foot portfolio.
The at Short Hills Mall in N.J. continues to be a big hit with retailers and shoppers.
An example of this approach is Taubman Centers-owned The Mall at Short Hills in Short Hills, N.J. The 1.34-million-square-foot property boasts five functioning department store anchors in Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue and features 42 retailers that can’t be found anywhere else in New Jersey. Even today, tenants wanting to get into that center often have to wait until a spot becomes available, notes Jeff Green, president of Jeff Green Partners, a Phoenix, Ariz.-based real estate consulting firm.
The success of the mall has largely been a function of its positioning in a densely populated area with high household incomes, says William S. Taubman, COO of Taubman Centers, a Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based regional mall REIT with a 24.7-million-square-foot portfolio. When Prudential Insurance Co. started developing Short Hills in the 1950s, many of its customers in the surrounding community were wealthy Prudential executives. Most or all of the retailers that went into the center already operated stores on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. After Taubman entered the picture in the mid 1970s, it expanded the department store line up to the five major brands, further strengthening the mall’s appeal.
Malls were also meant to be more than just shopping venues—when Austrian-born architect Victor Gruen designed Southdale Center, the world’s first enclosed regional mall in Edina, Minn. in 1956, he envisioned the property as the center of its community, a place where people would socialize and hold public events. Over the years, the mall, with its temperature-controlled environment, its public plazas and its movie theaters, has evolved as a reliable hangout spot for teenagers and a place where adults could go to do some people-watching and de-stress.
In a lifestyle, power or grocery-anchored shopping center, a shopper typically heads to one store, buys whatever he or she needs and heads back to the car, Macke notes. An enclosed regional mall is the kind of venue where the shopper can spend an entire day, wandering from one store to another.
Take the Galleria at Sunset, a 1.1-million-square-foot mall in Henderson, Nev. owned by Forest City Enterprises, a Cleveland, Ohio-based retail owner. The temperature in Henderson in the summer often reaches well above 100 degrees, says Alan Schmiedicker, senior vice president of property management with the firm. People won’t shop too long in an open-air center in that kind of heat. But because the Galleria at Sunset offers an air-conditioned environment, customers view it as a place of respite, as well as a shopping mecca.
“I think that the typical good regional mall is an entertainment destination,” says Rich Moore, a REIT analyst with RBC Capital Markets. “Most [other] centers are there to just get the product to you. I think the regional mall is really the place where you can stroll the property, see lots of different retailers, look at people, find a place to eat, maybe go to the movies.”
The Galleria at Sunset in Henderson, Nev., offers shoppers a respite from temperatures that frequently exceed 100 degrees.
What’s more, the two segments of the retailing world that have experienced the greatest comeback in the past two years have been luxury and value chains. Luxury retailers’ expansion strategy has always been to go into stores on high traffic urban streets and into upscale regional malls, says Matt Winn, managing director of retail consulting with Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate services firm.
Meanwhile, some of the value players that have previously had a limited presence at malls, including department store Kohl’s, fast fashion retailer H&M, warehouse club Costco and discounter Target, have started signing more deals at mall properties. About two years ago, for example, Kohl’s signed a deal at the Galleria at Sunset. Last fall, Target opened a 150,000-square-foot store at Simon’s South Shore Plaza in Braintree, Mass., serving as an anchor alongside Nordstrom.
In the months immediately following the onset of the recession, foot traffic at malls did experience a precipitous drop, says Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak, a Chicago-based research firm. Over the past year or two, however, traffic at enclosed regional malls has stabilized. Some of the customers on the lower end of the income spectrum have been trying to do more of their shopping at discount stores, but the habits of the high income consumers have been less affected, Martin notes.
“Obviously in the Great Recession, there was a greater focus on price and the regional mall is not the warehouse, it’s not the cheapest venue for the delivery of goods,” says Taubman. “On the other hand, the mall’s great strength is that it provides a social experience and continues to be the most important way to sell fashion merchandise in America. It’s a very flexible venue that can change its merchandising strategies to meet the needs of the market.”
Malls suffered some setbacks tied to department store bankruptcies in 2008 and 2009, including liquidations of Mervyn’s and Gottschalks. In 1990, the department stores’ share of the U.S. retail market totaled more than 7 percent, according to a study compiled by Customer Growth Partners, a New Canaan, Conn.-based retail consulting firm. It has since dwindled to the low single digits. In 2010, however, the department stores’ share of the market rose to 2.5 percent. It was the sector’s first increase in market share since 1980.
Meanwhile, many of the sector’s remaining mainstays have been posting improving fundamentals. In fiscal year 2010, department stores as a group posted a same-store sales increase of 4.1 percent, according to ICSC, above the 3.5 percent figure for all ICSC-tracked retail chains. In the first four months of 2011, their year over year same-store sales growth has averaged 2.7 percent per month.
Even when department stores leave, their boxes can often be repositioned to draw in regular foot traffic, notes Glimcher. At some centers, Glimcher has been using former anchor spaces to bring in a wide selection of restaurants. At others, the firm has brought in big-box retailers.
Finally, the fact that most of the class-A and class-B regional malls in the country today are controlled by publicly traded REITs with decades of experience and easy access to capital could also have been a factor in the format’s resilience, notes Moore. Many of the lifestyle centers built in the early and mid-2000s were run by private players who didn’t necessarily have a good grasp of the retail game. They also rarely had the clean balance sheets and recapitalization opportunities available to the REITs, adds Glimcher.
“I think it’s a testimony to how good the REIT operators are,” Moore says. “The lifestyle center came after the regional mall and in many places, there was often a regional mall nearby, so there was always a tug of war between the existing center and the new guy on the block. And in most cases, a good regional mall is still a dominant asset in the market.”
Tenant sales per square foot for the four mall REITs covered by Morningstar, a Chicago-based research firm, including Simon, General Growth Properties, Macerich Co. and Taubman Centers, posted increases ranging from 6.4 percent to 12.4 percent over the past 12 months. In the case of Taubman, tenant sales are now 1.6 percent above the peak reported in 2007. Simon’s tenant sales are only 0.2 percent below their 2007 peak.
As a result, Todd Lukasik, a REIT analyst with Morningstar, expects that occupancy at regional mall properties will continue to improve in 2011, and will help shore up rental rates.
In the first quarter, vacancy at regional malls reached 9.1 percent, according to Reis Inc., a New York City-based research firm. The figure is 400 basis points above the cycle low recorded in the second quarter of 2005, at 5.1 percent, and 40 basis points higher than the rate recorded in the fourth quarter.
The decline—a hiccup in the mall’s recovery rather than a harbinger of a long-term trend—could be attributed to an echo effect from anchor vacancies that afflicted the regional mall sector in 2009 and early 2010, Reis researchers explain. As some anchors exited malls, a few in-line tenants have followed suit.
Yet the vacancy rate for regional malls is still lower than the rate for neighborhood and community shopping centers, which stands at 10.9 percent. Many analysts expected neighborhood and community shopping centers to outperform other property types during the Great Recession because they rely on necessity-based shopping. But those centers also feature a significant number of local and regional retailers, which were at greater risk of failure during the credit crunch than the national credit-rated tenants regional malls rely on, notes Simon’s Sokolov.
“The vast majority of our tenants are very credit-worthy and to the extent that they had obligations on their leases, they had to honor them and they did,” he says. “Compare that to the community centers, which had a [greater] reliance on local retailers. Those tenants were less capable of withstanding the economic shock.”
Challenges remain
That’s not to say that owners of enclosed regional malls can sit back in smug satisfaction. Those who run class-A and class-B malls will have to continually refresh their properties to keep them relevant to the consumer with the most popular retailers and plenty of entertainment options, says Moore.
There are plenty of class-B- and lower assets around the country that might never regain their footing, notes Winn. Unless those properties can once again become the dominant retail centers in their trade areas, an extremely hard feat to achieve, according to Sokolov, they will eventually have to be razed or redeveloped into other uses.
“The question is what happens to malls anchored by tenants who have not fared well?” Winn asks. “There is still some evolution going on and I am not sure how it will shake out. It’s really dependent on what happens with the retail brands themselves. That’s one of the lessons from the past decade: people come into the mall for the retail brands, not for the brand of the mall owner.”
Out of the 1,437 regional and super-regional malls in the country today (according to ICSC’s figures), the top 700 or 800 properties are here to stay, ventures Anthony Cafaro Jr., co-president of the Cafaro, Co., a Youngstown, Ohio-based privately held mall owner with a 30-million-square-foot portfolio. The bottom 25 percent of malls, however, may have to go. “There will be many cities that maybe won’t have a mall, or won’t have as many malls,” Cafaro says.
The best way to look at the situation is to follow the most successful mall-based retailers, like Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, he adds. Once those retailers have filled out the top 700 or so malls, they stop expanding within the format and the productivity of the remaining assets drops precipitously.
“You are seeing a lot of REITs looking to sell what they call ‘non-core’ properties’—in a lot of cases, they are non-performing properties,” Cafaro notes. Indeed, Simon, General Growth and Australia-based mall operator Westfield Group are reportedly looking to dispose of about 40 regional malls collectively.
In some cases, what’s happened is that owners haven’t been able to invest enough capital in the properties because they lost several anchors during the recession and couldn’t replace them, notes Todd Caruso, senior managing director and leader of the retail agency practice with CB Richard Ellis.
Some of those assets can be saved if they get repositioned to better serve the current needs of their market. For example, in areas where the average household income has dropped, mall owners might be able to regain market share by bringing in value-oriented stores like Kohl’s to replace a mid-income or upscale department store anchor. In other instances, however, the options for owners of the underperforming assets will be limited.
“I think over the next few decades the stronger malls are going to continue to grow and the weaker malls are going to lose market share,” Sokolov says. “That’s why we are so focused on renovating our properties and making sure they are well-leased and well-marketed.”
In fact, the emerging strategy of adding on non-retail components such as medical offices, schools and government buildings to regional malls might be particularly well-suited to lower grade assets as they will likely struggle to regain national tenants, says PREIT’s Coradino. In those cases, a combination of alternative space users with local store operators might be the best hope of keeping the property operating.
New partnerships
In the meanwhile, regional mall owners are aiming to take advantage of current market conditions to siphon off tenants from competing property types. Over the past 12 months, tenants that have traditionally gravitated toward freestanding stores or locations in power centers, lifestyle centers and grocery-anchored shopping centers have started signing leases at enclosed regional malls.
If the trend spreads, it should help the regional malls stay competitive by supplying them with extra foot traffic and establishing them as the dominant shopping destinations for their trade areas, says Macke.
This coming October, for example, CBL & Associates will welcome a 46,500-square-foot Dick’s Sporting Goods store to its Layton Hills Mall in Layton, Utah. The retailer will take over a space vacated by Mervyn’s in December 2008. Bed Bath & Beyond is currently hiring employees for its soon-to-come store at General Growth Properties-owned Rogue Valley Mall in Medford, Ore. Simon expects to open a 23,000-square-foot Container Store at its SouthPark mall in Charlotte, N.C. in the fall. Over the past two years, Forest City has brought in Kohl’s to the Galleria at Sunset and the South Bay Galleria, a 959,247-square-foot mall in Redondo Beach, Calif. Previously, Kohl’s gravitated toward freestanding units.
“Both mall owners and Kohl’s saw the opportunity that shoppers were looking for more convenience and fewer shopping trips,” says Schmiedicker. “Now you don’t have to go to a strip center or a power center down the road. You are able to go to one place and get it all done.”
Dick’s Sporting Goods has been among the most frequently mentioned newcomers to enclosed regional malls. Virtually every major mall owner Retail Traffic spoke to says that it has either signed leases with the chain or is currently in negotiations for new deals. The retailer operates stores that average 50,000 square feet and signs leases for a term of 10 to 25 years, with multiple five-year renewal options.
Bed Bath & Beyond is another fresh addition to mall rosters. The retailer operates stores that range between 20,000 and 50,000 square feet, with lease terms that start at 10 years. Mall owners are also increasingly bringing in discounter Target, electronics category killer Best Buy, furniture seller Crate & Barrel and The Container Store.
In addition, executives with Simon, CBL and General Growth all say they are in negotiations with supermarket operators like Whole Foods and Fresh Markets to open locations at regional malls.
“Shopping in a mall should be the focal point for the social activity of the community the mall serves and I think one of the biggest challenges is to start working with non-traditional retail uses,” says Alan Barocas, senior executive vice president of leasing with General Growth Properties, a Chicago-based regional mall REIT with a 164-million-square-foot U.S. portfolio. “In the past, we would not look at a supermarket like Whole Foods as an acceptable anchor. But today, it serves the market and brings in a lot of foot traffic.”
Most of these retailers have historically preferred freestanding locations or locations in strip and power centers, but a unique combination of market forces had made this an opportune time for them to expand into regional malls, according to Jeff Green.
For one thing, there is space to be filled. Previously there were few opportunities for large space users to build up presences at malls. Now, the market has plenty of empty department stores to accommodate their needs, says Anthony Cafaro Jr. It’s also made the idea of bringing in power center and lifestyle center tenants more palatable to mall managers and landlords.
Power center tenants, meanwhile, have been concentrating on shrinking their average store sizes, a trend that has made it more challenging for them to find appropriate size boxes at more traditional locations, says Gerry Mason, executive managing director with the New York City office of Savills, a real estate services provider.
Prior to the recession, Dick’s Sporting Goods would often open stores as large as 70,000 square feet. But in the current climate, most tenants prefer going smaller and enclosed regional malls offer a greater range of store sizes for them to choose from.
As for the regional mall owners, bringing in stores normally associated with other retail formats helps them fight off competition from neighboring lifestyle and power centers, says Sokolov.
In the past, “the mall just didn’t have the square footage to accommodate those users,” he says. “But as there was an increasing number of department store boxes that ceased to be, that opened up a new opportunity. Then, as those tenants opened in the malls, they found their stores were productive and that encouraged them to pursue more opportunities.”
Development outlook
Despite the sector’s performance, don’t expect to see much new development. Even prior to the current downturn, the U.S. mall market was near the point of saturation. During the 1970s, the heyday of the mall, U.S. developers delivered a total of 375 million square feet of new space. By contrast, in the 2000s, new mall deliveries fell 62 percent, to 144 million square feet, according to research from CoStar. Overall, regional malls account for 16.9 percent of all retail space today, down from a share of 22.9 percent in 1982.
While there might still be pockets of high-growth areas that might support a new regional or superregional mall in the future, any new mall projects will be approached with a great deal of caution, says Moore. To justify building a 1-million-square-foot (or greater) property, mall developers need a market with $250 million to $350 million in disposable income, notes Sokolov, and there are not many such sites left. Taubman estimates that over the next 10 years, U.S. developers might build about 15 to 20 new malls. “I am a developer, so I am an optimist,” Taubman says. “There is growth in this country, we will be adding millions of people over the next 40 years and they are going to need somewhere to shop.”
Still, Moore expects a net decrease in the number of malls in the U.S. over the coming decade, as the industry redevelops or razes assets that prove to be unviable. Most mall owners are instead concentrating on redevelopment and renovation.
To capitalize on consumer’s current preferences, they have been bringing in more full-service restaurants, movie theaters and other entertainment venues to their properties, as well as trying to maintain the malls’ physical appeal. Simon, for example, has been working with Merlin Entertainments Group to bring in Legoland Discovery Centers and Sea Life Aquariums to its malls. The REIT plans to spend approximately $500 million on mall redevelopment projects this year, and a similar amount or greater in 2012.
Forest City has been expanding play areas within its centers to make shopping easier for customers with kids. CBL has signed deals with more than 20 new restaurants over the past 12 months, according to Lebovitz.
“We are concentrating less on opening new centers and spending more effort and capital on improving existing assets,” says General Growth’s Barocas. “In some cases, it might be a total remodel, in some cases it might be an expansion. And in some cases, based on the market, there could also be a reduction.”
After Westfield completed the redevelopment of its 1-million-square-foot Westfield Culver City in Culver City, Calif., in November 2009, tenant sales at the property experienced double digit percentage increases, according to a spokesperson for the firm. The $180 million redevelopment included a line-up of full-service restaurants and a 330,000-square-foot expansion. Target and Best Buy took over empty department store space at the property. H&M, XXI Forever, Coach, Disney and Gold’s Express Gym were some of the other newcomers to the center.
Some owners have also started exploring bringing in non-retail uses such as health care and education facilities to the peripheries of their malls, to drive additional foot traffic. “I think the traditional four-anchor regional mall will disappear,” says Moore. “And the mall will cater instead to the trendy, interesting things the consumers want to do.”
That means that over the coming years the regional mall will largely retain its physical shape, but the collection of tenants within its walls will become a hybrid of the most successful components of all retail property types. In addition to visiting Victoria’s Secret and the Gap and spending an hour or two at the multiplex, mall shoppers will be able to dine at a full-service restaurant, entertain their kids at a bowling alley, browse house wares at a big-box store and do their grocery-shopping in the course of a single trip under one roof.
“I think our industry is an industry that hasn’t really changed in a long time in terms of thinking through the mall model and this economy has forced us to be creative,” says Coradino.
@SEAN, I wonder if this article is giving Simon property any more ideas for Nanuet Mall or even pyramid on what to to do to improve Palisades mall. I do not think high end is the answer just because a few people in Rockland are able to shop at high end stores. Lord and Taylor is above macys and they satisfy me. I dont need Nordstrom. I am for either Fairway, Stew Leonards or Whole Foods.
@rob, Any wonder why I put that article there? The clue is reguardless who the owner of the property is, the mall companies are finally learning that deversity is key for a healthy retail center. Palisades started out that way, but do to interfearence by Clarkstown the full potential of that mall was never realized.
I do agree that if the weakest malls were eliminated, the entire industry would be healthier for the longterm. Also malls need to become less dependent on fashon & food courts for income by broadening there store & entertainment selections. If successful, the amount of time people spend at the mall will increase from current levels.
@SEAN, I agree, it was also the residents of Rockland who fought the Palisades for 11 years it would have looked like Mall of America and i ALSO THINK FILENES WAS some where different to shop besides macys after losing Sterns and Abraham and Straus. Once we lost Filenes Palisades wasnt an attraction anymore plus losing Eddie Bauer Talbots, J.CREW and Brooks Brothers.One more plus the residents are arragent and stubborn not patronizing the Palisades malll because of their mental block over Nanuet Mall. The economy did do somewhat some harm to the palisades as well.
@rob, All totally valid points. What the mall owners need to remember is that not every mall needs to have the same BORRING retailers. Most pyramid properties have most of the same stores because they signed numerous leases at once instead of looking at each property as a unique entity. They all have Best Buy, Target, DSW & the like.
As the article above points out, moving foward, malls will need to move away from the cookie cutter aproach to remain viable. This could be a blessing for Nanuet Mall. By being forsed to be different, Nanuet may have a chance to survive.
Until I read this article this afternoon, I didn’t think Nanuet had a snowballs chanse of reemerging. Now things maybe looking up, that is if Clarkstown & it’s residents stop bitching & really put some effort into this. Otherwise Simon will walk away & focus there dollars in there higher profile centers as you already said before.
@SEAN, They would be smart if they went into the direction of a BTC style mall. It would make both malls different. Paramus Park and Nanuet are or would be equals if Nanuet was alive they both have the same two anchors Macys and Sears at least GSP AND BTC ARE TWO DIFFERENT malls. Where my family lives in Raleigh N.C the two malls there triangle town center and crabtree valley mall are nearly the same store wise as well.A Belk, Sears and Macys in each Mall.The only stores in one mall are Dillards and Saks.
@rob, An interesting thaught just popped into my head. I wonder what effect the new mall in the Medowlands will have on the prospects for the Nanuet Mall. GSP & Paramus Park are strong enough centers that they could withstand such a large monster. Mind you the curiosity factor will effect all malls in the area for the shortterm, but longterm I don’t see much of an effect at all in Paramus, Elizabeth, Wayne Or Jersey City since they have strong customer bases & are the areas closest to the medowlands.
Since Nanuet is further away would there be an effect at all? My concern lies in the fact of New Jerseys ability to pull shoppers away from Rockland County, wich Iwent over & over on this thred. Then again The medowlands mall could be a bust unless Tripple Five was able to streighten that mess out.
@SEAN, I dont think this will affect Nanuet because of how devowed these people in this county are over this mall give me a break.. It may affect Palisades because they may offer better amusements than palisades does. Paramus malls will hold their own over their popularity of stores that are there especially BTC AND GSP. it MAY HURT jERSEY gARDENS Newporte Mall and Willowbrook mall.
@SEAN, Unless Simon stays quiet knocks down the mall and walks away having this meadowlands mall over and above the westchester and Paramus on their concerns that it may not make it. Even if Palisades also updated their mall.
@rob, I agree with you. It is so difficult to remain in the retail shadows of not one mall, but seven of them & keep a slice of the retail pie.
The most interesting thing that has been mentioned on this thred is the fact that Palisades DIDN’T actually kill Nanuet, it was the erosion of shoppers to Bergen County. If it was Palisades that knocked out Nanuet, it would have emptied out in 1999 or 2000 & not 2008 as this post explaned.
@SEAN, I always said it was the fault of Simon not Palisades, but many Rocklanders dont want to admit it. Simon knocked out Boscovs it was not the chain itself they still have stores open in toms river nj upstate ny and Pennsylvania. People from here go to Paramus out of spite because they hate Palisades and its in their beleif that Palisades took away their beloved Nanuet Mall. I shop all Paramus and Palisades. where my mood strlkes me.
@rob, Beloved Nanuet Mall? Come on, if Nanuet Mall was so importent to Rockland County, residents wouldn’t be rushing across the state line to do there shopping & everybody knows it. I need to call bullshit on that one. Also this is NOT a Simon issue, rather this is a problem of a mid-sized mall that saw it’s market shrink to nothing.
Palisades market penetration has also been decreasing in the past few years. Just look at the quality of the retail lineup today compared to 2006 or 2007.
Now contrast that with Paramus, Hackensack & White Plains over the same period. I can tell you on a first hand basis what strides White Plains has made over the past 13-years, even though there was a 2-year period where nothing happened. Just in the past few months there has been tremendous retail & restaurant activity in the downtown area. This includes Dicks Sporting Goods, Raymour & Flanican, 5 Guys, Serafina a NYC based italian restaurant, Cheeburger Cheeburger & the largest ShopRite store mesuring a wopping 75,000 square feet with more to come.
And what has Clarkstown done over that timeframe? *crickets*
@SEAN, All I am saying is read the comments people made on lo hud on the announcement of Nanuet mall. These are the comments, I hate Palisades , I miss Nanuet Mall, Palisades is a dump,Palisades killed Nanuet MALL, oH the memories of the Nanuet Mall,the crime at Palisades . Like there were no problems at Nanuet before Palisades opened I worked part time at STERNS THERE WAS SHOPLIFTING LEFT AND RIGHT AT Nanuet. All malls go through it not just Palisades the locals think that Nanuet Mall was such a perfect mall and it wasnt. I wouldnt be surprised if they dont have a memorial service for this mall when it gets torn down.
@rob, Many but not all commenters on the JN tend to fit a specific profile. They are at times biggeted, anti-immigrant, subscribe to views inline with the T-party & wax nastalgicly on how great things use to be. At times it got bad enough the editors had to strike some comments from the site. As a result I tend to disregard them as not representing true opinions of the community.
if that same nastalgic viewpoint is atached to Nanuet Mall, well then there are bigger issues.
@SEAN, I was watching news 12 HV last night and asked viewers of what supermarket they wanted at Nanuet Mall 29 percent said Whole Foods, 22 percent said Fairway, and 49 PERCENT said Stew Leonards. I hope it would be STEW Leonards they have good meat and produce i have been to the one in Danbury. Either way look out Stop and Shop across from the mall and even Shop Rite in Pearl River.
@rob, All of them could work, however if I was placing a bet my money would be on Fairway.
Here’s a little backround on each one.
1. Whole Foods – is an interesting & dynamic retailer with a large selection of prepared & organic foods & products, but I’m not sure if there are enough Rocklanders who could aford there price point. Nearest stores Paramus & White Plains. HQ Austin TX.
2. Fairway – a supermarket chain that is flush with cash & in growth mode right now do to it being purchased by a large equity furm recently. The family still runs day to day opperations. Nearest stores Paramus, Pelham Manor, Stamford & 12th Avenue & 125th street NYC. HQ NYC 74th & Broadway.
. Stew Lennards – although they only have a handful of stores, each one draws from a wide radius It’s unique product selection, excelent fish & meat departments, in store samples, weird entertainment & enormous layout keep people comeing back. Stores mesure well over 100,000 square feet each. Nearest stores Yonkers, Norwalk & Danbury. HQ Norwalk CT.
@SEAN, Go on Nanuet malls web site stroll down to headline that says dead mall hunting. Its someone from wall street nice siza article about Simon Property..
@rob, Here it is, but read it closely there’s a criticle error.
Dead Mall Hunting
Published: Thursday, 12 May 2011 | 2:44 PM ET By:
Stephanie Landsman, Producer, “Squawk Box”
They are the casualties of competition, the recession and real estate crisis—nearly abandoned malls which have just a handful of stores remaining.
These retro-malls come from a time before massive shopping centers boasted IMAX theaters, ice skating rinks and bowling alleys. It was before big box retailers and outlets became main attractions at the malls.
Wall Street Strategies Equity Research Analyst Brian Sozzi and I went dead mall hunting on a recent spring Saturday. Our destination was my old stomping grounds: the Nanuet Mall about 20 miles from Manhattan.
The Nanuet Mall, which opened in 1969, used to be the only indoor shopping center in Rockland County, New York. I remember when one of its anchor stores used to be a Bamberger’s, when the parking lots were packed on weekends, and my first day of selling clothes at the Express.
Now, it’s a crumbling shell of its former self. Parking lots have only a handful of cars, water stains dot the ceilings, buckets catch water in empty stores, an entire wing is filled with stores that left years ago and the old Express is vacant.
The mall has been owned by Simon Property Group [SPG 115.27 -0.88 (-0.76%) ], the nation’s number one shopping mall owner, since 1998. The company may have some buyer’s remorse from the purchase. That’s the same year The Pyramid Companies opened the Palisades Center a few miles away and stores at the Nanuet Mall started jumping ship for the newer, more impressive mall.
The Palisades Center has become one stop shopping. Its anchor stores include a Lord & Taylor, JC Penney, Target and Macy’s (Yes, a second Macy’s). It also has a Dave and Buster’s, movie theaters including an IMAX, ice skating rink and a bowling alley.
“It’s a great example of survival of the fittest unfolding in the consumer spending jungle,” said Sozzi.
Even the most successful shopping mall owners have a few bad apples in their portfolios, according to Stifel Nicolaus Retail REIT Analyst Nathan Isbee, who has a “buy” rating on Simon Property Group. Despite stubbornly high unemployment and the popularity of internet shopping, he said overall sales at Simon’s malls are strong.
“Simon Property Group’s portfolio 93% occupied which is close to an all-time high for them right now,” said Isbee. “Nanuet is clearly facing some difficulties, but there is nothing alarming about the fact a mall in Simon’s portfolio is facing trouble. It is the natural evolution of any retail center. Some malls will face more competition as neighborhoods and regions change.”
A few years ago, before the real estate crisis, there was talk the mall would be to ripped down to make room for an outdoor shopping center with condos. Destruction plans were delayed— that is until now.
So, what’s in store for the Nanuet Mall?
Simon Property Group Spokesperson Les Morris said, “We expect to make our formal announcement in the next month or so. We do plan on tearing down the mall and putting up an open air regional center anchored by a Sears, Macy’s, a theater and a grocery store.”
How this will revive life into where a dead mall lives raises questions such as “They’re keeping Macy’s even though there’s one down the road?” Answers will hopefully come soon.
Poor journalism.
@SEAN, What’s the error?
@Bobby P.,The company may have some buyer’s remorse from the purchase. That’s the same year The Pyramid Companies opened the Palisades Center a few miles away and stores at the Nanuet Mall started jumping ship for the newer, more impressive mall.
The above statement implies that Nanuet Mall was dieing shortly after Palisades Center opened which is incorrect. infact they coexisted for several years before Nanuet fell on hard times. If Sears & Macy’s rented there respected stores instead of owning them outright, they both would have jumped ship in 1999 2000 or 2001.
One other omition relates to the former owner of Nanuet Mall that simon purchased in 1998. Corporate Property Investers a NYC real estate furm that not only owned Nanuet, but also had Walt Witman Mall, Roosevelt Field, Phipps Plaza & Lenox Square.
@S EAN, Nanuet Mall opened Abraham and Straus and then Sterns between 1995-2001. If Simon had buyers remorse then they should have sold it like they did with Bergen Mall to Vornado by now Nanuet WOULD BE UP and running if they had a different owner. Simon dragged their feet and Macys did a number merging AbrAHAM and Straus and Sterns. These are the two reasons of Nanuets problem not Palisades, i know we both know it too.
@rob, When one mall owner buys the assets of another, you should expect a few duds along with the A-level properties. So to use the term buyers remorse reguarding Nanuet Mall is a load of crap when you also get Roosevelt Field, Walt Witman, Phipps Plaza & Lenox Square.
I’ve said this before Simon must see some potential with the Nanuet site, otherwise they would have sold it as soon as Palisades opened. Now what that potential is remains to be sene.
@SEAN, Hi Sean , I heard on the news that the Town of Suffern is fighting Mahwah preventing them from building a mall or shop center. Just what we need between Ramsey and Paramus and whats happening in Nanuet and the meadowlands project. I didnt know about that until today.
@rob, Hay, where have you been the last few days.
There was an article in Retail Traffic yesterday reguarding the abundance of empty shopping center space & how new developments have ground to a halt. Well duh! before you build new space you need to fill what you already have. Can I make it any simpler?
It’s obvious why Suffern aposes a new center in Mahwah, they will lose more dollars to Jersey. However with politics & the imbedded coruption in the garden state, you can bet that the center will get built. Just look at that mall in the medowlands. Christie said the state is broke, but there’s enough money to give Tripple 5 of Canada a $400,000,000 tax break.
@rob, Take a look at this article from Second Avenue Sagas, it explanes the political angle even though this is about transit & not real estate. http://www.secondavenuesagas.com
Pondering political priorities as transit withers
By Benjamin Kabak Let’s talk about priorities. New Jersey doesn’t have enough money for the ARC Tunnel, but it can find funds for the Xanadu project or road expansion. Nassau County can’t afford the fund Long Island Bus service, but it can fork over significant tax subsidies for a new sports arena. New York City can’t afford more money for student fares or a subway station at 41st St. and 10th Ave., but Bruce Ratner doesn’t have to pay even market value for the rights to develop the area above the Vanderbilt rail yards.
These are the stories I’ve been following closely over the past few years. Along the way, I’ve been accused of focusing too much on the ARC Tunnel, of giving the city or the MTA a pass on the Ratner deal or simply staying the course in Nassau County. Right now, these can be viewed as isolated incidents, but they are part of a larger problem: The political priorities in and around New York City are conspiring against transit progress, and citizens who are supposed to be represented at various levels of government are simply being ignored.
Over at his site, Cap’n Transit has published the following graphic to represent what transit advocates should be fighting for. It is a rather simple circle that distills potential policy preferences to a signal graph. Take a look:
Lately, it seems, nothing has come of this cycle. Whether you believe transit policies should focus on government or societal efficiencies, cleaner air or water or even a blanket mobility for everyone, investment choices haven’t come to represent those myriad choices.
Take, for example, the news from Nassau County last week. Edward Mangano, the Nassau County Executive, has waged a ludicrous war against the MTA. He wants the authority to provide bus service to his constituents, but he doesn’t want to pay. In a process derided as opaque by transit advocates, Mangano has tried to privatize bus service, and he claims the county can spend as little as $2 million a year on a private solution without sacrificing any service. That pie-in-the-sky dream simply will not come to pass.
Meanwhile, last week, Mangano announced a plan to spend $400 million to rebuild the Nassau Coliseum so the Islanders do not jump ship. The County’s official release is available online, and various media outlets covered the story. Essentially, a county to broke to pay for bus service is going to borrow $400 million against future tax revenues to build a sports arena. It is a terrible investment.
By now, the vast majority of urban economists agree that publicly-financed stadiums never live up to their revenue promises, and Nassau County’s deal is no exception. The funding is going to be realized through a sales tax increment financing (STIF) scheme, and as Neil deMause told me last week, these never work out. The county is going to sell bonds and kick back the sales tax collected at the arena to sell the bonds. If enough people spend — a dicey proposition — the bonds will be paid out. However, these deals nearly always suffer a tax shortfall and the revenue collected would otherwise have gone to other projects. It’s not new financing at all; it’s simply reappropriated revenue.
Meanwhile in New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie’s spending plans are leaving commuters high and dry. The New Jersey governor is raising tolls without delivering on the promise to expand cross-Hudson access, and he gave up a few billion dollars in federal funding to do so. It is, in a word, a mess.
Right now, New York is a juncture. Its politicians can continue down a path of ignoring transit problems and solutions in exchange for quick and obvious fixes such as arenas and malls. Else, its leaders can actually lead. Right now, we’re seeing a lot of the former and very little of the latter, and the millions of people who need public transit are going to continue to suffer.
@SEAN, i agree with you there are empty stores in GSP, BTC,PALISADES, and most likely Paramus Park, I was at BTC last week they are still opeming outlets Bannana Republic and two other shops former Filenes Basement is still empty. Havent heard anymore updates on Nanuet. I asked in Palisades the other day when IHOP would be opening they are waiting for permits from clarkstown. See its clarkstown that holds things up not Palisades or Pyramid, thats why it took Tony Romas so long to open. Its taken KFC in the food court a year its opening after Memorial Day.
@rob, I have been saying that about Clarkstown for the longest time on here & you just proved it. If retailers & real estate brokers do enough digging, they may think twice before opening a store at Palisades or at the new Nanuet Mall. Say what ever you want about Simon in reguards to how they handled Nanuet, Clarkstown really made it extremely difficult for them to get anything done. Also the ressession didn’t help matters.
How come even with the most restrictive blue laws, Paramus has zero trouble atracting nearly every retailer & restaurant under the sun & I include Shops at Riverside even though that’s North Hackensack technicly.
Give it time most of the empty mall spaces will get filled gradually as everybody wants to be there.
@Rob, Here’s an article to put Nanuet Mall in proper perspective & what the focus should be. Mall Encompassing
A developer’s look at what can be done with regional malls.
Yaromir Steiner
Are there too many malls? The short answer is “yes,” but the better questions are: how did we get here and where are we going?
There was a peak in the 1970s when consumers called for, and developers gladly delivered, many regional malls — we couldn’t build them fast enough. But as the Wal Marts, Kohls and Targets of the world emerged and flexed their muscles, a significant percentage of sales shifted to those power tenants; and over the last 10 years, online retail has effectively found its place, nibbling away at the foundations of shopping center dominance. Finally, for those traditional malls that were already struggling, the economic challenges of the last few years were the knockout punch.
For commercial developers and mall owners and operators, it is tempting to view the current state of the marketplace as a recessionary aberration, but the reality is that the recent slowdown only sped up the Darwinian process that was already in the works.
Going forward, two things are going to happen: malls will continue to get better, and there will be fewer of them.
The big question, of course, is what will that process look like? How will malls continue to evolve, which ones will fail and which ones flourish, and what will the shopping center landscape of tomorrow look like?
Less Is More
Consolidation will be the most significant trend going forward. Multi-mall markets will see reductions and single-mall markets may see their malls replaced by smaller retail concepts or stand-alone stores. With approximately 300 million U.S. residents and roughly 1,200 malls, the old formula of one mall for every 250,000 individuals does not work anymore. It is probably closer to one mall for 350,000 people and we will likely see that figure grow in the not too distant future to something closer to 500,000, or perhaps even higher, depending on the size of the regional market.
Formula For Success
The successful malls of tomorrow will look a lot like the most successful malls of today. While department stores are not as agile as smaller tenants and have perhaps taken more of a direct recessionary hit, the silver lining has been a reaffirmation of their importance: adequate anchoring (anywhere from one to three department stores) and critical mass (with a minimum of 250,000 to 600,000 square feet of specialty retail) will continue to be necessary for sustained success. The retail component is going to continue to expand through the significant addition of leisure-time elements. Between 100,000 and 250,000 square feet of cinemas, restaurants, bars and clubs will become the rule rather than the exception; with leisure-time components often featured as an entertainment anchor.
Inside Out
The utility and convenience of enclosed retail space will continue to be attractive, but the best malls will also feature well-designed, open-air/urban spaces. Becoming a true leisure-time destination is difficult unless you create a physical environment that reflects it; with all of the vitality, energized streetscapes, human scale design and memorable sense of place inspired by traditional urban design principles.
Location
The “location, location, location” cliché will remain as true as ever, and malls positioned in a regional retail environment with abundant peripheral retail will have an advantage. Quality sites adjacent to complementary uses — such as a big box and power retail, restaurants and theaters that will help drive traffic and increase the regional profile — will continue to be at a premium.
New Converts
With plenty of outdated or underperforming malls occupying quality locations, conversions will be a big development focus; significantly more so than new construction. Prime candidates for redevelopment include centers with good demographics and quality regional access, but with department store sales that are flat or diminishing, and in-line vacancies or a number of stores in need of updating or renewal. Many malls can be kept mostly open and operational throughout much of the conversion/renovation process, but owners should be prepared to secure a significant injection of capital as well as cooperation from the local municipality.
Experience vs. Expedience
The ongoing retail divergence will continue to refine two distinct retail niches. There will be an increasingly stark contrast between those retail projects who see themselves primarily as places for the distribution of goods (Walmart, Target, Sam’s Club, Costco, etc.) and other retail projects articulated around experiential environments with a strong sense of place (the regional malls). The characteristics of the former will have more and more in common with distribution warehouses: accessible, parkable, safe and clean with cost-based rental structures. The latter will trade on visibility and place-making as the defining trait that adds value and drives traffic, with tenants who are willing to pay volume-based rents.
Value Proposition
The regional retail environments of tomorrow are going to be very desirable magnets for mixed-use; residential, office and hospitality uses that can generate premium incomes. Communities have gotten better at recognizing and understanding the value of these projects, appreciating that the benefits go well beyond jobs created and taxes paid. These unique environments make neighborhoods and communities more desirable for residents and businesses alike. As a result, local leaders are getting more actively involved in the approval and planning process. Access to capital is already increasing as the economy turns the corner, and funding will be there for quality projects down the road; money is good at knowing what works.
A Bright Future
The owners — and developers — who can “see” the future of retail and are willing to embrace it, rather than stick their heads in the sand, will play a leadership role in the future. They will help shape the next iteration of the American mall. They know how to, or are willing to make the investment to, convert malls. They speak the language of the department stores. They have access to the specialty tenants. They understand how to integrate leisure-time components. They understand importance and complexities of public financing, and they value a strong mix of uses. Development professionals who can apply those skills most efficiently and effectively are those who will survive and thrive in the competitive, dispirit retail landscape of today, and tomorrow. SCB
Yaromir Steiner is the founder and CEO of Columbus, Ohio-based Steiner + Associates.
@SEAN, That was an interesting article, I have no doubt that the Paramus malls will all get filled because of their popularity, selection of stores etc. Its a struggle for Palisades and I think it will for the new Nanuet Mall. Like you said a few weeks ago we are squeezed between Westchester and Paramus.
@rob, If IKEA were searching for a new site & they didn’t open across from GsP, it would be a absolute game changer if they took space at Nanuet. But as it is they need to atract something there that Rockland County doesn’t already have such as fairway, Whole Foods or Stew Lennards .
@SEAN, I agree shops they should put in Nanuet JOSABANK,CRATE AND BARREL COACH STORE, TALBOTS,JCREW,NORTH FACE ETC. stores that are not in Palisades. I would like Stew Leonards or Fairway
@Rob, Exactly. Now here is the million dollar question… knowing the way Clarkstown opperates, what insentive is there for any of these retailers to even bother since Paramus & White plains are so close & offer better complamentary retail options? There in lies the squeeze factor I braught up in the thred several posts back.
They need to get creative here to overcome what are obvious challenges, but you have a town that had a mall built nearly 15-years ago with a lot of dead spots that by decree may never get filled. The residents hated it before it was constructed & hate it more now despite the fact that it keeps property taxes down for those same residents.
Now what’s this thing you have for COACH & TALBOTS? LOL
@SEAN, Well if Nanuet is putting in high end stores Coaxh is a very popular handbag 200.00 and up, Talbots also isnt a cheap clothing outfit for women these are both is GSP.Louis Viutton is much more higher than Coach. Talbots is on the same level price wise as ANN Taylor.Many people i know from the area already arent happy about high end for Nanuet they feel this area is a low income meat and potatoes area. Many do want one of three supermarkets.
@Rob, Sorry Rob, your last post unintentially struck me funny hense the responce at the bottom. My mother LOVED Coach products as well as Ann Taylor.
If Rocklanders see them selves as meat & potatos consumers, then Palisades with it’s current store & restaurant roster should meet there needs. However they voted to go to Paramus instead & we all know how this played out for retail locally.
@SEAN, All i AM saying is are people going to afford Burberrry, Gucci no Brooks Brothers didnt survive. People includiing myself do go to Paramus once in a while as a change or for an item such as suits dresses etc or at Christmas time but just for a household item or a shirt etc people will go to Palisades not to make a trip for so few items.
@Rob, I know what you mean, but it’s a given that Paramus has been declared the 800 pound retail garilla & what has Clarkstown done to compete other than let one mall die & let another sit 20% empty since opening.
Meanwhile White Plains has been filling empty space throughout the downtown in rapid succession over the past few months with new stores & restaurants.
@SEAN, I know Paramus has been the popular shopping spot for decades. That town draws people from all over not just Rockland. especially fom New Yprk City, the 5 boroughs even WESTCHESTER, PUTNAM AND ORANGE.TtHE PROBLEM IS AS I will bring up but i know wont come to Nanuet if Belk and Dillards came these two retailers would make Nanuet a different shopping attraction The Nordstroms ,macys Lord and Taylors are within minutes nothing new to draw shoppers same old boring stores.The only thing that would help more out of the three supermarkets is Stew Leonards. Fairway and whole foods are both in Paramus.
@Rob, What then is the solution. You cant just build willy nilly & expect to compete against Paramus, you will get destroied in short order. Simon knows this as do all the other developers.
@Rob, Take a look at this. New Sony Store Emphasizes Customer Engagement
May 19, 2011 8:00 AM, By Elaine Misonzhnik, Retail Traffic Associate Editor
In an effort to create a more interactive customer experience, Sony Electronics has unveiled a new store concept under the Sony brand name. The new store opened on Apr. 1 at Westfield Century City, an 878,155-square-foot open-air retail center in Los Angeles.
Following a lead set by the success of Apple Stores, hard goods retailers increasingly have been allowing customers to play with and test new products within their stores. That’s the approach that Sony Electronics adapted with its new concept.
The 4,200-square-foot store at Westfield Century City features movable interior walls and a modular color scheme that can highlight products. Meanwhile, merchandise is displayed on tables in open spaces, allowing customers to interact with the latest gadgets. Today, customers at the store can test Sony’s network services including Music Unlimited and Video on Demand, its network-connected products, its cameras and related gadgets.
Sony’s new store features movable interior walls and a modular color scheme.
At any given time, there are about a dozen Sony technology experts on hand to encourage shoppers to try the products and explain new features to them, says Phillip St. Pierre, general manager of Westfield Century City. In addition, the new store features a RayModeler, a 360-degree display prototype that projects 3D images of Sony products.
“Everything is very open, very accessible, it really begs you to pick things up and explore,” he notes. “And the staff helps you understand all those scary little features you might be afraid to touch on your own.”
Most of the existing Sony stores in the U.S. feature more traditional displays, with products lying on racks, largely out of shoppers’ reach, St. Pierre adds. Existing stores are also slightly smaller than the new concept, around 3,500 square feet.
The overall look of the new store is bright and airy, with clean lines. Japanese architecture firm Klein Dytham designed the space, which took about two months to build.
“The consumer touch point is a very important part of Sony’s strategy and the new Sony concept store embodies our commitment to the ultimate consumer experience and serves as a blueprint for future stores in the U.S. and across the world,” says Elizabeth Boukis, a spokesperson for Sony Electronics. “The new Sony store in Los Angeles features an energetic, modern environment in both design and architecture.”
The company chose Los Angeles for the launch of the new concept because of its reputation as a capital of the movie and music industries, according to Boukis. In addition, the median age within Westfield Century City’s trade area, which is 26, also played a role in the decision. Sony Electronics expects that the new concept will hold special appeal for those in the younger demographic.
In addition, household incomes in the area average $101,476 a year. Approximately 11.9 million people visit Westfield Century City on an annual basis. The property features an AMC movie theater, a Bloomingdale’s, a Louis Vuitton and a Tiffany & Co. store, among other venues.
“Research shows that the customer base in Century City is very savvy, and open to having cutting-edge technologies [as] part of their lives,” Boukis says.
Previously, Sony Electronics already operated 30 full-line and 16 factory outlet stores in the United States. In 2010, however, the company launched an initiative to re-brand all of its stores, previously run under the name Sony Style, starting with stores in its home market of Japan.
The new concept store is part of that re-branding initiative and elements of its design will likely be incorporated into some of the existing Sony stores stateside. The company will also likely open more new stores throughout the country—the Westfield Group, owner of Westfield Century City, expects to sign new leases with Sony going forward.
For the moment, however, the company is keeping mum on which of its stores might be slated for a redesign or how many new locations might be in the works.
Sony’s new concept store is part of a re-branding initiative. Elements of its design will likely be incorporated into some of its existing stores.
Hmmm, I wonder if that could work at Nanuet. I do find it strange that Sony is opening new stores after closing at GSP, The Westchester & Roosevelt Field & malls like them. Perhaps they will return?
@SEAN I dont think Nanuet, I can see SONY reopening in GSP, THE WESTCHESTER, BECAUSE i think they want to reopen now they will have to wait two years For Nanuet and the way Clarkstown is. Maybe thet would try Palisades. I walked through Sears today in Nanuet that store and merchandise is pathetic i dont know how it stays open even Macys is awful. It seems some stores that are still there are getting ready to leave My dear and villa pizza closed. Walking through there gives me the creeps.
@Rob, Sony open at Palisades? I doubt it. The shopper who would go to the Sonystore has almost abandond Palisades for Paramus. I’m shocked that Restoration Hardware has hung on for as long as it has at Palisades & closed there Paramus & Roosevelt Field locations.
@SEAN, You said Nanuet I doubt it if they are eyeying this area they may not want to wait until Nanuet gets rebuilt., thats why i suggested Palisades. Orvis is opening in Palisades which is not cheap. Restoration may be doing better volume of business in Palisades.. Brooks Brothers moved out of GSP TO RIVERSIDE i am very surprised more highly traffic mall than riverside. People who shop at GSP are more into clothing which the majority of the mall is. Palisades has that mix of everything clothing ,and merchandise for home BED BATH, POTTERY BARN WILLIAMSONOMA, PLUS THE DEPT STORES MACYS JC PENNEY TARGET AND BURLINGTON .KIRKLANDS RESTORATION,SLEEP NUMBER iAM SAYING THIS BECAUSE YOU AKED IF SONY WOUL WORK IN NANUET WHATS THE DIFFERENCE IF THEY ARE IN NANUET OR PALISADES.
@Rob, It depends on the type of shopper that mall atracts. If Nanuet is going to be value oriented, Sony & those kinds of retailers wont go there.
Perhaps Riverside gave Brooks Brothers a better rent deal along with improved square footage. That may atract other stores to a high end mall that has struggled in the past few years, but has been slowly making progress the last few years.
Just imagine what Nanuet & Palisades could have been if Clarkstown didn’t make it so difficult on them to atract businesses.
@SEAN, Nanuet is not projected to be value oriented they said upscale shops. Do you see what im saying about restoration hardware Palisades focuses on a mix of everything GSP, ROOSEVELT FIELD and THE WESTCHESTER FOCUSES ON CLOTHING AND FASHION. i AGREE WITH YOU ABOUT CLARKSTOWN, BUT AS I SAID BEFORE THE OTHER FAULT IS THE RESIDENTS FOR FIGHTING PALISADES FOR 11 YEARS IT WOULD HAVE LOOKED LIKE MALL OF AMERICA. AND ALSO THE FAULT OF NANUET IS CLARKSTOWN,SIMON AND MACYS.rETAILERS TAKE A LOOK WHAT PALISADES LOOKS LIKE INSIDE MAY ALSO TURNS THESE BUSINESSES OFF.
@Rob, Sorry if I wasn’t clear before, I’m not giving a pass to Clarkstown residents by any means. Their colective NIMBYism has resulted in one dead mall & one that whose tennent quality has been going down for the past few years.
Do you think the outcome would have been different for Nanuet Mall if GGP orWestfield owned it? Personally I don’t think so.
The squeeze factor is too great for any owner to manage, even for Macerich who has some of the most profitable centers in the US despite being rather small compared to it’s compettitors. They have great skills in turning around centers that struggle, but I know that you know that Nanuet is a rather challenging problem.
As a Rockland resident, how do you think the NIMBY’s will respond to the Nanuet redevelopment both now & after it opens.
@SEAN, Well you know the day the mall gets torn down these nimbys will have a memorial service along route 59 it will be a profitable day for kleenex. I WILL BE IN PALISADES SHOPPING. wHEN IT OPENS i HOPE TO MAYBE MOVE TO nORTH CAROLINA,BUT I AM SURE THEY WILL BITCH ABOUT THE NEW MALL AS THEY DID WHEN PALISADES OPENED.The residents of this county are never satisfied.
@ Rob, Are there at least any letters of intent signed to rent space at Nanuet? Right now if there are none at the moment, it maybe a while before many of the large retail chains resume growth do to mixed ecconomic signals.
@SEAN, I dont know what really Simon has up their sleeves I have this gut feeling they will tear down the mall and back out, Why are they holding out on us if Gromack knows. Well Lord and taylor is opening a new store in Yonkers.My only thing is if eveything does all go through and macys would turn to Bloomingdales to kkep their property. Kohls keeps opening new stores. I think we have enough macys, J.C PENNEY. uPSCALE SUCH AS NIEMANS AND SAKS ARE STILL CAUTIOUS.
@Rob, If Alex Knows what’s going on, then he must insist on a garentee by Simon that if the current mall is demolished that the site will NOT be abandond. I don’t know if any developer can deliver on such a garentee since the retail market right now is a bit more fragile than the media would have you believe.
If Simon thinks that the econemy is turning around, then this is the time to prepare for Nanuet’s return. If not, then they will sit on the project. Remember being wrong can have desasterous consequenses for the owner as well as the retailers involved.
@SEAN, i just saw on Lord and Taylors web they are opening a test home store in Paramus on route17 in a former loemans in August. They do have a home dept in the Manhattan store. It would be good if it becomes successful Palisades can use the space above them on the third floor. When Palisades opened after a year Lord and Taylor tried to get the space and was given a hard time by the area and clarkstown. Their Scarsdale and Fashion CENTER STORE IN PARAMUS ARE THREE FLOORS.
@Rob, Lord & Taylor in Scarsdale is only two floors. L & T is following in the footsteps of feterated’s Bloomingdale’s & Macy’s Home stores. If successful, it would be a nice compliment to the rest of the business.
@rob, J C Penny had a home store devision for some time, but they got rid of it. It was on the third floor of Palisades across from the Penny’s main store. Since it closed, nothing has lasted for very long in that area of the mall for one reason or another. It was Bobs the New England clothing retailer (not the furniture store), an arcade & small shops & another junior anchor whose name I forgot. Now it’s dead space.
@SEAN, I remember J.CPENNEY HOMESTORE, THE last one that was there was kid city. If Lord and Taylor tried a home store and couldnt get the third floor above the store they could try that space where kid city was.
@Rob, Hmmm, you got something there, especially with Bed Bath & Beyond being directly below that space. Makes for great companion retailing.
Meeting Westchester’s Demand
At 1.3 million square feet, Westchester’s Ridge Hill is projected to be one of the largest shopping centers to open this year.
Savannah Duncan
Westchester’s Ridge Hill, totaling 1.3 million square feet, is one of the few large shopping centers in the United States set to open this year. Located in Westchester County, New York — the third most affluent county, according to U.S. Census data — Westchester’s Ridge Hill is just 22 minutes from Midtown Manhattan.
Despite Westchester County being considered one of the wealthiest counties in the U.S., Andrew Silberfein, executive vice president and director of retail development and finance for Forest City Ratner, the project’s developer, says that there is a tremendous amount of unmet demand for restaurants and shopping in the area.
“The demographics are some of the best in the country and at the same time, the area is extremely under-retailed,” Silberfein says. “Our goal is to bring a unique selection of shopping, entertainment venues and restaurants that people really can’t find anywhere else in the region or this part of the country. There’s a real lack of restaurants in the area and nowhere people can spend half a day and bring their children.”
There are a lot of features about Westchester’s Ridge Hill that are appealing to potential retailers. First, the center is located in the heart of the county between the New York State Thruway and Sprain Brook Parkway. The natural elevation of the site makes Westchester’s Ridge Hill visible from both highways. An estimated 52 million cars will drive by the project every year. Approximately 1.4 million affluent, young and family-centered people with a large amount of disposable income are within a 10-minute drive time of Westchester’s Ridge Hill.
“Retailers today are doing more stores and the picture is getting brighter,” Silberfein says. “They are still being very selective on where they are going. If you’re not in a top market in the country, it can be quite difficult to attract the quality of retailers we have. Our site is a testament to the demographics, the access and the quality of the project that we’re building. It’s certainly an advantage coming out of the recession to be offering this center to retailers.”
Westchester’s Ridge Hill has a huge advantage in that it offers a rare opportunity for retailers to lease in a large retail setting.
“To our knowledge, this is really the only open-air retail and entertainment center opening on the East coast this year,” says Silberfein. “When retailers look for sites to expand, there are not a lot of projects being built anywhere in the country, let alone on the East Coast.”
So far, Westchester’s Ridge Hill is about 60 percent committed, but Silberfein says by the center’s grand opening in October he expects that number to be closer to 70 to 75 percent.
At 1.3 million square feet, Westchester’s Ridge Hill will offer something for everyone in Westchester County, New York.
“We have a tremendous roster of tenants that we’re talking to,” says Silberfein. “It’s really all the great names that people would expect in this type of a project. We are thrilled that so many of the country’s most exciting and dynamic retailers are coming to Westchester’s Ridge Hill. I think they understand there’s no better location to reach so many of the area’s most attractive customers.”
Of the 1.3 million square feet of space, 160,000 square feet will be office space and the remainder will be retail. Some well-known retailers, including a 50,000-square-foot Whole Foods, Dick’s Sporting Goods, REI, Orvis, L.L. Bean and Lord & Taylor, will anchor the shopping center. Some other noteworthy tenants like Sephora and H&M have already committed as well. Silberfein says that for many of these stores, it will be their first location in the New York area. For example, currently the closest L.L. Bean to Westchester is more than 90 minutes away in Pennsylvania, so the addition of L.L. Bean to Westchester’s Ridge Hill was important for the retailer to serve its customers in the New York area.
Silberfein says that since emerging from the recession and the signing of Lord & Taylor, Forest City Ratner has seen a tremendous uptick in leasing. He anticipates that having Lord & Taylor will be a huge asset to the shopping center’s future leasing plans.
“Lord & Taylor is extremely strong in this region. As a matter of fact, their store in Eastchester, which is about 15 minutes away, is [one of] the top suburban department stores in the country. They are very popular and should bring a tremendous amount of traffic,” he says.
Lord & Taylor is opening an 80,000-square-foot store at Westchester’s Ridge Hill. It will be the department store’s first new, full-line location to open in more than a decade. Lord & Taylor has hired an Italian architect to design the façade of the Ridge Hill store.
“The store should be very special and it’ll reflect the uniqueness of the property,” Silberfein says.
Entertainment is an important part of the tenant mix at Westchester’s Ridge Hill. Another large tenant is National Amusements, who is building a state-of-the-art, 12-screen Cinema De Lux movie theater. According to Silberfein, the theater will contain leather seats, a restaurant and a bar. A great variety of well-recognized restaurants have started to sign on as well. The Cheesecake Factory, Brio Tuscan Grille, Texas de Brazil and Yard House are some that have joined the lineup. This will be the New York area debut of the Brio and Yard House chains. Additionally, Westchester Medical Group has leased 80,000 square feet to open a branch of its practice which Silberfein estimates will bring in about 1,200 people a day to the center.
In terms of design and construction aspects, Westchester’s Ridge Hill is really pulling out all the stops by including some big names.
WET Design, best known for creating the fountain in front of the Bellagio in Las Vegas, is designing a one-of-a-kind large fountain for Westchester’s Ridge Hill that will include choreographed sheets of water and flames.
“It’s something that hasn’t been done anywhere before,” Silberfein says. “It’s going to be a must-see destination for everybody coming to the property. All these different elements and amenities we are adding to the property should be very exciting for the customers.”
Renowned sculpture artist Tom Otterness has also been commissioned to design a playground for children visiting the shopping center. Since 1991 his sculptures have appeared in Battery Park and Times Square in New York, as well as many other locations in the United States and worldwide in Canada, South Korea and the Netherlands.
According to Silberfein, the combination of Hugh Hardy, Tom Otterness and WET Design is just about as good a design team as you’ll see anywhere in a shopping center.
In addition to retail, Westchester’s Ridge Hill also has mixed-use applications. The project has a residential component with more than 500 one- and two-bedroom residential units with five different floor plans available. Set on 7 acres, the Monarch at Ridge Hill will provide amenities like an indoor lap swimming pool, an outdoor pool with cabanas, two-story fitness center with running track, spa, tennis and basketball courts, children’s playroom, a playground and a media room. Monarch at Ridge Hill, which has registered for LEED status, used eco-friendly building materials and offers energy efficient appliances and proximity to every day conveniences. Westchester’s Ridge Hill will have a staggered opening starting this month and ending with its grand opening in October.
Is Silberfein out of his mind? Westchester isn’t under retailed by any means.
@SEAN, In todays Wall Street Journal on yahoo there is an article on Target. Has Target lost its cahet Reailer criticized for focusing on food and low prices. To me some of their prices are not great in the home dept you do better in bed bath or J.C Penney. their menswear is horrible.Thought you would be interested in it.
@rob, I was only able to read part of the article, but Wal-mart is having the same problems. Infact I saw an article this morning entitled “Is Wal-mart doomed?” I’ll paste it below.
@Rob, Why the World’s Biggest Retailer is Doomed
Jun. 6 2011 – 3:05 pm
Posted by Jason Raznick
The history of retailers in the United States has been a history of cycles. Retailers have come and gone: Hudson’s (NYSE: M), Service Merchandise, and Montgomery Ward to name but a few. All these companies were economically dominant at one point in time, but have now gone the way of the dinosaurs. Is Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) soon to follow?
Wal-Mart achieved market dominance through innovation. The retailer used massive warehouses within its own store to cut costs, while importing the majority of its goods from China.
That business model may be becoming obsolete.
On Thursday, Wal-Mart unveiled its new Wal-Mart “Express” stores, according to USA Today. These stores are miniature versions of the much larger Wal-Mart Supercenters. They are designed to offer Wal-Mart priced deals to consumers in geographical locations where Supercenters are impractical. Wal-Mart Express is anticipated to compete with stores like Dollar General (NYSE: DG).
While investors may initially view this announcement as a positive, it calls into question the validity of Wal-Mart’s business model. If Wal-Mart is downsizing, is it a sign that the concept of the Supercenter is failing?
At the same time, Wal-Mart may be failing on the supply-side. Wal-Mart imports the vast majority of its wares from China. This was a good business practice for Wal-Mart, as a weak Chinese currency and low Chinese wages have kept the price of Chinese goods down, which allows Wal-Mart to offer the dirt-cheap prices it is famed for.
However, it is starting to look like the Chinese may revalue the yuan. On Friday, a Bank of China official stated that, over the next five years, the Chinese would phase out the conversion restrictions presently in place on the yuan. If the Chinese allow the yuan to be freely traded, the currency may appreciate significantly. That appreciation would make the relative cost of Chinese goods much more expensive for Wal-Mart to purchase. At that point, Wal-Mart would either find its profit margins squeezed, or be forced to pass the rising costs to consumers–robbing the store of its ability to claim “everyday low prices.”
Traders looking to take advantage of a collapsing Wal-Mart might consider a short play on the company’s stock. Alternatively, traders might consider going long the yuan. The WisdomTree Dreyfus Chinese Yuan Fund (NYSE: CYB) might offer traders a way to play a bullish yuan.
Notice the last paragraph.
@SEAN, In my opinion i dont find kmart walmart or target to be cheap on home clothing is horrible as i said i do better at bed bath macys for home kjohls, J.CpENNEY. The food prices and cleaning products are cheaper at Shop Rite than Target, maybe a little better at Walmart. I miss the days of woolworths, caldor and Bradllees. Im dating myself even Korvettes and Alexanders.
@Rob, Read this. Westfield Malls Draw Bidders .
By KRIS HUDSON
Seventeen U.S. shopping malls put on the block by Australian mall owner Westfield Group have attracted multiple early bidders in a closely watched sales process that will shed light on the value of mediocre malls amid the slow economic recovery
Downtown Plaza in Sacramento is one of 17 malls in the U.S. that Westfield Group wants to sell to refocus on its most lucrative properties there.
.While values of some property types like apartment buildings and office buildings in top markets are beginning to approach peak levels, investor appetite for retail property has been more subdued. The growing influence of online sales and the fallout from decades of overbuilding has made many retailers cautious about expansion in the U.S.
The sale of the Westfield portfolio will provide an important window into where values of the hundreds of malls throughout the country have reset. If the number of bidders is any indication, the news looks good for the seller.
Among those that have made nonbinding, preliminary bids is a partnership of mall owner CBL & Associates Properties Inc. and a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. fund. Others include Australian investor Queensland Investment Corp.; a partnership of Starwood Capital Group and Madison Marquette; and mall owner General Growth Properties Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.
Still others are studying parts of the 17-mall pool, including the Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, which is looking at Westfield’s four Ohio malls, and O’Connor Capital Partners, which is studying a few of its East Coast properties, these people say. The identities of additional bidders considering the property, including two Canadian investors, couldn’t be determined.
In total, the values that Westfield lists on its books for each of the malls exceeds $2.5 billion. Included in the Westfield malls for sale are Belden Village in Canton, Ohio; Connecticut Post mall in Milford, Conn.; Westland mall in Hialeah, Fla.; and Downtown Plaza in Sacramento, people familiar with the matter say. Binding offers are due at the end of this month.
Most of the bidders declined to comment on their offers. The broker handling the process for Westfield, Marty Cicco of Evercore Partners, didn’t return calls seeking comment.
“We’re looking at this as we would any other mall-acquisition opportunity,” said Stephen Lebovitz, president and chief executive of mall owner CBL. “But it’s at a very early stage of analysis at this point.”
Sydney-based Westfield, which owns 55 U.S. malls, put the 17 properties on the market in April as it aims to refocus itself on its most lucrative U.S. properties. The 17 on the block mostly are considered B-grade malls, with annual sales of $300 to $380 a square foot. The industry average for enclosed malls is $351, according to Green Street Advisors Inc., a research firm that tracks real-estate investment trusts.
The values of such properties are particularly uncertain, given that the U.S. retail sector looks unlikely to return to its boom-time peaks for many years. To be sure, some locations continue to soar in value. Earlier this year, Inditex Group of Spain paid $324 million for a 40,000-square-foot store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
But the overall vacancy rate at U.S. malls in the top 80 markets was 9.1% in the first quarter, according to Reis Inc., the highest since at least 2000. Retailers that are closing stores are doing so at middling and struggling properties, so buying a mediocre mall is a bet the economy and the consumer will come back stronger than skeptics expect.
“There’s certainly a lot of interest from the investment community in figuring out what a B or C mall really is worth,” says Benjamin Yang, an analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. “They’re looking for transactions to provide some indication of that.”
The average sales price over the past 18 months for average to slightly upscale malls is $202 a square foot, according to Real Capital Analytics.
Westfield isn’t the only mall REIT looking to shed B- and C-grade properties. Simon Property Group Inc. has listed four struggling malls for sale. And General Growth, which ended a 19-month bankruptcy stint last November, has considered listing for sale 19 of its weakest malls. However, it also is pondering spinning off three dozen lower-quality malls as a stand-alone company.
Analysts say General Growth is considering buying and selling at the same time because the Westfield malls generally are of higher quality than those that General Growth is looking to unload. A General Growth representative declined to comment.
Meanwhile, it might be that the eventual buyer of the Westfield malls is a player from abroad. “There are so many B and C malls on the market that it’s an opportunity for someone to step into an oligarchic industry and be that niche, B and C operator in U.S. malls,” Mr. Yang says. “That might be attractive for someone who doesn’t currently have a presence in U.S. malls.”
@SEAN, Ahh very interesting could that mean that Simon is looking to unload Nanuet Mall AS ONE OF THEIR STRUGGLING MALLS.. See i had a feeling they were up to something by dragging their feet with this mall and now was that an announcement IN APRIL from just Grommack or both. I think Simon did this same thing when they unloaded Bergen Mall and Vornado bought it. GSP IS A A MALL I WOULDNT THINK WESTFIELD WOULD UNLOAD GSP. i DONT THINK GSP IS A B MALL.
@rob, GSP is the definition of an A level mall. a few of those properties for sale were profiled on this blog. Downtown Plaza Sacramento & the other is just west of Miami.
As far as Nanuet goes, there are hundreds of malls just like it that have no business existing in todays retail climate. Wal-mart & Target are not the issue. As the articles & the posts above point out, those retailers are having there own structural problems they never really faced before. Who would ever think that dollar stores could make Wal-mart cringe.
@SEAN, I am a perfect example i buy hba products in Dollar General , cards , even soda. I tell you my cousin bought something in Walmart in Monroe they had to exchange it they go to Suffern they dont have it back to Monroe they went thats a super walmart , the one in Suffern is terrible. I either go to WHITE PLAINS OR FISHKILL FOR WALMART.yOU HAVENT HEARD ANY UPDATES ON NANUET MALL I GUESS.
@rob, Thanks for the reminder. Things have been crazy at work & at home. Did you read the Walmart article above? Did you notice something strange near the bottom?
@SEAN, I was at GSP YESTERDAY Borders is still empty. There are still some empty stores.BTC OPENED A bANNANA REPUBLIC OUTLET. fILENES BASEMENT IS STILL EMPTY WOULD BE GOOD FOR A LORD AND TAYLOR OUTLET NOW THAT THEY HAVE ONE IN JERSEY GARDENS.i WENT TO kOHLS ON route4 It amazes me how much busier GSP BTC AND KOHLS ARE ON A WEEKDAY IN COMPARISON TO PALISADES AND KOHLS IN NANUET. THAT REALLY SHOWS HOW ROCKLAND IS SQUEEZED BETWEEN WESTCHESTER AND PARAMUS.. tWO UPSCALE STORES CLOSED IN GSP IF THEY ARE NOT MAKING IT IN GSP HOW WILL UPSCALE SHOPS MAKE IT HERE.
@SEAN, Havent seen you on in awhile. I heard this week that plans on the nanuet mall demolition is on schedule. They said it will take four months to demolish the mall. Whats ever in there are starting to close mandees. They said its going to be an outdoor mall.They are starting september 10. Many stores in palisades are remodeling their stores i wish the mall would.
@rob, Well at least the retailers are remoddling as you said. I am so tired of the cosco look of Palisades, they need to do something about it.
Garden State is getting a new restaurant called Townhouse Restaurant & Wine Bar, it will open in the former McDonold’s location & the small shop next door.
@rob, How many times have I made the squeeze analysis reguarding retail in Rockland County?
I have a question for you & answer as honistly as possible… if Palisades closed tomorrow & Nanuet never gets rebuilt, do you think the residents would even notice? Would they even care? Base your answer on what the locals would do & not what they would say.
@SEAN, Well I think they would about Nanuet, How so many liked AND PRAISE thAT MALL OVER PALISADES. THE WAY THE LOCALS ATTITUDES ARE ABOUT PALISADES THEY WOULDNT GIVE A DARN LESS, ONLY THE ONES WHO SHOP PALISADES FAITHFULLY. I NEVER LIKED NANUET BEFORE PALISADES WAS BUILT ALWAYS WENT TO PARAMUS,I ONLY WENT THERE AFTER ABRAHAM AND STRAUS OPENED IN NANUET..
@SEAN, Palisades is opening a dinner/comedy club across from outback. I am not to keen on that especially on friday and Saturday nights. There was trouble recently at a club in Nanuet.. They should open another nice restaurant like p.f Changs or a Houstons. They are starting work on IHOP.
@rob, They have tried various concepts in that spot next to the Imax & despite it’s excelent location, nothing semes to last for very long.
Do you find it strange that the best restaurants the palisades could currently atract were Bravo, IHOP & Tony Romas? No PF Changs, CPK, COSI or Panera Bread to be found. To be fair, Bravo isn’t that bad, but semes out of place.
A Bahama Breeze may be an interesting adition. The nearest one is in the parking lots between Willowbrook Mall & Wayne Town Center.
@SEAN, i GET WHAT YOU ARE SAYING BUT A COMEDY CLUB IN A MALL, GSP DOSENT HAVE THAT JUST A GOOD MIX OF RESTAURANTS. PALISADES IS A FAMILY STYLE MALL WITH THE IMAX AND LOWES IHOP IS GOOD FOR FAMILIES WHO GO TO THE MOVIES. YOU DO WANT TO HAVE A COUPLE OF DECENT STYLE RESTAURANTS TOO.SO I FEEL ITS SAFER TO OPEN A PF CHANGS OR CPK. THESE CLUBS IS A SOCIAL STYLE PLACE AND THE MALL DOSENT NEED TO BE TARNISHED ANYMORE THAN IT ALREADY HAS. pEOPLE ARE STILL WATCHING THEIR PURSE STRINGS WHEN OR WHAT RESTAURANT THEY DIINE AT. OUTBACK,CHILIS,AND DAVE AND BUSTERS MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT THEY HAVE BEEN THERE SINCE THE MALL OPENED.
@rob, How about this for Palisades…
Breastaurant Brawl: When Less Clothing Brings More Profit
By Kathryn Tuggle
Published June 17, 2011
| FOXBusiness
From cheap pitchers of beer to fancy hors d’oeuvres or sawdust on the floor, most restaurants employ some sort of theme or a gimmick as a way to stand out in a saturated market.
The recent tough economic times has restaurant owners getting creative to make their place the go-to spot for cash-strapped customers; some are now showcasing specific assets to make their businesses pop.
A growing number of restaurants nationwide are looking to increase profits by decreasing the amount of clothing worn by an all-female waitstaff, turning their restaurant into what’s commonly referred to as a “breastaurant.”
Brestaurants have become so popular that Terra Watson, a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader and owner of BreastaurantUniforms.com, changed her business plan five years ago from selling cheerleading uniforms to selling waitress uniforms.
Click here for a slideshow showcasing Watson’s outfits
“The market for breastaurant uniforms is growing like nothing I’ve ever seen,” says Watson, whose company sold more than 6,000 breastaurant uniforms last year. “Restaurants are seeing how much more they and their waitresses can make, and the whole concept is becoming hugely popular.”
When restaurant chain Hooters entered the market in 1983 with its iconic orange shorts and tight tank tops, America had never seen anything like it. Today, the idea of an attractive waitress serving food while showing off her curves is not as taboo as it used to be, says Watson. And many new chains are giving Hooters a run for its money.
“Hooters did have a monopoly on this, and they still have the most locations, but in the last five or six years, there are a lot of new kids on the block with great new themes,” says Watson.
Watson designed the sexy ski-lodge themed uniforms for the breastaurant chain Twin Peaks, based in Addison, Texas, and the cowgirl-themed uniforms for Louisiana’s Double D Ranch and Whiskey River in the Carolinas.
As more breastaurants have opened, the competition has heated up, and in some cases, the rivalry is fierce. At Canz Citi Roadhouse in Long Island, N.Y., owner Tim Lorito claims Hooters is so threatened by his new establishment, it has sent corporate spies to steal menus and secretly take photographs.
“I came into the restaurant one day, and there was a gentleman at a table drinking water who I recognized as someone in Hooters’ upper management,” says Lorito. “When he left, the menus had disappeared from his table. This kind of behavior only leads me to believe they are curious as to what we are doing.”
Hooters of America Vice President of Marketing, Mike McNeil, says that like all good businesses, Hooters pays attention to what is going on in the marketplace, but no corporate espionage or stealing of menus has occurred.
“The idea that a business that admits they are trying to be like Hooters thinks we are spying on them is ridiculous,” says McNeil. “Through our 28-year history, there have been many copy cats. However, none have yet to create the magic or the success of Hooters. There is a long list that includes places called Melons, Knockers and Mugs and Jugs. None are in existence today.”
McNeil went onto say that while Hooters cares about what is happening on Long Island, the company is currently focusing its energy on opening restaurants in Brazil for the 2014 World Cup. The chain, which describes itself as “delightfully tacky yet unrefined”, has 430 restaurants operating in 44 states and 28 countries.
And with so many locations, it’s no surprise that when people think of breastaurants, Hooters is the first one that comes to mind, says Mike Currier, director of operations at RestaurantMarketingGroup.org.
“Hooters is leading the way when it comes to breastaurants,” says Currier. “But it doesn’t mean someone isn’t going to out do them.”
Restaurants seeking to embrace the breastaurant concept should be careful where and how they do it, Currier cautions.
“It really depends on demographics and the concept you’re after. For most restaurants, it would be a hinder to business if the waitresses were put in skimpy outfits. If you’re in Southern California next to the beach or in a college town, it could work. But it’s not going to work everywhere.”
One chain that’s had success in multiple locations is Twin Peaks, which opened in Texas in 2005 and now has restaurants in Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Kansas and is opening Louisiana and Colorado locations later this year. CEO and founder of Twin Peaks, Randy DeWitt, says that not all breastaurants are created equal.
“We are really flying at a different altitude than Hooters, and we’re not ever going to have a collision with them,” says DeWitt. “Most of the time, there is a Hooters in the same trade area as a Twin Peaks, but we attract a different customer. We are targeting affluent, college-educated, white-collar customers. We have taken the high road.”
DeWitt says he knows Twin Peaks will always face comparisons to other breastaurants due to the use of an attractive waitstaff, but that using “sex appeal” to gain customers is “the oldest trick in the book.”
On its Web site, the company writes that customers can expect their food to be served by, “our most prized assets: the friendly, attentive, and beautiful Twin Peaks Girls” that wear checkered bikini-style tops and barely-there khaki shorts.
“We always try to draw the analogy of sports teams with cheerleaders. The cheerleaders are just part of the show,” says DeWitt. “People don’t go eat at a table service casual dining restaurant for the food. If they just wanted food, they’d go get fast food. But they want an experience, and we deliver an experience that’s about sports and food, and the sideshow is a cute waitstaff that fits the theme of the restaurant.”
BreastaurantUniforms.com’s Watson says that fitting the theme is what it’s about for most breastaurants, and that most are opting for uniforms that are “cute and sexy” rather than “slutty and gross.”
“It’s true that breastaurants are a growing trend, but nobody wants offensive uniforms. You can see cleavage, but you can see more at a beach or local waterpark. It used to be that there was only stripper clothes or boring shorts and a t-shirt, but now there’s an in-between.”
DeWitt says breastaurants are here to stay, whether people like it or not.
“There will always be a small percentage of people who want to see things go back to puritanical times, but that’s not going to happen,” says DeWitt. “This is the way a certain group of the population wants to eat and drink, and we’re going to give it to them.”
Put one of these places at Palisades? Nah, I don’t think so, but it was good for a cheap laugh. Besides they cant even atract a Panera Bread to Palisades much less one of these dives.
@SEAN, They could on the first floor where dunkin donuts was would be good for panera. There was a headline on yahoo the 12 brands that will disappear in 2012 and they may shutter all sears stores and keep kmarts.Nanuet MAY HAVE MORE ROOM IF SEARS GOES,
@rob, What did you think of the article above?
@SEAN, Yeah interesting i dont think they have those in a shopping mall.What did you think about the article from yahoo about Sears disappearing in 2012.Have you heard of any speCIFIC time when demolition is starting at Nanuet Mall.
@rob, I haven’t a clue when they will be starting construction.
I did read the article you mentioned & a few other brands jumped out at me beyond Sears. I’ll cut & paste a few interesting ones.
@rob, Brands That Will Disappear in 2012
By Douglas A. McIntyre – 24/7 Wall St. (Edited)
Published June 22, 2011
2. A&W
All–American Food Restaurants. A&W Restaurants is owned by fast food holding company giant Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) which has had the firm for sale since January. There have been no buyers. The chain was founded in 1919. The size of company grew rapidly, and immediately after WWII 450 franchises were opened. The firm pioneered the “drive in” fast food format. A&W began to sell canned versions of its sodas in 1971 – the part of the business that will survive as a container beverage business which is now owned by Dr. Pepper/Snapple. The A&W Restaurant business is too small to be viable now. It had 322 outlets in the U.S and 317 outside the U.S at the end of last year. All were operated by franchisees. By contrast, Yum!’s flagship KFC had 5,055 stories in the U.S. and 11,798 overseas. Two massive global fast food chains are even larger. Subway has 35,000 locations worldwide, and McDonald’s has nearly as many. A&W does not have the ability to market itself against these chains and at least a dozen other fast food operators like Burger King. And, A&W does not have the size to efficiently handle food purchase, logistics, and transportation cost compared to competitors many times as large.
4. American Apparel
The once-hip retailer reached the brink of bankruptcy earlier this year, and there is no indication that it has gained anything more than a little time with its latest financing. It currently trades as a penny stock. The company had three stores and $82 million in revenue in 2003. Those numbers reached 260 stores and $545 million in 2008. For the first quarter of this year, the retailer had net sales for the quarter of $116.1 million, a 4.7% decline over sales of $121.8 million in the same period a year ago. Comparable store sales declined 8% on a constant currency basis. American Apparel posted a net loss for the period of $21 million. Comparable store sales have flattened, which means the firm likely will continue to post losses. American Apparel is also almost certainly under gross margin pressure because of the rise in cotton prices. The retailer raised $14.9 million in April by selling shares at a discount of 43% to a group of private investors led by Canadian financier Michael Serruya and Delavaco Capital. According to Reuters, the 15.8 million shares sold represented 20.3 percent of the company’s outstanding stock on March 31. That sum is not nearly enough to keep American Apparel from going the way of Borders. It is a small, under-funded player in a market with very large competitors with healthy balance sheets. It does not help matters that the company’s founder and CEO, Dov Charney, has been a defendant in several lawsuits filed by former employees alleging sexual harassment.
5. Sears
The parent of Sears and Kmart–Sears Holdings-is in a lot of trouble. Total revenue dropped $341 million to $9.7 billion for the quarter which closed April 30, 2011. The company had a net loss of $170 million. Sears Holdings was created by a merger of the parents of the two chains on March 24, 2005. The operation has been a disaster ever since. The company has tried to run 4,000 stores which operate across the US and Canada. Neither Sears nor Kmart have done well recently, but Sears’ domestic locations same store numbers were off 5.2% in the first quarter and Kmart’s were down 1.6%. Last year domestic comparable store sales declined 1.6% in the total, with an increase at Kmart of .7% and a decline at Sears Domestic of 3.6%. New CEO Lou D’Ambrosio recently said of the last quarter that, “we also fell short on executing with excellence. We cannot control the weather or economy or government spending. But we can control how we execute and leverage the potent set of assets we have.” D’Ambrosio needs to pull a rabbit out of his hat soon. Sharex are down 55% during the last five years. D’Ambrosio only reasonable solution to the firm’s financial problems is to stop supporting two brands which compete with one another and larger rivals such as Walmart (NYSE: WMT) and Target (NYSE: TGT). The cost to market two brands and maintain stores which overlap one another geographically must be in the hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Employee and supply chain costs are also gigantic. The path D’Ambrosio is likely to take is to consolidate two brand into one–keeping the better performing Kmart and shuttering Sears.
@SEAN, Yes Sean thats what I was referring to. The economy has hit a big soft spot I dont know whats going to happen after Nanuet Mall gets demolished and now Sears If this keeps up Simon may back out I have a feeling..
@rob, If Sears is in that much trubble, it’s going to have a devistating impact on the mall sector as a whole. There are hundreds of mid sized malls across the country that are struggling & if Sears flatlines, well you can guess what the impact will be.
@SEAN, Oh no doubt in the South THOUGH STORES such as kohls J.CPENNEY, BELK,BEALLS, THERE ARE AT LEAST OPTIONS MORE THAN HERE. KMART MAY TURN SOME SEARS INTO KMARTS. up HERE MAYBE A FEW AREAS J.CPENNEY, LORD AND TAYLOR, BONTONS, MAYBE BOSCOVS WILL COME BACK. THE SUPERMARKET COULD TAKE THE SEARS PROPERTY AT NANUET AND MAYBE MACYS WILL TURN INTO BLOOMINGDALES IF THE MALL IS GOING UPSCALE.
@rob, Perhaps that could work out, however look at the number of mid-sized & larger centers just in the northeast alone. Paramus Park, Jefferson Valley, Sunrise Mall, White Plains Galleria & Green Acres amung countless others that have Sears as an anchor. Now some like Paramus Park & WP Galleria could very well survive without Sears, but for others the loss could be faital.
@SEAN, I know what you are saying Bon Ton could go in Paramus Park J.C PENNEY COULD GO BACK INTO WP GALLERIA THEY WERE THERE BEFORE SEARS. TOOK OVER. STEINMART COULD OPEN STORES IN JEFFERSON VALLEY POUGHKEEPSIE GALLERIA wELL WE WILL SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT YEAR THERE GOES THE UNEMPLOYMENT AGAIN.
@rob, You maybe right on the stronger malls that could withstand the loss of Sears. However there are hundreds of malls that if Sears were to leave, the impact as I said above would be faital. Then again in some cases the loss of these anchors may prove that these centers weren’t viable in the first place & never should have been built.
Nanuet Mall doesn’t fit that profile because it was viable. I’m not going to rehash the issues that incumpus Nanuet’s demise since we know what they are & what needs to be done to correct them.
@rob,
Hi gentlemen……read through your discussion on the Nanuet Mall conundrum. I was a county resident and grew up close to the Nanuet Mall…..remember how it was the go-to place prior to the intro of the Palisades Mall.
I guess I’m hoping for a future for the newly developed property. It seems uber-challenging as it seems like there is def a high concentration of retail options in that 10-15 square mile area. I understand that the retail rents at the Palisades Center are pretty difficult for most stores to overcome. Not sure if its the town being difficult or the operator, who tends to be less flexible with leases.
Palisades is probably going through an upheaval as I don’t know if the all-everything selling point works anymore. People mostly feel like that mall is an eyesore…..the elevators seem to always be partially on the fritz….and I think the novelty is kind of wearing off.
Perhaps the Nanuet Mall coming back with less is more will be helpful. Other centers surrounding the Mall have come back a little…..with the strip mall across from the NM showing some life with a natural foods center next to B&N (after Tower folded) and I think Marshall’s doing well….along with Panera Bread.
The Spring Valley Marketplace has come back pretty well, too……I never thought that place would get going again after Shop Rite left and the Theater closed.
I don’t always understand the appeal of driving 20-30 minutes from NY to Paramus to save 5% when you pay a toll and drive a greater distance using gas (although NJ also has lower gas prices). GSP is a traffic nightmare……but there are some unique spots, and you can’t deny the location which is in the middle of everyone’s commute.
Also one can’t forget the Woodbury…..
I actually always liked that Macy’s in the Nanuet Mall…..the PM one is exetremely gaudy…..lots of jewelry and perfume stands…..no doubt due to the rent for the space. The Macy’s at the NM just had a nice, but not overwhelming, selection of product.
Also…..I think the Nanuet Mall demise was almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. if people start believing a place just won’t make it……they kind of tune it out….go elsewhere.
Hopefully the Nanuet Mall morphs into a welcoming place that isn’t overwhelming and is pleasant for the shopper……not overly gaudy. I don’t think a theater is necessary, but if it works within the construct of what stores become part of the mix, then so be it. A Trader Joe’s or Stew Leonard’s could be a tremendous plus for the area.
Take care.
I was in nanuet last night for a car meet which was across the highway from the mall so I took a ride over to see what it looks like and my god depressing. the parking lot looked horrendous looked like grass was growing in the asphault.lol. the macy’s store looked depressing I could look inside the mall areas and it was totally dark the only thing there that looked decent was the sears store.but what will take over the abandoned boscov’s store?? they should do like the monmouth store just reopen such a huge store to not have anything in it.if I lived in that area I would take a 5 minute trip to palisades or a 10 minute trip down the gsp to paramus well worth it.
@chris o neal, Nanuet Mall is being demolished including the Boscovs building. In 2013 its suppossed to be an outdoor upscale mall. Macys and Sears are staying. I wish they get rid of Macys its really an horrible old store when they have a more modern store at Palisades Mall. Simon Property took so long to do something with this mall and everyone blames palisades and it was simons fault and even macys they had taken away sterns and abraham and straus.which was there before Boscovs.
what a waste to tear down the boscovs store it looked pretty new to me.I know it was originally a A&S but what year did it open?? what a shame but nothing will take it over so i guess so.might as well close the macy’s too palisades is so much bigger and better down the road
@chris o neal, I have been saying that about Macys. The store in Nanuet is so old and run down and dont carry as much as the Palisades Mall store does. Well,they are tearing down Boscovs because they are rebuilding into an open air upscale mall. Macys and Sears own their properties Simon Property is trying to get rid of sears. if its going upscale Macys should be torn down and rebuilt as Bloomingdales who Macys owns as well and they can keep their property. Abraham and Straus opened in Nanuet in 1995..
@rob, Called Paula yesterday & I’m still waiting for a responce.
I have sene very upscale malls with Sears anchors, South Coast Plaza & Oakbrook Center among them. Mind you that Oakbrook & Coasta Mesa are far wealthier than all of Rockland County & every one reguardless of wealth sometimes needs a craftsman tool set. LOL.
@SEAN, Thanks, Sean oh i know they will keep sears thats if Kmart keeps the Sears name as they said may disappear in 201,2 I just hope they get rid of that old macys building and turn it into a Bloomingdales being that Macys owns them as well.it makes more sense being that we have Macys down at Palisades Mall.
@rob, I sort of agree, remember there are stores in both White Plains & Riverside.
Interestingly the site of the WP store was part of the Bloomingdale estate. The original family mantion houses offices & several units for New York Cornell Hospital’s Psychiatric center. Maybe we should have congress sent there for observation? Hmmm.
@SEAN, I walked through Nanuet mall today and all remaining stores have signs up closing store some are leaving as early as tomorrow. Someone in Macys told me demolition is starting after Labor Day.
@rob, Well it took 3 & a half years since this post went up, but this will be the end of Nanuet Mall as we know it.
What are Sears & Macy’s doing with there respective buildings if anything. Technicly Macy’s doesn’t need that location even though they own it & Sears is in serious trouble as it is, wich begs the question when the new center opens will either retailer be there? If not then who will be anchoring the project.
I Could se Bloomingdale’s, but the market for them is rather small in Rockland County as aposed to Bergen or Westchester.
@SEAN, Havent seen you on the comments in awhile.I must say Palisades are or have brought some decent stores now and IHOP IS opening in September.At Nanuet mall stores have to be out by September 6th. So i guess they will start demolishing mid to end of September. Now all Palisades need to do is rennovate the mall and things would look up for Palisades.
@rob, I’m still here, just haven’t left comments since there wasn’t anything to comment about lately.
Paula hasn’t returned my calls yet.
All the news recently semes to revolve around expantions of hamburger chains like 5 guys, the growing base of 7-11 type stores or more locally the dorment American Dream Medowlands. Speeking of ADM, there was a wright up on it in Mobilizing The Region blog a few days ago.
@SEAN, This market and economy is so topsy turvy I went to Paramus today 6th ave electrionics closed on route 4. GSP IS STILL REPLACING EMPTY STORES MALL TRAFFIC WAS GOOD BUT PEOPLE ARE BUYING BASICS Kohls and J.CPENNEY STILL HAVE ALOT OF SUMMER CLOTHES LEFT AND USUALLY BY NOW JCPENNEY WOULD DOWN TNEAR THE WIRE. in my OPINION THE STORES ARENT GOING TO HAVE A GREAT BACK TO SCHOOL SEASON AND ITS LOOKING LIKE CHRISTMAS WONT BE SO ROBUST AS LAST YEAR.
@Rob, Journey to the “Center of the World”: Traffic Could Mar Meadowlands Mall
by Vincent Pellecchia
At a press conference in May discussing the Christie Administration’s decision to offer approximately $200 million in financing, in the form of tax breaks, to Mall of America developer Triple Five, Triple Five Senior Vice President Paul Ghermezian called American Dream Meadowlands (the planned northern NJ mall formerly known as Xanadu) “the center of the world.” If American Dream truly will be the center of the world when it opens in 2013, will anyone actually be able to get there?
As virtually anyone who has gone near the Meadowlands during most of the past decade knows, Xanadu was never completed, leaving an oddly shaped, unaesthetic structure in its wake. The project, dormant since construction stopped in 2009 due to financing issues, was recently revived by the $200 million financing package, which passed the legislature in July.
As is clear from the pictures, a significant portion of the building’s construction had been completed before 2009. In addition, some roadway changes have been made. But there remains a lingering question as to whether they can in fact handle the congestion which will be created once American Dream is fully operational.
The Questionable Payoff
Traffic congestion has been a large concern since the very beginning. In analyzing the projected statistics for the completed American Dream facility, it is easy to see the source of those concerns. American Dream has a projected average visitor total at 150,000 per day or 55 million per year. First, anyone who has driven to an event at the New Meadowlands Stadium – seating capacity of 82,500 – has experienced the extensive attendant traffic congestion. Considering that 150,000 is almost twice the Stadium’s capacity, it is easy to see how American Dream could create a traffic nightmare. And 150,000 is an average, meaning there can be days with many more visitors and much more traffic.
Second, when compared with another very large mall in Northern New Jersey, the potential traffic problems become particularly clear. Westfield Garden State Plaza Shopping Mall in Paramus, NJ sees approximately 20 million visitors annually. The area is chronically plagued by traffic issues, despite being located at the intersection of three major highways and being served by over ten bus lines. Compare this with American Dream, also located near large highways, but providing much less in the way of public transportation despite two-and-a-half times as many projected visitors. The site of the American Dream is only accessible by public transportation through one train line and two daily bus routes. If Westfield Garden State Plaza, serving 60 percent fewer customers, often experiences large congestion problems, it is easy to see how a place like American Dream, with more limited transportation options yet many more visitors, has the potential to experience even larger problems.
Clearly, American Dream needs much more in the way of public transportation. Frequent train service, several dedicated bus lines that connect to locations throughout the state, as well as possible extensions of the Hudson/Bergen light rail all need to be implemented to meet American Dream’s customer demand. And given all the subsidies already sunk into the site, there’s a strong argument that the developer should foot much of the bill.
Two commenters after the article question the viability of this project sighting NYC & Paramus as stronger markets, but this could hert both Nanuet & Palisades in both direct & indirect ways.
@SEAN, hmmm, VERY interesting article. They are right in this economy no one knows where to turn anymore. The way the stock market and Europe is going. When you look at GSP PARKING LOT IT NEVER looks empty as I said there are many browsers than buyers. Palisades has lost its luster ever since macys took over Filenes and after that the economy tanked,at least they have gotten rid of the junk stores. I f they only rennovate it make the locals want go there more thats the main reasonn why many locals avoid it.
@rob, I know what you mean. I stopped at Staples on 4 & was somewhat surprised that they closed. I guess that wasn’t easy.
It’s interesting if you read some of the real estate articles in Retail Traffic, Shopping Center Business & other publications, you will get the sence that the professionals who are interviewed are still drinking the cool-aid from 2007. As a result they cant recognise the facts in front of there eyes & instead repeat the same bullshit over & over.
Speaking of articles I posted one below on American Dream Medowlands.
@Rob, Rocklanders have a Psychotic atatchment to Nanuet Mall as I said over & over. As a result even if they added Neiman Marcus & Nordstrom & associated stores like The Westchester or Riverside has, they would still be bitching on how much they hate Palisades.
Investors Show Faith in JC Penney, Barnes & Noble’s Future
Aug 24, 2011 8:05 AM, By Elaine Misonzhnik, Retail Traffic Associate Editor
Recent stock market volatility has had at least one beneficial effect on the retail sector—it’s spurred investment in some publicly-traded retail chains.
Amid the brutal selling, two large national retailers—department store JC Penney and bookseller Barnes & Noble—reached deals to receive sizable equity infusions. While driven by the fact that the shares for each firm were trading at deep discounts, the moves also illustrate investors’ faith in the long-term prospects for the two chains.
On Friday, Bill Ackman-led hedge fund Pershing Square Capital got approval from JC Penney Co.’s board of directors to up its stake in the retailer from its current 16.5 percent. Pershing Square will make the investment through a “synthetic long position” to make its exposure equivalent to 26.1 percent. A synthetic long position typically refers to a derivative contract in which the investor receives cash payments if a company’s shares rise. Pershing actually reduced its voting rights to 15 percent of shares outstanding.
JC Penney has a restriction in place preventing shareholders with more than 10 percent of its stock to buy additional common shares without its board’s approval.
The news about Pershing’s investment in JC Penney came a day after media conglomerate Liberty Media Corp. signed a deal to buy a 16.6 percent stake in bookseller Barnes & Noble for $204 million. Liberty’s investment will be made through the purchase of convertible preferred shares equal to about 12 million common shares or 17 percent of Barnes & Noble stock. The deal values Barnes & Noble shares at $17 apiece.
Barnes & Noble has been looking for a buyer since last summer, and Liberty Media has been the only one to make a bid for the retailer this spring, valuing Barnes & Noble’s stock at $17 per share in May and offering to take a 70 percent stake in the retailer. It has since abandoned the ambition to buy the bookseller outright, opting instead for the smaller stake.
The switch to a smaller investment likely reflects Liberty’s desire to limit its risk in view of the challenges the book sector faces from the popularity of digital e-readers, says Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates Inc., a New York City-based retail consulting and investment banking firm. The fact that Liberty Media decided to take a stake in Barnes & Noble at all, however, is a strong indication it believes the retailer will survive, and maybe even thrive, in the long-term.
“When Borders’ going-out-of-business phase is over, that leaves Barnes & Noble as the single book superstore left,” Davidowitz says. “It’s sort of like what happened with Best Buy when Circuit City and its other competitors left. Best Buy had a couple of very good years after that. If you are an investor, that’s very significant.”
A somewhat similar sentiment could be glanced from Pershing Square’s investment in JC Penney, according to Paul Swinand, the analyst who follows the department store for Morningstar. Since Bill Ackman now sits on JC Penney’s board of directors, he should be privy to sales and foot traffic information the company doesn’t not release publicly. If he’s willing to invest more of Pershing’s money in the chain, it likely means he’s encouraged by the numbers.
“He’s an insider and he’s thinking that the market is overreacting,” Swinand says.
As of noon Tuesday, JC Penney’s stock was trading at approximately $25.43 per share, roughly 38 percent off its 52-week peak of $41 per share.
Barnes & Noble’s stock was trading at $10.72 per share, 49 percent down from its 52-week peak of $21.06.
Lame ducks?
Both Barnes & Noble and JC Penney have faced issues recently, primarily because of increased competition in their respective retail sectors. Some market insiders have questioned whether Barnes & Noble can withstand the onslaught of digital bookselling, while JC Penney has been delivering a less than stellar performance in a sector teeming with chains catering to consumers in every income bracket. Year-to-date in 2011, the chain’s same-store sales rose 2.8 percent, compared to the sector average of 4.1 percent, according to ICSC.
Barnes & Noble, meanwhile, reported that its same-store sales rose only 0.7 percent in fiscal 2011, ended Apr. 30, the most recent period for which sales numbers are available. Most of the increase was driven by the sale of its digital products.
“We still believe Barnes & Noble faces several headwinds in its brick-and-mortar segment… as well as its digital push, as it competes with the likes of megacap companies like Apple and Amazon,” wrote Morningstar analyst Peter Wahlstrom in an Aug. 19 note. “We still believe that it will take another year or so for the firm to return to profitability, which is likely to dissuade investors.”
Nevertheless, both retailers have taken significant steps to improve their standing. Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-reader has been among the most popular e-readers available. In July, Consumer Reports declared the Nook Simple Touch Reader the best e-reader on the market, marking the first time the Nook beat out Amazon’s Kindle. That should make it much easier for Barnes & Noble to deal with changes in the bookselling industry. One of the reasons Borders has been forced out of the market has been its slow move to adapt the online and mobile sales channels.
JC Penney, meanwhile, made a major bet on Apple’s head of retail Ron Johnson. Johnson, who helped make the Apple stores among the most profitable in the retail universe, will join JC Penney this November as CEO. This appointment, coupled with the chain’s popularity with middle-income consumers, makes it an attractive long-term bet, according to Jeff Green, president of Jeff Green Partners, a Phoenix, Ariz.-based retail real estate consulting firm.
Real estate play?
JC Penney’s real estate holdings also remain quite attractive and may offer Pershing Square an additional incentive to invest, according to Davidowitz. Ackman is well-known for his interest in retail real estate, from his stake in General Growth Properties to his past efforts to spin Target stores into a REIT. As of January, JC Penney operated 1,106 department stores in 49 states and Puerto Rico, primarily at regional malls. The chain owned 426 of the stores directly.
“The department store boxes in malls have proven to be fairly valuable, which was not expected,” notes Green. “But then [we saw] Target and Costco taking over some of these boxes.”
Liberty Media, on the other hand, would have a tough time making a profit on Barnes & Noble’s real estate holdings. Today, the retail market remains oversaturated with empty big boxes. In fact, the size of Barnes & Noble’s boxes has been a hindrance to the chain itself, and it might be forced to downsize its stores when possible, says Davidowitz.
As of April, Barnes & Noble operated 1,341 stores in 50 states, 705 of them in the traditional big-box format. The stores average 26,000 square feet and all but one of them are leased.
“It’s very hard, when demand is down, to maintain these big stores,” Davidowitz says. “I think they are going to close more stores, but it will be part of a process, not a panic.”
New Nanuet Mall will feature outdoor, Main Street design
The new Nanuet Mall will be smaller than the existing one and will have outdoor stores that will feature Main Street-style buildings.
Simon Property Group Inc., the owner of the mall, submitted site plans to the Town of Clarkstown, formally declaring their vision of what the long-awaited mall will look like.
“It will be a walkable outdoor mall,” Supervisor Alexander Gromack said, with sidewalks and canopies.
Simon plans to demolish the existing structure — except Macy’s and Sears, which own their buildings — and rebuild a new mall. The new structure could be complete and open for business by the fall shopping season in 2013, Gromack said.
Simon did not return a call for comment.
The town and Simon have been in discussions for years about the Nanuet Mall, the oldest mall in Rockland that began to lose customers and tenants when the larger Palisades Center opened in 1998. They hope a refurbished mall with high-end stores will bring customers back.
According to Gromack, the new mall will have a smaller footprint of 762,000 square feet, about 140,000 less than the current mall, which measures 906,000 square feet. The square footage includes Macy’s and Sears.
Simon has not submitted a demolition plan, Gromack said, but one is expected by the end of the month.
It would take another month for the building department to approve the plan because of concerns about what impact the demolition would have on Macy’s and Sears and what safeguards would be provided to customers who shop at the stores.
Once a permit is received, demolition could start in November or December.
It would also take several weeks for the Planning Board to approve a building permit.
Simon would also have to appear before the Architecture and Landscape Commission to seek approval of its landscaping plan for the mall.
The site plan submitted earlier this month provides a preliminary view on the size and architecture of the building. It does not include a list of stores that will be housed in the mall.
In the past, Gromack has said the mall will likely include a movie complex, offices, various restaurants and high-end stores.
Talk about an updated Nanuet Mall with a popular anchor store like Nordstrom has been making the round for years.
Simon has already submitted plans to move Banchetto Feast, a tenant with whom the mall has a 25-year lease, to Main Street in New City. The restaurant will be moved back to the mall once the renovations are complete.
“Based on our meetings with them, there is every indication that they are very eager to start the demolition and get before the planning board,” Gromack said. “They tell us that in a perfect world, they’d like to get ready for the 2013 shopping season
@SEAN, Many here dont believe Simon Property is going to do it thAT THERE WILL BE PROBLEMS AND U THINK THEY ARE DRAGGING THEIR FEET. NOW THEY ARE SAYING THEY MAY NOT START DEMOLISHING UNTIL NOVEMBER.NOW THEY ARE CONCERNED HOW CUSTOMER WILL REACH MACYS AND SEARS DURING THE DEMOLITION, I KNEW IT MACYS AND SEARS SHOULD HAVE CLOSED AS WELL. IF PEOPLE HERE NEED SEARS THEY ARENT FAR AWAY IN PARAMUS PARK MALL. PALISADES AT LEAST ARE REPLACING STORES THAT ARE EMPTY WITH KNOWN STORES NOT JUNK..
@rob, The same thing was said when Seaview Square went through this a few years back. How are the people going to reach Target & Sears durring construction! It managed to work out. Now if Sears jumps ship that could present a whole host of unintisapated problems.
@SEAN, I just heard on news 12 Bravo Italian Restaurant is closing in Palisades Mall on December 23, 2011 due to economy. I have a feeling Tony Romas will be next it dosent seem they are doing too well either. It seems like FRIDAYS, CHILIS, OUTBACK STIR CRAZY AND CHEESE CAKE ARE HANGING IN THERE.
@rob, Bravo wasn’t all that bad. I’m a bit surprised they are jumping ship, but then again they have better locations in more successful malls like Westfarms in Farmington CT, wich is a Brio Tuscan Grill. Same owner different label.
As for Tony Romas, they haven’t been there all that long, so we’ll see what happens with them. The wild card is Cheesecake Factory. I doubt they would leave, but if they did it’s a serious blow to the malls upscale customer base.
@Rob, Finally spoke to Paula & what I was able to gather was that everyone is being tight lipped on the status of Nanuet Mall. *no surprised there*
She said that what she knows is the same as what has been already reported in the press. If there is any news comeing down I will find out from her.
@SEAN, Thank you Sean, between Simon and Clarkstown they love to keep the residents in the dark. I mean if they are going to knock the mall down just do it already. Its a complete eye sore.
@rob, You forgot about keeping sertain employees in the dark. Paula has worked in Nanuet in the past as well as Shops at Riverside.
Sorry it took so long in getting information.
@SEAN, This has nothing to do with you . I know you were trying to get a hold of Paula. Its all Simon Property and Clarkstown. Anything that has to be done in this area they take so so long to inform the county,
@rob, Believe me, I get it. If a marketing manager doesn’t have a clue, then I wonder who does in this situation.
How Many times have I railed on Clarkstown in this thred regarding how they mishandled both Nanuet Mall & Palisades Center in terms of future developments. I must add Pyramid didn’t help it’s own cause by building such an ugly structure that was esentially a giant Costco & being too dependent on big box spaces that couldnt remain filled. Granted they still have B & N, Target & the like, but the turnover has been much greater than it should have been considering the potential of the mall’s drawing ability.
@Rob, Read this.
Simon Secures a New $4B Unsecured Revolving Credit Facility
Oct 5, 2011 12:01 PM, Staff Reports
Capping off a week-long trend among retail REITs, Simon Property Group Inc., the country’s largest regional mall owner, entered into a new $4 billion unsecured revolving credit facility on Wednesday. The facility will offer Simon favorable terms, including a money market competitive bid option program that will allow the company to hold auctions for lowest pricing on short-term loans.
Simon’s existing unsecured revolving credit facility was due to mature on March 3, 2013.
The new facility is scheduled to mature on Oct. 30, 2015. It comes with a one-year extension option and can be increased to $5 billion. The base interest rate on the facility is LIBOR plus 100 basis points. In addition, the facility includes a $2 billion multi-currency tranche for Euro, Yen, Sterling and Canadian Dollar borrowings.
Even though Simon still had some time left before facing maturity on its existing facility, the favorable financing environment and low interest rates probably played a role in the company’s decision to renew early, according to Rich Moore, a REIT analyst with RBC Capital Markets.
“There was very strong lender demand in our new credit facility, with commitments received from 33 financial institutions aggregating over $5 billion,” said Simon Chairman and CEO David Simon in a statement. “This expanded credit facility size, at a significantly lower pricing grid and a new maturity term of up to five years further enhances our already strong financial flexibility.”
JPMorgan Chase and America Merrill Lynch arranged the facility and served as joint bookrunners on the transaction. Royal Bank of Scotland and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. served as joint lead arrangers and co-syndication agents. Barclays, Citibank, Compass, Credit Suisse, Deutsche, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, PNC, SunTrust, Royal Bank of Canada, UBS and U.S. Bank were co-documentation agents. Fifth Third, Regions, The Bank of Nova Scotia and Union Bank served as senior managing agents. The transaction also involved 13 other co-lenders.
@SEAN, I called Simon yesterday because I saw that Boscovs reopened in Mon mouth Mall. I told them that we do not need Macys to try to get rid of them and bring back Boscovs to Nanuet as well. I even said to try to get rid of Sears.I told Simon that Boscovs exited bankruptcy and reopened their former store in Monmouth Mall. Many residents in Nanuet besides still missing Sterns and Filenes do miss Boscovs because they are a similarity of Sterns.
@Rob, Who did you speak to at Simon. Do Macy’s & Sears have it in their rights to disallow Boscov’s from reopening at Nanuet Mall? It would be interesting to see Boscov’s reopen there, but I’m not sure if they would unless the tax break was large enough to choke a horse.
@SEAN, I didnt get the guys name sorry, it was a dept for development and planning. I read something a while back that Simon wanted to get rid of Macys or Sears and they wont budge. They could even keep the original Boscovs building and just knock down the mall. I dont know who owns that building maybe Simon owns it. Why should they diSallow they still have to compete with Kohls, J.C PENNEY, LORD AND TAYLOR. MACYS IN MONMOUTH DIDNT THEY LET BOSCOVS REOPEN.THERES ALSO SEARS AND LORD AND TAYLOR THERE TOO.
@Rob, Simon owns the Boscov’s store. As for Sears, Edward Lampard is a real estate guy &doesn’t care much about the retail side. Although they do go hand & hand most of the time.
Macy’s baffles me because they have a better store at Palisades & that one is least, while they let the store they own fall apart at NM. I think the Macy’s in white Plains is also owned because it’s another land parcel completely seperate from the Galleria property even though they are atached. The Galleria does include the Sears store, but not the parking garage since that is city owned.
@SEAN, The Galleria Macys was first ABRAHAM AND STRAUS THEN STERNS THAT WAS A FEDERATED DEPT STORE OWNED STORE BEFORE FEDERATED BECAME MACYS INC. J.C PENNEY WAS THERE BEFORE SEARS MOVED THERE. I HAVE BEEN SAYING THAT ALL ALONG ABOUT MACYS NM WHEN THEY HAVE A BETTER STORE AT PALISADES.MACYS LOVES TO WASTE MONEY THATS WHY THEY PAY SO HORRIBLE AND THEIR CEO MAKES THE BIG BUCKS.
@Rob, I remembered that stores history as well as the Galleria’s. The Macy’s store is in my service district, but the mall & garage are not. And who else helped me with all this information? Paula! It all comes back to Paula.
Also remember the White Plains Macy’s is something of a flagship store, since it’s in excess of 328,000 square feet. Nanuet’s is bearly half that & the Palisades location is somewhat larger abit over 200,000 square feet. I don’t have exact figgures in front of me at the moment.
@SEAN, There was an article in mondays journal news that there will be a meeting tonighr to show what the mall will look like but not telling what they will be. They are still waiting for one more permit to start demolition. I tell you the next meeting when people are able to comment i would go because reallysay thatthis area is not a hig end store area. I wrote to clarkstown and the journal news to tell them to stop blaming Palisades mall for the demise of Nanuet its the faullt of Simon and Macys.
@Rob, Yeah, go check it out & don’t be afraid to ask SMART pointed questions. If you don’t, no one else will.
Can we finally put the Palisades Center killing Nanuet Mall story to bed? It adds nothing of value to the conversation & solves nothing. I still here the same thing regarding the Galleria competing with The Westchester in White Plains from time to time, but it’s nonsencicle.
@SEAN, DId you see the article on what they are showing on thr new Nanuet Mall. It will be called the shops at Nanuet. They are having A MEETING nOV30TH FOR RESIDENTS TO MAKE COMMENTS I WILL BE FULL OF FACTS AND STATEMENTS WHAT THEY HAVE DONE AND ARE GOING TO DO.
@Rob, Did a search & couldn’t find it. You need to go & get details & don’t except retail spin for answers. If they come off hazy, it means they are clueless.
@Rob, Just found this in the Patch, & I wonder who was high on crack when this presentation was made
UPDATE: Nanuet Mall to Become ‘The Shops at Nanuet’ with a Main Street [VIDEO]
Check back with Patch later today for information about the demolition, construction and a rough timeline from Simon
“We are here now because Simon knows what it wants to do,” said Dwayne Furukawa, regional vice president of development for Simon.
Here are the main points (Keep reading below the list for more details):
•Open-air Main Street concept
•The ‘L’ road you see on the birds eye map is the ‘Main Street’ Simon is referring to when driving down Main Street, there will be 1- and 2-story buildings with shops/food on either side with independent entrances connecting to the sidewalks and streets.
•There may be a movie theater and fitness/health club
•Macy’s and Sears will remain as is through demolition and completion since they own their respective stores. The former Boscov’s building will be demolished
•A completely new building will be built for a ‘gourmet grocery’ store
•Internal demolition and asbestos work will start later this year. Fencing and major demo will begin Jan. 5, 2012, and should be done by June for site work to begin.
•No stores for the site have been named yet; Simon is still in contracts and leases with stores.
•The site plans may change as everything is still in a preliminary and working stage. The artist renderings of the street-level views will change because the drawings are only to depict the “flavor” and style of the new site and shop owners will ultimately decide the design and look of their store.
The Shops at Nanuet:
The new structure that will go up will be several buildings with an “open air” Main Street concept.
“The mentality is to change from a traditional enclosed mall to an outdoor center,” said Furukawa. “Currently we have a Main Street that runs through the project. This ‘L’ shape here is a series of 1-level story buildings with retail/restaurants within those. These buildings here between Macy’s and Sears … on the ground level are retail shops, and on the second level are multi-story (with) functional uses. Right now we’re talking to a cinema and a health club.”
Dorsky + Yue International LLC Architecture designed the current proposal. Furukawa added that there may be changes since everything is still very “preliminary” right now.
“The architecture we created for these buildings is we created a dialogue between the past and the present, alluding to these industrial pastoral buildings giving it a modern flair with new materials with glass and metal,” said Furukawa. “Each individual building will have its own identity, but (the design flavor) it all kind of ties together.”
The real importance … is Main street … you see quite a bit of that beige is around,” he added. The beige shading shows pedestrian walkways. “It’s not going to be sidewalks … we really want it (main street) to be a really animated experience, both from the vehicular and pedestrian (viewpoint) as you’re going through there.”
“(Along main street) there’s lots of plantings and lots of places for people to sit and relax. We envisioned water features incorporated throughout (main street). And areas, similar to this plaza area,” he said pointing to the beige triangular spot to the right of Sears, “… where there will be flexible area.”
More information?
After they’re finalized, renderings of all the drawings shown last night will soon be at the Planning Board office at Town Hall. Also, come to the next Nanuet Civic Association meeting at 7:15 p.m. Nov. 3 at the Nanuet Library’s community room where this topic will most likely be discussed. Simon is on the tentative schedule for the Planning Department’s Nov. 30 meeting.
Read about the meeting’s outcome in a 5-part series today and tomorrow. Later today, another article will look at demolition, construction and a rough timeline.
@SEAN, I am working in manhattan now so things have been hectic. I read that Syms/Filenes Basement is closing all their stores. I hope i will make the town meeting Nov 30th about Nanuet mall. I am full of comments to make.Many people i spoke to do not like what they are going to do with Nanuet Mall. Macys next year is expanding their 34th street store they better do something to Nanuet if they are staying.
@Rob, Congrads on the new job. Lets be honest, no matter what is presented at that meeting, the locals are going to be complaining & yet when the rubber hits the road, most of them will be shopping some place else. I bet you can figgure out where it is.
Yeah I read about Syms/ Filene’s Basement Thursday, no shocker there. On the other hand, Trader Joes is in rapid growth mode. There were several articals durring the past week including a large wright up in Retail Traffic.
I lived in Spring Valley with my parents until
1978. Last Sunday I went to visit my 100 year old
mother at a rehab center and needed an ATM machine. Happened to go into the Nanuet Mall,
which I had not visited in over 33 years, and it was a
shock to see the place and I remembering shopping there and it was vibrant mall, and a perfect size for the immediate neighborhood.
I could see Macy*s and Sears holding on, but it was a sad to to see the rest in disrepair, shuttered
shops, etc. Welcome to modern times.
@Rob, Take a look at this blog post from Steiner Associates, a Columbus, OH real estate developer.
There Is No Future For Single Use Retail Environments
Created by Yaromir Steiner, Founder / CEO on October 31, 2011
Peer over the drawing boards of today’s most successful real estate land planners, designers and developers. Listen in on city and township planning board meetings. Follow the scent of a freshly brewed Starbucks coffee and one thing becomes clear, single use retail environments, whether malls, power centers, lifestyle centers or neighborhood centers will soon be the exception rather than the rule.
This trend, or inevitability, is perhaps most apparent at the regional mall level, where malls have progressively been replaced by mixed-use town centers. First, we saw the introduction of leisure time uses like cinemas, restaurants and comedy clubs into the retail mix, excellent examples being Horton Plaza in San Diego, California, Irvine Spectrum in Irvine, California and CocoWalk in Coconut Grove, Florida. The integration of these uses was turned up a notch, based on both human and commercial logic, and we saw new open air layouts that embodied traditional urban patterns, such as The Grove in Los Angeles, California and Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio. Next, office space and residential units appeared above the retail, just as they had generations ago in downtowns across America. Examples include Zona Rosa in Kansas City, Missouri and The Greene in Dayton, Ohio. Today, this is clearly the pattern: the traditional regional mall is being replaced by mixed-use urban patterned open-air town centers.
Furthermore, this trend is already apparent in another category: the lifestyle center. Projects like Bel-Mar in Denver, Colorado and Santana Row in San Jose, California illustrate how well lifestyle and specialty retail can work in harmony and synergy with leisure time uses, all brought together under the open-air “roof” of a mixed-use, urban-patterned neighborhood center.
It’s not over until it’s over. Look next for the grocery store anchored neighborhood center to adopt these development principles. We believe many communities will start viewing these retail environments as a way to create mixed-use village centers. In “stay by home” fashion, these village centers will incorporate restaurants, apartments and offices in a village square setting that can function as the urban hub of the neighborhood. Although the idea is not original, there are presently very few such applications around the country, Mashpee Commons in Cape Cod, Massachusetts being one. This is mostly due to the rigidity of the grocery store tenant standards.
The one category that will be late to the “dance” in this mixed-use approach will be the power center. The challenge in large part is one of scale; the physical configuration and sheer size of the stores. There is a reason they acquired the label “big box.” However, we can see forward thinking large tenants like Target and many of the smaller ones like DSW, Old Navy or World Market finding ways to fit into sub-regional urban hubs, staying convenient to the housetops they covert. At the same time their irreducible brethren such as Home-Depot, Wal-Mart and Costco will move into more industrial neighborhoods, acting mostly as distribution warehouses.
The urban imperative resurfaces. In all cases, this is simply the recreation of the traditional hierarchy of urban hubs, as they existed in older large cities. Unfortunately, in the rush of building America during the post-war boom across a backdrop of exclusive use zoning, we abandoned forms that had served us well in the past. We did not take the time to create these mixed-use suburban, neighborhood or village hubs, which would have served admirably as satellite hubs to the original downtowns of these growing cities.
The present trends are simply societal and market forces correcting the urban planning omissions of the fifty-year period following the end of the Second World War. Whether the commercial logic of single use retail lost its way, or it was the maturation of consumerism, or the quest for a more enriching life, the pendulum is swinging back; the centrifugal force of standalone retail has played itself out.
As a result, we believe every retail hub, whatever its scale, will be a candidate for reinvention and densification, sooner rather than later. The developments of single use retail environments as we know them today will be a thing of the past.
@Rob, here’s another good article from QSR Magazine.
The New Food Court
With mall vacancies at a high, the food court is becoming more important.
Ever since the first farmers packed up their produce to sell in the town square, food has been an important part of the shopping experience. But lately, it seems the food is better than ever.
At the Macy’s in Chicago, celebrity chefs like Rick Bayless have set up shop with their own quick-service or fast-casual restaurants. In London, luxury department store Harrods boasts 30 restaurants ranging from casual to opulent. And these aren’t the only places beefing up their food offerings.
Shopping centers across the country are investing, turning to food as a way to lure guests back.
Les Morris, spokesman for major mall owner Simon Property Group, says that the best way to a customer’s heart is through his stomach.
“The role of food in a mall is important and will continue to be,” Morris says. “Mall food-hall offerings will only continue to evolve.”
Evolution is a matter of survival of the fittest, and the food court business is no exception. While mall industry representatives insist their industry is booming, those closer to the business tell a different story.
California-based Hot Dog on a Stick has 102 mall locations out of a 104-store system, and executive vice president Laurie Sonia is keenly aware that traffic is down.
“Malls in the last few years have changed dramatically because of the economy, and also because online shopping has become so easy,” Sonia says. “I honestly don’t think the demographics have changed, I just think there’s less people going to malls.”
Those changes have had real impact on mall tenants. Dippin’ Dots, a longtime mall favorite, recently filed for bankruptcy, and Hot Dog on a Stick saw its sales fall in 2009 and 2010. Sonia says the percentage her sales fell was more or less the same percentage total mall traffic fell.
“The last two years before this one our sales had decreased, anywhere between 5 and 10 percent [a year],” Sonia says. “I think that’s why you’ve seen so many retailers go out of business—it’s hard to sustain those kind of losses.”
While the newspapers have backed off from the doom-and-gloom predictions they made in 2009 (the Wall Street Journal talked about “ghost towns” then), the mall situation is still far from rosy.
An October 23 article in USA Today quotes a study by Commercial real estate research firm Reis that shows mall vacancies at an 11-year high in the third quarter of 2011.
With big retailers like Border, Blockbuster, and Linens N’ Things shut down and hundreds of other stores closing, mall owners are turning to other things to attract traffic.
“Coming out of the recession, there’s been an increase in importance in dining and entertainment,” International Council of Shopping Centers spokesman Jesse Tron says. “Basically right now the focus is redevelopment.”
Tron says the general plan is to give customers more reasons to come into the mall. Since eating at a restaurant is a fundamentally social activity, bringing in more eating options encourages people to come and bring their friends.
Suzyn Cragin, manager of Superior, Wisconsin’s Mariner Mall, says her mall’s two restaurants have been helpful in boosting traffic.
“Both of them draw people,” Cragin says. “When people are shopping they need places to dine. [It] makes people stay a little bit longer and shop a little bit longer.”
Tron says as businesses emerge from the recession, the emphasis has been on more traditional restaurants, which have a larger footprint and provide more of a destination feel to a mall.
“Outside of the food court is where you’re seeing those changes,” Tron says. “Those larger chain-style restaurants are pretty popular, as well as coffeeshop/cafes.”
This increased emphasis on sit-down dining means more competition for quick serves.
Tron says, however, that food courts are changing as well. An attractive central eating space serves as a gathering point, and malls have been quick to jump in and make them as comfortable and eye-catching as possible.
Part of the spirit of providing more options means developing and expanding quick serves along with sit-down restaurants.
“You have certain consumers who want to come in and grab a quick bite,” Tron says. “[The] food court’s still certainly integral.”
Even when the tenant mix doesn’t change, the ambiance does.
Fixtures, carpeting, and lighting can freshen up a food court, especially when more expensive materials are used.
Sonia notices this trend in some of the malls where Hot Dog on a Stick has a presence.
“They are getting more upscale,” Sonia says. “I think in general they’re trying to take it in a more upscale direction.”
One mall that has invested significant money into its food court is San Diego’s Fashion Valley. As part of the first phase of the multimillion-dollar renovation project, the mall updated and modernized the food court space. It added contemporary tables and chairs, along with banquette and bar seating that increased the total seating by about 10 percent. Vertical landscaping, large ceramic potted plants, skylights streaming natural light, and freshly repainted surfaces made the food court inviting. Morris says it’s all about getting guests to linger.
“The more uses people can get from coming to our malls, the more touches they have with the property, the better it is,” Morris says. “Our trade group said the average visit to a shopping center was 82 minutes. If we can extend that somehow, that’s great.”
Another planned development is in Indianapolis’s Fashion Mall at Keystone. It’ll have a newly renovated food hall by the 2012 holidays, complete with an impressive mix of tenants.
Morris says that while it’s too early in the game to say exactly who’s coming on board, the new food hall will be worth waiting for.
“We’re looking to bring in unique local and national concepts to the food hall, some of which will be new to Indianapolis,” Morris says. “We’re looking to create a destination.”
Some concepts aren’t waiting for the mall to do the legwork, choosing instead to become a destination on their own.
Several high-end chefs have played off of their celebrity appeal to stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Frontera Fresco, which is owned by celebrity chef Rick Bayless, provides a fast-casual spin on Mexican favorites. With hot Mexican sandwiches and tacos, homemade salsa, and Mexican craft beer, the restaurant has become a popular stop at the Macy’s in Chicago.
Wolfgang Puck Express is even more widespread, with locations in airports and malls around the country. With smoked salmon pizza, Chinois chicken salad, and other modern California dishes, the restaurant appeals to people looking to get a fine-dining experience when they’re pressed for time.
These concepts are gaining fans beyond the mall crowd—in fact, Travel and Leisure Magazine named both of them among the World’s Top Fast Food Restaurants.
While more upscale brands draw their fair share of guests, Sonia says she hasn’t noticed a trend.
“I haven’t noticed a big difference except for a little bit of a local feel,” Sonia says. “I think the same national brands are in those food courts.”
There are several approaches the national brands take to stay relevant.
Sarku Japan, an Asian chain focusing on teriyaki and sushi, has 200 locations predominately located in food courts. Its able to stand out in a crowd by offering food that is both healthy and exotic.
But Cinnabon, another mall court favorite, is nearly the opposite, positioning itself as both indulgent and familiar. The trick lies in understanding what makes mall shoppers tick. Cinnabon has had great success by leveraging the sense of smell. In an enclosed environment, the smell of warm cinnamon can draw diners who might not have thought twice about stopping if they had simply seen a sign.
Another popular mall technique? Free samples, a la Baskin-Robbins. David Kincheloe, the President of National Restaurant Consultants, says this is a time-tested mall strategy.
“You walk through a food court and the Japanese place always has chicken teriyaki on a toothpick,” Kincheloe says. “You can do the same thing. Someone’s trying to make a decision, you stick a piece of food in their mouth they like, you help them make their decision.”
Doc Popcorn is one chain that’s been able to tap into mall shopper psychology. The company uses enticing smells to draw diners in, a clear view of the popping process to get them interested, and free samples to get them hooked. By letting kids have samples and offering mom the option of sharing a bag, operators practically guarantee a sale.
“We make sure mom gets exactly what she wants,” founder Rob Israel says. “We get the kids cups if she only wants to buy one bag. We didn’t just give away a little bit of popcorn—we saved mom’s day.”
“The average visit to a shopping center is 82 minutes. If we can extend that somehow, that’s great.”
Another strategic concern is presentation. Kincheloe says he’s been able to get clients a 3-5% check boost simply by subtly emphasizing freshness. The trick is to use props, like prominently displayed produce, strung-up sausages, or wheels of cheese. This display gives a “deli” feel to a food court location and has a way of catching the eye.
“If you have some kind of a bread product, you could make yourself look fresh by having bread for props,” Kincheloe says. “If you’re offering chips, make sure you overstuff it. We did a test out and popped the check average just by giving them that fresh look.”
Of course, as any realtor could tell you, location is key. Since Doc Popcorn is a snack instead of a meal, franchises try to find places away from the main food court. Israel has given significant thought to other elements of placement as well.
“People want to be in natural light,” Israel says. “I think it lends nicely to the way the product is presented. But if you’re in direct sunlight all day, your staff will blow up. We like open ceilings as opposed to overhangs, because you can be viewed from above. Ideally you’re near some draws for families. A decision point is nice, when folks have to pause that’s good for an impulse purchase as well.”
At some malls, location can mean the difference between success and failure. At others, there are so many customers flowing through that a slightly less popular corridor isn’t a make-or-break situation. Israel says the best option is to scout the mall ahead of time and be willing to negotiate.
“It’s not a disadvantage to be in a mall at all,” Israel says. “The challenge is finding good locations and paying the right rent. Those are negotiations that just take place. We’ve built quite a reputation now in the mall, and we’re able to get reasonable rents and good locations.”
While recent years have seen a shift in spending patterns, the mall isn’t going away any time soon. And as long as there are malls, there will be food courts. Dining helps make a mall what it is—a community gathering place, rather than simply a collection of stores.
“The regional mall is still the best option for the delivery of goods and services,” Morris says. “[And] it’s really important to have good food.”
@SEAN, I t was announced today Sears is closing 120 stores. I have a gut feeling they will close Nanuet and sell the property being that the mall is being torn down anyway. If they do that I bet Macys will close rebuild and open as a Bloomingdales. Sears had a very bad holiday season. They cannot compete with lowes and Home Depot on the hard goods side and J CPENNET, KOHLS ETC ON THE CLOTHING AND HOME SIDE.
@Rob, Where have you been!
Slight correction, it’s 120 Sears & K mart stores that are closing. I wonder if White Plains is on the hit list. An employee told me the WP store is not doing well at all.
If the Nanuet store goes, it allows the Paramus park store to fill inn the gap & gives the new Nanuet mall development possibilities.
@SEAN, I heard today that Simon has been after Sears to Change their exterior and Sears has refused them. I think and Simon Property thinks now since this announcement they are going to close being that the mall is being torn down and they know business will be down because of the construction. This location is dead just as macys is. We are going to get an announcement from both stores after New Years I bet.
Happy Holidays
Sean.
@Rob, Happy Holidays to you as well!
1. Did you read the articles I pasted above your last post from Steiner Associates & on the “new food court?” Thaughts?
2. What have I been saying about Nanuet Mall regarding it’s retail & population demos here over the past few years? The only thing that has changed from the time this thred began is that Sears is in big trubble & is in danger of vanishing all together. If you read some retail articles over the past few years, you could see this comeing. Infact there was an article a few months ago that predicted what brands could go away in 2012, & Sears was on the hit list. I cant remember if I posted it or not, but I did read it.
@Rob, No Sears or Kmart’s are on the closure list in the NYC metro region. The nearest closure is in suburban Philadelphia.
Happy New Year!
@SEAN, Happy New Year to you, I saw on news 12 last night that Nanuet Mall got their permit to demolish the mall. I saw about Sears but I had read that they are not cooperating with Simons request to remodel, and i think they will kick them out and buy the property.If this place is going upscale Sears will stick out like a sore thumb.
@Rob, If Sears owns the store in Nanuet outright, it will be hard to kick them out unless Simon can prove that the store is a blight on the community.
As for Sears being out of place in an upscale mall, I present the following…
1. Woodfield
2. Aventura
3. King of Prussia Plaza
4. Oakbrook Center
5. South Coast Plaza
Each of these malls are upscale to very upscale, but do have Sears anchors. It’s rare but not unpressidented.
So now we’ve learned that if a mall closes within four years of a blog post about said closing, that is still considered “soon”. In a typical move, no mention that Nanuet Mall closed on 1/31/2012. Still waiting for Sean and Rob to have a typically one opinion conversations (Sean: Nobudy shopps in rocland. Rob: macy’s sux I want cheap stores and Dillard’s to ride the bus to.) I can only assume they are off talking about Nanuet on the Monmouth Mall thread or any other one except this one.
@Tim, I’m kind of shock it took this long to close, but the importent thing is that something will be happening there.
You know what my opinion was regarding what should have been built at the NM site & it didn’t happen, so what. So there’s no reason to get snarky toward me or Rob even if he tends to follow me from page to page talking about Nanuet Mall.
@Tim, One more thing, I never implied or said nobody shops in Rockland. What I said was there’s little or no insentive for locals to shop in Rockland based on tax savings you get when you go to Jersey. Please get your facts streight & don’t type words on my keybord.
@SEAN, Thanks for telling Tim not to be so nasty. Its been along time for Simon to decide what they were doing ro Nanuet. I did send an email TO GROMACK stating to make it clear to this county to point the finger where blame is due and it was SIMON FOR LETTING THE MALL GET THE WAY IT WAS AND KICKING OUT BOSCOVS. NONE OF THIS WAS PALISADES MALLS FAULT. AS I SAID THEY ALMOST RAN DOWN BERGEN MALL UNTIL VORNADO BROUGHT IT BACK TO LIFE.
@rob, No biggie, just wanted to set things streight around here.
Believe me when I want or need to, I can get snarky on this site. But I NEVER do it at the expense of other posters.
As for Nanuet Mall, I’m trying to figgure out what they can put in there that can be a trip generator & is something that Paramus, White Plains & Yonkers doesn’t already have in great quantity. LL Bean, Fairway or Wegmans perhaps?
@SEAN, BRING BOSCOVS BACK. I WOULD LIKE WEGMENS, FAIRWAY OR STEW LEONARDS BUT WITH STOP AND SHOP ACROSS THE STREE I DONT KNOW. I HAVE A FEELING WHOLE FOODS AND THEY ARE SO EXPENSIVE. LL BEAN AND JOS A BANK DEFINATELY. YOU HEARD OF RIDGE HILL IN YONKERS LORD AND TAYLOR IS OPENING THERE IN THE SPRING. I HAVE A HUNCH MACYS WILL BE TURNED INTO BLOOMINGDALES. THEY WANT TO MAKE THE TWO MALLS DIFFERENT NO DUPLICATE STORES.
@rob, There maybe a Stop & shop across from Nanuet Mall, but it is NOT by any means a destination in the way stew Lennards, Trader Joes, Fairway or Wegmans are. If either of those stores open at NM as an anchor, the supermarket dynamic along 59 changes litterally overnight. For me personally I’m parcial towards Fairway or Trader Joes, but any of them I could see working there. It just depends on what other pieces Simon wants to add.
@SEAN, GO ON UTUBE THERE IS A GUY SINGING ON A GUITAR GOODBYE TO NANUET MALL. I WAS LAUGHING. NEXT THEY WILL HAVE A PRIEST FROM THE LOCAL CHURCH IN NANUET HAVE A MEMORIAL FOR IT, PEOPLE HERE ARE INSANE OVER THIS MALL.
@rob, You must be kidding. Were you partying well before the Super Bowl? Speaking of wich, Giants 21, Patriots 17! THE GIANTS, WIN SUPERBOWL 46!
I’ll check it out.
@SEAN, i saw that yesterday morning my neighbor told me about that utube thing on nanuet mall. i was with my family yeah go giants. it was a close one.
@rob, Was it this? Nanuet Mall (Parody Cover of Phantom Planet’s Galleria). It was weird!
@SEAN, ha ha tell me about it.
@rob, I told you way up in the thred that these Nanuet Mall supporters were out of there minds. If this were GSP or Paramus Park that was closing, then I would be quite concerned. But as it stands Nanuet Mall has a chance to return to a level of stability all be it in a different form.
FYI visited Ridge Hill Village for the first time & it still has quite a way to go before completion. It semes a large portion of it won’t open til sometime in the spring including Lord & Taylor. Interestingly there weren’t any directories or wayfinding signs to be had. Perhaps they’re waiting until more of it opens?
The parking fee is $3.25 for up to 6-hours, but I don’t know what it is after that.
@SEAN, THATS WHY THESE PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS BLAMING PALISADES FOR WHAT HAPPENED TO NANUET THEY HAVE A MENTAL BLOCK. SIMON IS THE ONE TO BE BLAMED AND I MADE THAT CLEAR TO GROMACK THAT HE SHOULD MAKE IT CLEAR OF WHOS TO BLAME. PEOPLE IN THIS AREA TRY ANYTHING TO PUT PALISADES DOWN. ITS TIME FOR THE PEOPLE OF ROCKLAND TO GROW UP.
@rob, I totally agree with you except for one point. It doesn’t matter if Simon owns the mall or not. most of the larger REITs if they were in Simon’s posission would be doing more or less the same thing because open-air centers are the hot trend right now despite the climate reallity of living in the northeast.
FYI mall companies not just Simon are celling marginal malls by the handful or just letting them go back to the lender in the forclosure process as Taubman did with Regency Square in Richmaand VA. I posted that article on another page.
Simon maybe committed to this redevelopment because if they weren’t, why would they waist there time with Clarkstown. They have bigger & better projects on their hands including a two part expantion & redevelopment of King of Prussia Plaza.
@SEAN, I HEARD A NEW RESTAURANT TAKING OVER NAPPA VALLEY GRILLE IN GSP STING BURGER OPENING IN JULY. I HAD A WAITER IN JOES AND THEY TOOK A FEW FROM NAPPA VALLEY GRILLE . THEY LOST BUSINESS AND VERY OVER PRICED FOR THE AREA.
@Rob, There was an article in the Journal News last week in the life & style section on the sudden increase of “better burger” restaurants around here. I guess the trend continues over there in Bergen County. I wonder wich ones Simon will be lining up at the new Nanuet Mall.
For me personally, I hope they get BBP like Bergen Town Center & Roosevelt Field. I think those burgers are out of this world. Five Guys just doesn’t do it for me, but I do think the fries there are excelent.
@rob, FYI there was an article about Belk online yesterday. They are spending $75 Million in 2012 on store remoddles & $120 Million in 2013 & 2014. However no new stores are planned in that timeframe.
@SEAN, hi SEAN THANKS FOR THE INFO. I SHOP THEIR WEB UNTIL I GET DOWN TO THEIR RALEIGH NC STORE. I LIKE THEM BETTER THAN MACYS AND REMIND ME OF FILENES. SOMETIMES MY SISTER PICKS ME UP THINGS IN BELK ALSO. I DO NOT THINK ANY DEPT STORES ARE OPENING NEW STORES EXCEPT LORD AND TAYLOR IN RIDGE HILL IN YONKERS.
@Rob, Have you gone to the construction site to see what’s happening at Nanuet Mall? I hope with the favorable weather we have had this winter, construction would be moving rapidly.
Went to Menlo Park Mall last weekend to visit a friend who was transfered there after the store in Paramus closed. The only serious vacancy was Coldwater Creek, although there were about a half dozen other empty spaces including a pair in the food court. That’s nothing to get concerned over.
@SEAN, what paramus mall was that paramus park or gsp. all i have seen that they roped off but no action yet at the nanuet mall.
@Rob, It was GSP, sorry. Well at least something happened at Nanuet, I wonder how much longer Clarkstown will continue to drag there colective feet on this project.
As much as I know you dislike Simon, keep in mind they didn’t have to put up with the nonsence comeing from Clarkstown officials. Look at what Pyramid has had to deal with over the past decade & change regarding what they can & cant do with Palisades.
I need to be clear on something, & that is I’m not giving Palisades nore Pyramid management a pass on how they do business. The Costco look is very old & tired & something needs to be done about it ASAP before the entire customer base says ba-bye.
If you are interested, I posted an article on the Freehold Raceway page called “Inside the Chinese Box” from 2007. Despite the age, everything in it is still current.
@SEAN, YOU MEAN BJS AT PALISADES. I THINK THEY ARE LOSING THEIR NICHE. COSTCO IN NANUET IS MORE POPULAR, I DONT THINK BJS IN PARAMUS DOES WELL EITHER. WELL YOU KNOW WHAT PYRAMID NEEDS TO DO IS FIX UP PALISADES BEFORE SHOPS AT NANUET COMES. THEY REALLY ARE DRAGGING THEIR FEET ON NANUET MALL. THERE IS A CLARKSTOWN MEETING TO THE PUBLIC IN NEW CITY WED NIGHT AT 7 .30 I MAY GO.CONCERNING NANUET MALL.
@Rob, I ment that Palisades looks like a Costco & wasn’t refering to BJ’s.
How was the meeting.
@SEAN, THE MEETING IS THIS COMING WED FEB 29 2012. OH I DIDNT KNOW YOU MEANT THE MALL ITSELF. WELL THEY WONT DO ANYTHING TO THE OUTSIDE BUT IF THEY TRY IMPROVE THE INSIDE I WOULD BE SATISFIED.
It is unfortunate that the Nanuet Mall has not done well. But it is even more unfortunate that they are tearing [the majority of] it down. Even if it is in an effort to revitalize the mall, I would have much rather seen the mall structure itself preserved, and maybe repurposed. Maybe investing in green technology would have given it the quote-unquote lift/advantage it needed to compete with the other nearby malls. Not that I am a big fan of malls in general, but I do think the Nanuet Mall had potential–potential that could have been realized without the need for a drastic demolition.
@Rob, The Shops at Nanuet to become outdoor mall
Kathy Kahn | Feb 24, 2012
Demolition of the mall is underway
Shoppers and neighboring businesses on Route 59 have watched what used to be known as the Nanuet Mall slowly decay as the Palisades Center Mall in West Nyack prospered at its expense.
When it opened in 1980, the Nanuet Mall was a destination. When Simon Property Group bought the one-million-square-foot shopping center in 1998, business was still booming. That same year, however, the Palisades Mall opened, a 130-acre mega-mall just four miles away.
Palisades, owned by Pyramid Cos. and one of the eight largest malls in the U.S., proved very attractive to shoppers, a four-story complex with 200 stores and a multiplex cinema, including an I-MAX theatre.
Before long, stores that had been staples in Nanuet were gone. Boscov’s closed in 2008, and that was the beginning of the end. The Shops at Nanuet closed in January.
But Simon, headquartered in Indianapolis, has not given up on Rockland County. America’s largest real estate company will demolish the existing mall, leaving Macy’s and Sears standing, and create an outdoor mall similar to Cross County Shopping Center in Yonkers.
Macy’s and Sears will remain where they are. Both will be open for business during the rebuilding process. Once the outdoor mall is open, shoppers will have access to Macy’s and Sears only via a ramp that will take them to the stores’ only entrances, which will be on their top floors. Shoppers will not have access to the stores from the rest of the mall. A new building, housing a fitness center and multiplex theatre, is planned for the space between Macy’s and Sears.
Hundreds of trees, benches and outdoor cafes are planned for The Shops at Nanuet, which is expected to break ground in June once demolition of the old mall is completed. Parking will be reconfigured to give way to pedestrian traffic. A 60,000 square foot grocer is expected to be a major anchor. While Simon is not saying, many locals hope it will either become Trader Joe’s or Fairway.
Simon is also not saying what the cost of the renovation is, nor what tenants it hopes to attract. “Simon, as a rule, does not share the cost of its renovations or its tenants until it has at least 75 percent of them signed up,” said Alex Gromack, supervisor of the town of Clarkstown, the project’s lead agency.
The new Shops at Nanuet is scheduled to open in 2013. The town of Clarkstown has been holding informational meetings with Simon’s planners during the course of the renovation. The next one is Feb. 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the Town of Clarkstown municipal offices
Is this what passes for good journalism from the Westchester County Business Journal? Shameful!
@SEAN, THEY ARE STARTING TO KNOCK DOWN THE BOSCOVS BUILDING TODAY AT NANUET MALL.. ITS GOING TO BE INTERSTING. AS FOR SEARS WE WILL SEE HOW THEY WILL GO IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS. J.CPENNEY I AM VERY SOSO WITH THIS ALSO. IT WILL BE INTERSTING TO SEE ON HOLIDAY WEEKENDS MOTHERS AND FATHERS DAY BACK TO SCHOOL AND THE HOLIDAYS. HOW WELL THEY WILL DO.
@Rob, Yes, we shall see how things play out. Did you read the article above? Notice the mistakes including the date Nanuet Mall opened. What a poor excuse for journalism.
@SEAN, DID YOU HEAR ON THE EXPANSION OF ROOSEVELT FIELD AND ADDING NEIMAN MARCUS.SEE I BELIEVE SIMON WAS FORCED TO DO SOMETHING BY THE COUNTY OF ROCKLAND. THEY DID TAKE QUITE ALONG TIME TO DO SOMETHING WITH NANUET. NEWPORTE MALL AND ROOSEVELT FIELD ARE SIMONS MONEY MAKER MALLS. SO SIMON PROPERTY DIDNT REALLY CARE ABOUT NANUET MALL PROBABLY UNTIL CLARKSTOWN FORCED THEM TO DO SOMETHING. PARAMUS PROBABLY DID ALSO WITH BERGEN MALL UN TIL THEY GOT VORNADO TO BUY THAT MALL.
@Rob,Wasn’t aware of Neiman Marcus opening at Roosevelt Field, but that store was slated for a Taubman mall called The Mall at Oyster Bay that has been in litigation for years. Lord & Taylor took Neiman’s spot while Nordstrom was there from the beginning.
Why are you jumping to conclusions on Simon’s intent with Nanuet Mall? Basing your line of reasoning on how Simon invests it’s capital in it’s best performing centers is not a strong arguement since all REITS more or less do the same thing,. To put Nanuet in to the discussion, part of the problem lies in Simons court while the rest lays with Clarkstown & their inability to get this project moving in a timely manner. Keep in mind that these are the same officials who are letting Palisades center fall into obscurity with the very customer base who are needed to support such a large mall. If Palisades falls on hard times, you & all other Rocklanders will end up paying for it with a massive property tax increase. Meanwhile Rockland is taking into consideration dropping out of the MTA region speaking of taxes, so it semes they are ending up on the wrong side of several finantial issues at once.
@SEAN, I AM NOT JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS ITS TRUE SIMON HAS NO PROBLEM KEEPING UP THEIR HIGHER VOLUME MALLS SUCH AS ROOSEVELT FIELD THE WESTCHESTER AND NEWPORTE MALL. I WAS RECENTLY AT NEWPORTE ITS REALLY A DECENT LOOKING MALL VERY BUSY BEING NEAR NYC. SIMON PROPERTY NEVER KEPT INTEREST IN NANUET. WHATS PALISADES HAST TO DO WITH IT THE ONLY REASON PALISADES WOULD FALL ON HARD TIMES IS WE HAVE RESIDENTS OF ROCKLAND WITH MENTAL BLOCKS OF NANUET MALL. BY NOT PATRONIZING PALISADES ITS ONLY HURTING THEMSELVES TAXX WISE.
@rob, What you are describing is what REITS like Simon & others do day in & day out. I’ve said this to you before. This is not a Simon issue as much as it is a local & regional problem since most real estate furms if they owned Nanuet Mall, would face the same resistive community pressures.
You live there, I don’t & yet I’m a bit surprised you aren’t recognising the problem. The fact Simon is even keeping this property after what Clarkstown has been doing with putting Palisades through the ringer with development limitations, I’m shocked that Simon or anyone would bother with such a headache.
You asked what does this have to do with Palisades? I figgured you knew the answer to that, practicly everything since it all goes back to the public officials who run the town who can approve all development proposals.
As for conparisons to Bergen Mall, yes Simon did aquire it & sold it to Vornado, but you leave out one importent fact. Of all of the Paramus malls, Bergen was & still is one of the weaker properties despite what recent aditions that were included such as Target & WholeFoods. You could say the same for The Fashon Center with Fairway, but they still have Lord & Taylor as a strong anchor.
@SEAN, I GET WHAT U MEAN. I THOUGHT U LIVED IN ROCKLAND. I HAVE TO SAY THIS FOR PALISADES THEY AT LEAST TRY TO REPLACE ANT EMPTY STORE QUICKLY, IAM FINDING THOUGH ITS CATERING TOO MUCH TO KIDS STORE WISE MORE SO THAN ADULTS. WELL I HAVE ALWAYS SAID IF IT WASNT FOR THIS 11 YEAR FIGHT OVER PALISADES IT WOULD LOOK LIKE MALL OF AMERICA. SEE WHEN SIMON OWNED BERGEN MALL THEY NEVER ATTEMPTED TO MODERNIZE IT TO KEEP UP WITH GSP AND PARAMUS PARK.
@Rob, The reason Palisades semes to be aimed at kids & young families is because that is the market that still shops there. When Nanuet reopens, that will be a completely different shopping base. Think in terms of the malls in White Plains, Cross County & Ridge Hill in Yonkers or Riverside, GSP, Bergen TC, Fashon center & Paramus Park. Each one fills a different market nitch. The question is how large of a nitch can Nanuet Mall reasonably fill & what nitch remains for Palisades outside of the big box retailers. Those are big questions for Simon, Pyramid & Clarkstown to answer.
Look at Paramus for a moment… each center fills it’s market segment reasonably well & there’s ZERO chance of a mall there becomeing dead despite all of the closures in the past few years. There’s so many good store spaces avaleable that it’s only a matter of time until they are reabsorbed.
Two obvious flies in Nanuet’s resurgence are Sears already discussed here & on the JC Penny page & Macy’s. What does Eddie Lampert do? & Will Macy’s continue to keep two stores in a market that bearly supports one? Those are serious questions that need to be answered in order for the retail real estate market in Rockland to keep on moving foward.
@SEAN, YOUR RIGHT WELL MY ASSUMPTION THAT IF SHOPS AT NANUET WILL BE UPSCALE MACYS WILL DECIDE TO HAVE EACH OF THEIR STORES HERE MACYS AT PALISADES AND BLOOMINGDALES AT NANUET SO THEY CAN STILL OWN THEIR PROPERTY. SEARS IS A BIG QUESTION. WE ALL KNOW THE NAME PARAMUS ALONE THAT ALL RETAILERS KNOW ITS THE SHOPPING MECCA OF NEW JERSEY ESPECIALLY GSP.
@Rob, To tell you the truth, I’m not sure if Macy’s will convert the Nanuet store to Bloomingdales since Riverside has a rather large store to begin with. I just wonder how large the market is for a store like that in a county that small.
Saw the article on Neiman Marcus opening at Roosevelt Field in the WSJ. The store isn’t scheduled to open until 2015. In adition a new food hall will be built as part of a 100,000 square foot expantion. I’m trying to figgure where this expantion will be constructed since the mall is flanked by garages & has a few tight corners making redevelopment difficult. Although expanding off the front of the mall between Macy’s & Nordstrom maybe possible if the garage & bus station were removed & relocated.
@Rob, Take a look at this article as a contrast for Nanuet Mall.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Open-air malls a hit with South Florida shoppers
By Justine Griffin, Sun Sentinel
Open air malls are gaining favor in South Florida, forcing some aging enclosed malls to add their own outdoor shopping space.
A new enclosed mall has not opened in the United States since 2006 and some analysts question whether South Florida will ever see another one.
Instead, developers have built a series of outdoor retail centers that shoppers have increasingly embraced.
“Indoor malls are becoming dinosaurs and shoppers are seeing this,” said Debra Sinkle Kolsky, president of Redevco Management in Miami. She said the outdoor centers are like small downtown areas in new communities that don’t have any.
The newest open air mall will be the replacement for the Palm Beach Mall, in West Palm Beach. Built as an indoor mall in 1967, it will be demolished in April to make way for a $150 million, 1.1 million-square-foot outlet center scheduled to reopen in fall 2013.
Outdoor centers attract shoppers because they are often smaller, making them easy to navigate on foot, developers say. Shoppers have the option to park very close to stores and can drive through and around the center to see what it has to offer.
Andrea Riffle, a shopper from Weston, likes the Weston Town Center and the Shops at Pembroke Gardens. “It’s a shame to be locked in a huge building with no windows when we live in such a great climate,” she said.
“Parking always seems to be easier,” she added. “Generally outdoor plazas have several small lots around the shopping area rather than a couple of big lots.”
Although store construction has slowed in South Florida, outdoor centers are still coming out of the ground. Malls built in the past five years include The Shops at Pembroke Gardens, opened in 2007, Promenade at Coconut Creek, opened in 2008, and The Delray Marketplace, which plans to open this fall.
The Mall at Wellington Green, which was built in 2001, was among the last of the enclosed centers to open in South Florida.
Jason Samreny, vice president of leasing of Kite Realty Group, the developer behind the Delray Marketplace, said stores are only part of the outdoor center formula. “The trend is to incorporate a tenant mix of retailers, restaurants and entertainment in an area accessible to neighborhoods.”
Enclosed malls aren’t dead yet. Some South Florida malls are trying to get in on the outdoor trend by creating semi-outdoor dining and shopping areas.
The Town Center at Boca Raton built an outdoor dining expansion on the south side of the mall in 2007. Aventura Mall, Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens and Sawgrass Mills also have outdoor villages.
Even when developers propose an enclosed mall, cities can balk. Developer Kathy Sawin approached Coconut Creek about building an enclosed shopping center. “The city didn’t approve it. It wasn’t what they wanted,” Sawin said.
So the Promenade at Coconut Creek was redesigned to look more like a village. “These open-air centers are town centers in places that otherwise wouldn’t have a downtown area at all.”
Is the weather really that great in south Florida? Also what is this myth regarding outdoor centers & the ability to always get parking in front of every store you want to shop at.
@SEAN, I AM SURE FLORIDIANS DONT MIND IT. YOU KNOW THERE ARE SOME HERE THAT ARENT CRAZY ABOUT IT BECAUSE OF COLD RAIN OR SNOW CONDITIONS ,BUT YOU KNOW THE PEOPLE OF ROCKLAND ARE NEVER SATISFIED WHEN MALLS HERE GET BUILT OR CHANGE. IN RALEIGH NORTH CAROLINA THE TRIANGLE TOWN CENTER IS HALF OUTDOOR AND HALF INDOOR WHICH IS A NICE MALL. CRABTREE VALLEY MALL IN RALEIGH IIS FULLY ENCLOSED.
@Rob, I thaught the article would serve as a great contrast for Nanuet. Raleigh Durham does have seasons unlike Miami, but both are quite humid in the summer. This is the contrast I’m refering too for these outdoor lifestyle centers. Too hot in the summer in the triangle & too cold in the winter in the northeast.
I’ll bet you $100 once the new Nanuet Mall opens, the locals will go nuts the minute they cant park directly in front of every store they want to & need to walk a few yards to get there. It’s to far! It’s to hot! There maybe an inch of snow next week! Well you get the picture.
@SEAN, I AGREE WITH YOU. IM CURIOUS OF WHEN THEY ANNOUNCE WHAT STORE WILL BE COMING THEY SAID THEY ARE NOT DUPLICATING WHATS AT PALISADES. I HOPE FAIRWAY WILL COME HERE.
@Rob, I’ll second that. You think Wegmans would have any interest in opening in Nanuet? I mention Wegmans because My father went to one in Alantown PA last weekend & was raving about it. Regional supermarket companies such as Fairway, Whole Foods, The Fresh Market & Wegmans are really giving the national chains a serious run for their money. As an example, newer ShopRight stores are copying elements from the Whole Foods Playbook including dineing areas, fresh food stations & even the color palate.
@Rob, FYI, the nearest Wegmans is at 15 Woodbridge Center Drive Woodbridge NJ, 07095. Other New Jersey locations include Ocean, Princeton, Cherry Hill & Bridgewater.
@Rob, Lord & Taylor as well as TJ Max & several other stores are opening at Ridge Hill next Month.
After visiting Roosevelt Field, my guess is as I posted above, the expantion may go off the front of the mall since there’s a lot of space at that end of the property once the garage is removed & the bus stops were relocated.
@Rob, Haven’t herd anything recently on Nanuet’s redevelopment, but I think something will be comeing down Route 59 sooner rather than later now that construction is under way. I wonder wich cinema circuit & market will sign on.
@Rob, There’s no recent news on Nanuet Mall. The last date an article or news item was published dates to Febuary 1 2012. There’s more news regarding The Gallery at Westbury Plaza than Nanuet Mall at this point.
@SEAN, DID YOU SEE THAT BEST BUY IS CLOSING 50 STORES AND LAYING OFF 400 PEOPLE. IT WAS ANNOUNCED TODAY.
@Rob, yeah I just read a pear of articles on that, thanks. Even though they focused on Best Buy’s earnings as part of the problem, nowhere was the fact that most big box stores got way too big & now they’re becoming a drag on profitability.
If you research articles on Wal*mart from a few years ago, they indicated that the supercenter would be the future for most stores. Woops! something changed rather quickly. Oil prices, the internet, population movements away from borring suburbia & towards more urban living, higher unemployment, a massive housing crisis or some combonation of these & other factors are causing these stores to become white elephants in greater numbers than dead malls.
@Rob, Here’s an article from RT that indirectly proves my point above.
Retail Construction Starts to Stay at Record Lows until Debt Maturities are Resolved
Mar 29, 2012 12:52 PM, By Elaine Misonzhnik, Senior Associate Editor
The recent opening of Taubman Centers’ new mall in Salt Lake City might have marked a nice symbolic moment for the retail real estate industry, but it’s not about to usher in a new era of construction abandon.
In spite of a slight rebound in retail real estate fundamentals, U.S. developers still feel skittish about investing in new construction projects, forecasts from several different research sources show.
The CoStar Group, a Washington, D.C.-based firm, estimates that in 2012, a total of 21.4 million sq. ft. of new retail space will enter the market, a record low figure, according to Suzanne Mulvee, CoStar’s senior real estate economist. Mulvee notes that next year promises to be only slightly better in terms of deliveries of new space, largely due to the fact that retailers are not expanding the way they once had.
“This is a paradigm shift, a shift to growing revenue primarily through online sales versus growing revenue through physical locations,” she notes.
As a result of the difficulty of getting tenants to pre-lease space in new construction projects, lenders prefer to stay away from retail construction loans, while developers don’t want to invest as much equity as they need to put shovels in the ground. Exceptions can be found only in core cities with strong income growth and substantial tenant interest in opening new stores, according to Bill Rose, director of the national retail group at Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, an Encino, Calif.-based brokerage firm.
Marcus & Millichap forecasts 32 million sq. ft. in new retail completions this year, down from approximately 35 million sq. ft. in 2011.
“In strong gateway markets, there is an appetite for financing new projects—provided they’ve got a good credit tenant base,” Rose says. “There are projects getting financed in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, New York and Houston, but they need a good story and a good tenant mix. If you are saying to the lender ‘can we get a deal done somewhere in Wisconsin?’ the answer is ‘Probably not.’”
Light at the end of the tunnel?
In addition, most of the centers getting built today involve necessity retail—grocery-anchored shopping centers, centers anchored by drug stores and discount stores and net leased fast food restaurants, Rose adds. Construction of new malls and lifestyle centers remains on hold. But today’s developers are cautious on all projects, not just those reliant on discretionary spending dollars.
Reis, a New York City-based research firm, estimates that there will be 8 million sq. ft. in new neighborhood and community shopping centers delivered to the market in 2012. The figure will be higher than the annual average of 4.7 million sq. ft. of new construction in 2010 and 2011, according to Victor Calanog, vice president of research and economics. But the prior 10-year average for annual completions of neighborhood and community shopping centers was 29 million sq. ft., he points out.
“Developers are certainly paying attention to weak fundamentals with their hesitancy in bringing product to market,” he notes.
In fact, new construction will remain anemic until the industry works through the record amount of debt maturities scheduled to come due between 2012 and 2016, according to Rose. Given the hundreds of millions of square feet of retail space that was delivered in 2006, 2007 and 2008 (approximately 507 million in all, in CoStar’s estimates), there is no shortage of available space for retailers to choose from right now. That means that in the near term, new project completions are not likely to rise above the 35 million sq. ft. a year figure, in Rose’s view. Eventually, however, the industry will see an uptick in new construction.
“That will occur post-2016, when all the legacy debt will clear the system,” Rose says.
Yeah we’ll see,debt can be a funny thing in what choices are made.
@Rob, Interesting wrightup on Macy’s.
Macy’s transformation
Alex PalmerApril 01 2012
This spring, Macy’s will begin a $400 million renovation of its flagship Herald Square store in New York City. Touted as the largest store renovation in U.S. history, the transformation reflects where Macy’s marketing is headed as a whole, with the company eagerly embracing the possibilities of new technology, while carefully preserving the elements that made it an icon in the first place.
In just the past three years, Macy’s has made major changes in how it approaches its marketing, reorganizing its marketing department, putting a greater emphasis on local targeting, while aggressively incorporating mobile, social and e-commerce into its channel mix.
“There’s a famous quote from Mayor Michael Bloomberg that, ‘If you have not been to Macy’s, you have not been to New York,’” says Martine Reardon, CMO of Macy’s. “There is a halo effect on this building that permeates out to all of our other locations.”
The retailer has also recently made a number of executive moves, with Reardon taking over as CMO at the beginning of February. She assumes the role from Peter Sachse, who moved into the position of chief stores officer after Ron Klein retired from that position. Prior to her new role, Reardon had served as EVP of marketing and advertising, having risen through the ranks at Federated Department Stores and Macy’s Inc.
Macy’s many bold choices seem to have paid off. The company’s revenue has increased for four straight quarters, with a 5.5% increase in its most recent earnings report, and with consistently strong monthly same-store sales numbers.
The Herald Square makeover is the latest in the company’s ambitious plans and the most tangible demonstration of how the brand will balance fast-changing technology, while showcasing its 154-year history.
Among the innovations underway are interactive store directories that allow visitors to find what it is they are seeking, an enhanced signage system and digital product information. Live video feeds of Macy’s events throughout the country will be broadcast in-store. Customers will be able to download a mobile app, which they can use to guide them through the landmark.
“Technology is a big focus for us,” Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren said during a press preview of the renovation plans last November. These updates are partly a play to get younger shoppers into the store, with Lundgren adding that, “We’re focusing on millennials because they’re huge.”
Indeed, a new Impulse apparel and accessories department, targeted toward 13- to 30-year-old shoppers, will also be part of the transformation. The upgrades, which will continue in phases through the fall of 2015, will also include a 100,000-square-foot expansion of the store’s selling space, a new hall of luxury brands and the creation of the world’s largest women’s shoe department, which will feature as many as 300,000 pairs of shoes on any given day. The new shoe department will be accompanied by a special shoe locator system.
While the renovation marks an ambitious effort to bring mobile and location-based marketing into the Macy’s experience, the company has already been innovative in its use of the new technology in recent years. Macy’s was one of the first stores to partner with the Shopkick app, offering rewards and offers to its customers for walking into the store. Last September it became an early adopter of the Google Wallet payment system.
Last spring, the retailer introduced Backstage Pass, which integrated Quick Response (QR) codes into in-store promotions as well as print and online. A store guest can snap a code and get a 30-second video of Tommy Hilfiger talking about spring fashion trends, or Carlos Santana playing guitar (while also promoting his new line of shoes and handbags). Sean “Diddy” Combs, Martha Stewart, Kenneth Cole and Rachel Ray are other style mavens that visitors can access.
“We were like, how do we bring celebrity inspiration and tips and advice to customers at the point of purchase in the store? Well, we could use mobile,” says Claire Capeci, global business director of JWT New York, which developed the Backstage Pass program with the retailer. “That’s where Martine and Macy’s said, ‘Let’s just do it.’ Even if it’s not something that a million people interact with out of the gate, we know they will [over time].”
With the rapid adoption of smartphones, Reardon says the access that visitors have to download the QR codes has doubled since the company began the program. However, while smartphone use has exploded, Macy’s sees perhaps even greater potential in the surging e-commerce potential of tablets.
“What we’re finding is that as much as people are using the mobile device to research and gain information about certain things, more purchasing is happening on the tablet, and it’s simply because the canvas is so much better. You can see it and it’s easier to use,” Reardon says. “It absolutely is where the future is going.”
Digital inspiration
Macy’s continues to be a leader in its use of technology and the innovative ways it has used it to get its marketing message out to consumers.
“They have the absolute right mentality about how to think about all these new channels. It’s an attitude of ‘Let’s experiment, let’s rapidly improve and/or fix,” says W. Sean Ford, COO and CMO of Zmags, which develops interactive mobile content and catalogs for retailers. “That attitude is almost unique among retailers. They seem to be fearless.”
Zmags released a study in February that found many retailers have yet to take full advantage of the potential of tablets and smartphones.
With a tablet site that sticks closely with its standard website, Macy’s still has work to do in maximizing mobile offerings, Ford says. However, he points to the company’s Believe-o-Magic app, launched during the holidays last year, which uses augmented reality to allow shoppers to take photos of themselves with the characters from the Macy’s “Yes Virginia” Christmas special, as an effective customer engagement tool.
“It is specifically tied to something their customers would readily identify with — Christmas — and has the interactive camera piece to it that connects them back to the in-store experience, along with the touch elements, creating a really full experience,” Ford says. “They recognize that this is a circular system that we live in — all the offline activity is starting to connect back to the digital environment.”
He adds that consumer research conducted by Zmags about incorporating digital into the in-store experience revealed that consumers most often responded to “a sense of inspiration.” Macy’s has used digital marketing to create this sense of inspiration better than perhaps any other retailer, Ford argues.
This deeper brand message has allowed the company to avoid having to resort to bombarding customers with promotions and special offers to pull them into the store.
“They have a limited amount of promotions, just enough to keep the consumer engaged,” says Jharonne Martis-Olivo, a retail analyst at Thomson Reuters. “Some would be Saturday-only or they send an email, if you are a subscriber. They will send you an email offering a 40% discount just for the day.”
She contrasts Macy’s limited approach to promotions with JCPenney, which until recently would send out email blasts often more than once a day. JCPenney’s recent overhaul of its marketing and promotion plan, simplifying it and cutting down significantly on the volume of offers, is something of a validation of Macy’s more targeted messaging.
This “inspiration” message can be seen in how Macy’s utilizes celebrity partners, such as Kelly Osbourne and Madonna’s daughter Lourdes, who have helped draw pre-teen and teenage customers into the stores.
Last year, it began “designer collaborations” with well-known or up-and-coming designers, launching exclusive fashion lines at Macy’s price points. This message is emphasized through digital channels, connecting the message to the specific department through which the offer is being run. The latest collaboration, doo.ri, launched with designer Doo-Ri Chung, was rolled out under Macy’s Impulse sub-brand.
The company’s embrace of digital channels has streamlined nicely with this fashion and entertainment focus. This spring, Macy’s will be launching a tribute to Brazil, creating several in-store shops to showcase the style, music, art and design of the country, including a major party to launch the event, featuring Brazilian stars and live streaming across the country.
The retailer is also using the events as a way to attract domestic and international tourists, encouraging visitors to go to the company’s visitmacysusa.com site to plan a customized personal trip, and download a Savings Pass Voucher good for a 10% discount for out-of- state or out-of-country visitors.
Online, Macy’s mstylelab site offers an online destination specifically for teens. The microsite features fashion trend videos and online shopping. It also includes m.mix, where visitors can find information about new bands, music downloads, events and the Web series Wendy, which ran last year.
The live streaming effort, allowing in-store events to be seen online as well as in other Macy’s stores, was launched in September of last year for New York’s Fashion’s Night Out with 14 different cameras filming the Herald Square flagship, compiling roughly an hour-and-a-half performance of music and entertainment.
Data-driven
At the center of all of these marketing efforts, Macy’s puts particular focus on gathering data and learning about its customers. Macy’s boasts a customer database of more than 30 million households, many of which have been shopping with Macy’s for years.
This allows for an exceptional level of tailoring of the company’s messages. During the National Retail Federation’s Big Show in mid-January of this year, Macy’s Sachse described how the company personalized its materials to the point that it might send out 500,000 unique versions of a single direct mail catalog.
“If you think about a 32-page or a 64-page book, my book might look very different from [someone else’s],” Reardon says. “I’m not such a great homemaker, but I am a cosmetic, shoe and jewelry person, so what you might see in my book would be all of those categories,” she explains.
This data mining is aided by the analytics company dunnhumbyUSA, which Macy’s has worked with for the past three years, particularly on the My Macy’s localizing efforts.
“With a business this size, the data they have on their customers is mind-boggling,” Capeci says. “They’re one-to-one marketing.”
While Macy’s had been doing this with direct mail, it has now launched it in the digital space as well, under “Intelligent Display.” Macy’s can track what customers browse on the company website, what categories they are most interested in, then have a display ad in that category appear as they are browsing on another site.
“We know she looked at something. There was a category she loved. She wanted to look at a watch, maybe she didn’t buy it that minute because she had to go and do something else, so we’ll remind her, ‘You know you liked this watch,’” Reardon says. “The more that we can learn about her, the better off she is, because now we’re giving her the things that are important to her.”
Reardon emphasizes that Macy’s approach to marketing is “integrated” and “holistic,” touching on every channel in Macy’s marketing approach. This can often mean reaching customers with marketing messages on several channels simultaneously.
She points to the tendency of consumers today who may be sitting on the couch watching television, while holding a tablet or smartphone in hand. An ad on television, or before a streamed show on Hulu, may lead the consumer to do further research about a sale or product on one of her devices.
“They are leaning more toward a customer-centric view with their user data, working with dunnhumby and getting away from that one-size-fits-all approach,” says Margie Chiu, SVP at Merkle. “Everybody talks about customer-centric marketing, so it’s really exciting to see that they really are taking on that approach and kind of living that.”
Local approach
More than perhaps any other retailer, this customer-centricity puts a particular emphasis on geography for Macy’s, which completely revamped its merchandising and marketing approach in early 2009 to focus more on local and regional targeting — a program it dubbed My Macy’s.
Dividing its more than 800 stores into 69 districts, the marketing department empowered individuals in each area to make key purchasing decisions. While national marketing decisions came from Reardon’s New York team, choices were shaped by specific input from the local level.
Reardon sums up the My Macy’s approach as “think nationally but act locally.” The special event team has locations throughout the country, which tailor programs to appeal to regional interests. Just as merchants and planners customize the product offerings for local stores, the marketing team will send out geo-targeted marketing messages.
“The Kentucky Derby, although it’s a national Photography by Bill Bernstein event, it’s really important for Kentucky and may not be so important for Miami,” Reardon says. “We try to make sure we sort some merchandise around that and then do lots of events around that as well.”
This goes for the channel mix as well. Some markets respond strongly to newspaper advertisements, others are “all about digital,” Reardon says. Macy’s may shoot a campaign, but format it differently depending on what communication method makes sense for that region. Reardon says the company is investing more now in customizing events and marketing channels than they were a year ago.
“They have to deal with things at several different levels to be able to maintain national branding and marketing, and do things on the more local basis,” says Jack Plunkett, CEO of retail consultancy Plunkett Research. “Tailoring local newspaper ads or tailoring direct mail to the local region or market is something they have really taken seriously.”
Plunkett says he believes that the big challenge going forward for department stores in general will be trying to remain relevant to the consumer when they can browse and buy online. That means carrying more exclusive items, offering better expertise in the store, and building relationships with customers at the local level, Plunkett says.
“I think we’ll see more of that monitoring in store, on the Internet and in every channel you can communicate with people on,” says Tom Redd, VP of strategic communications in the retail industry business unit of software company SAP. “It’s taking a different approach to how the store’s run. The people at the store, we need to listen to [them], because they are the ones closest to the shopper, and have more input than we have seen at any point in the past.”
Redd is on the board of the Terry Lundgren Center for Retailing at the University of Arizona. He describes visiting the Macy’s store in Tucson and seeing how the company has totally redone it to cater to people coming in from Mexico to visit, shop and go home at the end of the day. He says the store offers a very different mix of merchandise and level of presentation than would be seen in another region.
“I was just on Macys.com and they asked for my birth date, so I’m probably going to get a birthday offer. They mapped my store location. They’ve got click behavior because I just clicked on a coupon that I can use for President’s Day,” says Arthur Sweetser, CMO at marketing agency 89 Degrees. “All of that is feeding into far more behavior-based customization than just ‘Let’s take the circular we published and send it to 10 million households.”
Keeping the past alive
As Macy’s moves aggressively to incorporate new technology into its stores and marketing, it has also gone to great lengths to preserve and even resurrect elements of the brand’s history and legacy.
For the Herald Square store renovation, this has meant protecting the wooden escalators that have been serving customers since the store opened in 1902. The windows along Broadway, 34th Street and Seventh Avenue that have been covered for decades will be opened, while awnings and canopies reminiscent of the original building will be reinstated.
“With the awnings out there, and to blend that together with the technologies of today, you’re creating a shopping environment for a broader range of people,” Redd says. “You have the Gen Y group that can shop there, and you’ve got another group that you can slowly push forward.”
Redd says he sees this as indicative of a broader strategy to showcase the nostalgic assets of the brand, particularly with the older generations, while moving them into the use of mobile, video and other new technologies. He describes this as an approach that other retailers are likely to imitate, even those that may not have a 110-year-old store with which to do it.
More broadly, this is the strategy that can be seen at play in the company’s prominent “Believe” holiday campaign. Since 2008, when Macy’s pledged to donate a dollar to the Make-A-Wish Foundation for every letter to Santa Claus that it received (eventually raising $1 million in its first year), the retailer has reprised this campaign, inspired by the legendary “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” editorial that ran in The New York Sun in 1897.
Even for a campaign that emphasizes the brand’s nostalgic connection to Christmas, the movie Miracle on 34th Street, and its long-running Thanksgiving Day Parade, each year the company’s holiday marketing has charted new territory. In 2009, Reardon and her team built on the original idea with an animated special on CBS and sent Macy’s Santa Claus to events across the country as part of a national “Santa Tour.”
In 2011, it made mobile a more central part of the campaign with the Believe-o-Magic app, and also allowed customers to upload their photos with the “Yes, Virginia” characters to the company’s Facebook page.
This strategy of taking a campaign or brand message that works and building on it, or getting more targeted in applying it, epitomizes what Capeci calls Macy’s “smart experimentation,” qualifying the experimental spirit many attribute to the brand.
The campaign has proven to be enduringly potent, with the company reporting that same-store sales increased 4.8% in November and 6.2% in December. It was also strong on the cause marketing side, raising $1.7 million for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
My Macy’s follows a similar trajectory, building on what has always been an effective marketing and customer service strategy, while enhancing it with all the technical tools at the company’s disposal. While much about retail is changing, Macy’s prides itself on continuing to also do what’s worked for more than a century and a half.
“The ultimate delivery is what it was like in early retailing, where you walk in and they know your name, your favorite shirt,” Sweetser says. “That’s the ultimate, and that’s great if you can use digital technology to deliver that.”
@SEAN, wow A LONG ARTICLE ON MACYS. WELL I HOPE THEY WILL IMPROVE THEIR PRIVATE LABEL MERCHANDISE AN D DO SOMETHING WITH THE NANUET STORE. THEY REALLY HAVE A HUGE FOCUS ON HERALD SQUARE.
@Rob, Yeah The Macy’s article was rather long, but it gave a nice bit of insight on what their plans are going foward. Some of the changes being made will be done in suburban stores as well as the article pointed out. Harrald Square is where everything will be tested before concepts are rolled out nationwide.
I’m sure the Nanuet Macy’s will receive at least some kind of upgrades now that Simon began construction. What those upgrades will be is unknown, but that store needs a whole host of them & I don’t mean cosmetic upgrades.
That was a long article but very intersting, in the Macy’s I work in, we cater more to the Mexican Market (being in SoCal), we carry IMUSA cookware that has a Mexican theme, Tortilla warmers, molcajetes (volcanic stone mortal and pestles), etc and us who speak Spanish fluently we speak to our customers who speak only Spanish to help them chose their merchandize, we also cater to the wine region, our store, in Temecula, CA is near the area’s wineries so our store carries lots of wine glasses and accesories and a visual display has real (although empty) wine bottles from a local winery and every year we have a wine country theme Christmas tree and being near Camp Pendleton, our women’s store (we’re a split store) carries special ballgowns for the Marine Corp Dance that Camp Pendleton does yearly, our visual team even borrowed a real Marine’s uniform one time to showcase the event, we also partner with local charities and other events so yeah, we might be a national chain but we cater to our local customers
@Nordrike Field, interestingly, I visited the mall in Temecula for the first time in February (to get pictures for Labelscar).
@Nordrike Field, I remember reading that some time after the Federated May merger, Macy’s chose to market each store or sets of stores to the local community or communities where they opperate. This was do to Macy’s getting into PR trouble with residents of several cities when it was perceived that their local department store brand was vanishing. Nowhere was this more evident than Chicago over the Field’s name do to it’s rich history.
@Caldor, Cool, hope you like our mall!
@SEAN, I know, I still miss the Fields name, my uncle and aunt lived in Chicago for 3 years during the 90’s and they would send us Frango mints and other trinkets from Marshall Fields, it was a HUGE mistake for Macy’s to get rid of the Fields name, it should have been kept so it would have been 3 divisions, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Marshall Fields, heck, I don’t even call the State Street store Macy’s, I always refer to it as Marshal Fields
@Nordrike Field,
I’ve always felt they made a mistake with the names and the consolidations. IMHO, they should’ve had three levels of stores, even if they had multiple names, but use the same script for each.
One level would be Bloomingdale’s to compete with Saks and Neiman Marcus. The second level would be Field’s to compete against Von Maur and Nordstrom. The third level would be Macy’s to compete against Bon Ton, Carson’s, and even Kohl’s and Penney’s.
They could’ve even kept some of the regional names that were popular (even bring a few back at the Field’s level [i.e. Hudson’s] since national retailing at that level is less critical). However, three levels would free up Macy’s to be more mass market and allow for Bloomingdale’s to move more upmarket.
@SEAN, WELL SEAN MACYS DIDNT HAVE A FIRE SALE YESTERDAY AFTER THEIR SMALL FIRE IN THE CELLAR IN HERALD SQUARE WEDNESDAY. THEY ARE STARTING TO REMODEL AND MOVING DEPTS.I WAS AMAZED HOW THEY GET 9 FLOORS OF PEOPLE OUT OF THAT STORE. I SEE THE BOSCOVS BUILDING IS TOTALLY DEMOLISHED BUT I THINK THEY ARE IN SLOW MOTION. I AM ANXIOUS TO HEAR WHAT MARKET WILL COME TO NANUET MALL.
@rob, Fire sale? Funny!
I hope Fairway signs on, but Trader Joes or The Fresh Market would also be excelent choices. BTW, speaking of The Fresh Market, visited the Scarsdale store Yesterday. Although I didn’t buy anything, I can tell you the food looks great. They have stuff ready to go such as Pizzas, salads & made to order sandwiches. That bearly scratches the surface on what they are all about. Oddly enough, Trader Joes is only two dores up RT 22.
@Brandon, I like your line of reasoning, however let me add one more level & that would be an outlet store format such as Nordstrom Rack, Sacks Off 5th, Neiman Marcus last call or Bloomingdales Outlet. The Outlets are a hot trend right now & maybe this could be an option to keep some marginal stores open & give them a new lease on life.
No joke intended.
@SEAN, and everyone else; those are some good ideas, they would have 4 level stores, Bloomingdale’s, Fields, Macy’s and Macy or Bloomigdale’s outlet plus some regional names in areas that people want such as Fields or maybe Burdines in Florida or Meier and Frank in the Northwest; as for the outlet, that would be a great idea; I have only seen one Macy’s outlet at a mall in Idaho on Mall Hall of Fame and they new Bloomingdale’s outlets and yes, a “fire sale” would be quite a good idea! LOL!
@Nordrike Field, The way I would approach this idea depends on the demos of each mall. In the NYC area as an example, GSP’s Macy’s would be a Fields while the Macy’s in Paramus Park would remain as is. Other Macy’s stores that would be converted to Fields include Mall at Short Hills, Roosevelt Field, Freehold Raceway, Danbury Fair, Menlo Park & Stamford Town Center as they are in higher end properties. In adition there are other Macy’s stores nearby such as Galleria White Plains, Woodbridge Center, Green Acres & Livingston.
Now this being a page for Nanuet mall, you could do one of the following… keep this Macy’s as is, convert it to Fields or even close the Palisades store or convert that location to an outlet store since these two Macy’s stores are only a few miles apart from one another.
@SEAN, That plan would actually be good, keep this store as Macy’s since the mall is being remodel and turn into a new center and even bring Boscov’s along and turn Palisades as an outlet or maybe keep this as Fields and the other as Macy’s, although the Fields name would only apply in Chicago/the midwest, maybe this one could be a Bambergers or Sterns, even a Abraham and Strauss! Ball is in Macy’s court, so to say
@Nordrike Field, I’m not trying to regionalize brands. Bloomingdales is Bloomingdales regardless if you are in NYC or San Diego. So if you are trying to compete with the likes of Nordstrom, then you put fields in strong centers where ever Nordstrom is located.
To keep this process simple, only a handful of names need to be revived. Fields is a name that is recognized globally like Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Sacks,Marks & Spencer & Macy’s. A brand like Burdines is more regional in nature. It’s recognition is associated with Miami & south Florida even though there were stores all over the state.
@rob, Here’s an article that will explane a few things regarding healthy vs unhealthy real estate assets. Although Simon isn’t mentioned, you can insert Simon for any of these companies.
Retail REITs Continue to Prune Portfolios
Apr 5, 2012 11:59 AM, By Jennifer Popovec, Contributing Writer
Continuing a trend that began last year, retail REITs are continuing to sell non-core assets, retail and non-retail properties alike, in a quest to right-size company portfolios. This pruning is not the run-of-the-mill recycling of assets common among REITs and, instead, is a direct outcome of the credit crisis, according to REIT analysts.
“Post-Great Recession, retail REITs–and REITs overall–have been a lot more focused on selling assets,” says Alexander Goldfarb, managing director of Sandler O’Neill + Partners LP. “One of the takeaway lessons from the credit crisis was that if you can sell assets that do not fit your purpose you should do so. REITs realized that they tended to hold onto too many assets.”
While retail REITs generally want to keep assets, even those that are non-core, because of the net operating income they provide, the credit crisis cemented the theory that higher-quality assets tend to withstand difficult economic conditions better than lower quality assets.
“During a crisis, lenders only are going to lend on the highest quality assets,” Goldfarb points out. “Owners are not going to get full value for lower quality assets–they’re less valuable to lenders–and they’re probably going to be more impacted by an economic downturn.”
Kimco Realty Corp. has been one of the most active sellers in the retail REIT sector, Goldfarb notes. The New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based REIT has sold 53 non-core retail assets totaling $289.3 million since 2010 including 31 in 2011. Proceeds from the 2011 sales were quickly put to work with the acquisition of 10 properties in core markets for an aggregate purchase price of $204 million.
“We are committed to continuing to sell our nonstrategic shopping centers, which will upgrade our portfolio and permit us to concentrate on superior properties in our core markets,” said Kimco President and CEO Dave Henry during the REIT’s most recent earnings call.
The New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based REIT plans to dispose of another $250 million worth of non-strategic properties this year, in addition to about $250 million in non-retail properties. And, it’s off to a rollicking 2012.
During the first quarter it sold 15 shopping centers during the first quarter for $215.4 million. Of that total, 13 properties totaling nearly 1.2 million square feet were considered non-strategies properties.
“The recycling process both continues and will be continuous,” said Kimco’s COO Mike Pappagallo during its most recent earnings call. “This is not a one-shot initiative. And the asset decisions are driven by each regional president’s assessment of their own portfolio strengths and weaknesses.”
Pappagallo pointed to the REIT’s Southeast and Florida region: in 2011, Regional President Paul Puma and his team sold 10 properties with five more dispositions slated for the first half of 2012. Combined, the properties represent about 1.2 million sq. ft. and $8 million of NOI. The total sale proceeds of $95 million have partially funded the $133 million of the region’s purchase of new centers that will generate about $9.5 million in NOI, he adds.
During Kimco’s earnings call, Henry said the company is looking to expand its footprint in 30 core markets that are consistent with some of the larger MSAs with strong demographics. “We are going after where we have already scale, where we have presence, where we have long-term relationships and we like the long-term prognosis,” he noted.
Last year, Kimco acquired 17 retail assets in its core markets. This year, it’s already purchased a handful of properties including Woodbridge Shopping Center in suburban Houston and Bell Camino in suburban Phoenix for an aggregate price of $17.4 million.
Other sales
Other retail REITs have also worked on focusing portfolios on core markets and assets.
In the first quarter, DDR Corp. disposed of 11 assets for aggregate proceeds of $45 million, of which DDR’s share was $34 million. An additional $87 million of assets are currently under contract for sale, of which the company’s share is $82 million.
In turn, DDR spent $47 million to acquire the Brookside Marketplace in Chicago, a large format power center totaling 561,000 sq. ft. that is currently 90 percent leased. DDR is also under contract to acquire the majority of the EDT Retail Portfolio in a transaction valued at $1.43 billion, through a joint venture with an affiliate of the Blackstone Group L.P.
Another high-profile example is General Growth Properties, which spun a portfolio of its class-B assets into Rouse Properties Inc. late last year. The new firm recently made its first acquisition.
In addition, in February, Westfield Group sold a 45 percent stake in 12 U.S. malls to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
@SEAN, They have signed on. Opening 2013.
@Michael S, In the words of the great sportscaster Marv Albert, YES! And here’s the JN article with a notation at the bottom.
Fairway Market specialty retailer will anchor Shops at Nanuet
12:55 AM, May. 4, 2012
Written by Hema Easley
Food lovers who favor organic produce and savor a large variety of healthful food are in luck. Fairway Market is coming to Rockland.
Simon Property Group, the owner of the Nanuet Mall, said on Thursday that the specialty food retailer will be an anchor store at the Shops at Nanuet when the new mall opens in fall 2013.
The 66,000-square-foot store will be the first Fairway in Rockland and the first for a Simon mall. Fairway also has a store in Pelham Manor in Westchester County.
Rockland residents had been hearing rumors for months that a specialty food store would be coming to Nanuet, but Thursday’s news caught them by surprise.
More on the new Fairway: Small Bites blog.
“I didn’t know about this. It’s made my day!” said Lauren Glassman, a New City actress who became a vegetarian two years ago and only eats and serves organic food.
Glassman usually stops at Fairway Markets in Manhattan when she visits her daughter, or occasionally at the one in Paramus, N.J., which is closest to Rockland. To have one in her backyard, however, would make life much easier, she said.
“I think the community needs more organic food,” said Glassman, who also shops at local organic stores. “It’s a little slim picking here, and it also gets pricey. I think Fairway will force them to be more competitive in their pricing.”
The announcement Thursday is the first of several Simon Property will be making in coming weeks, spokesman Les Morris said. He declined to name other stores with whom the group is negotiating leases.
“I expect in the near future to be making very exciting announcements,” Morris said, indicating a big leasing conference in Las Vegas later this month would bring some clarity. “You should be hearing from us soon … All signs are very positive.”
The town and Simon have been in discussions for years about the Nanuet Mall, the oldest mall in Rockland, that began to lose customers and tenants when the larger Palisades Center opened in 1998. The hope is that a refurbished mall with high-end stores will bring back customers.
Simon began demolishing the existing mall in January and hopes to complete the process by mid-August. Site work for the construction started this week and work on the building foundations will begin in late August, Simon said in a statement.
Representatives of the mall have told the town they would build a 790,654-square-foot, L-shaped, open-air mall with a boulevard flanked by single-story stores with upscale fashion retailers and restaurants, next to a two-story cinema and fitness center. Pedestrian walkways and landscaping would flank the stores and some parking would be available on the boulevard.
Aaron Fleishaker, senior vice president of real estate and construction for Fairway, said the Nanuet store would be very much like the one in Pelham. Shoppers would walk in and see the produce first — a variety of fruits and vegetables, including organic. There would be a bakery, deli, prepared foods area, cheese department, olive bar and rotisserie chickens. The main aisle will have meat, fish and dairy.
The center of the store will carry dry goods: specialty, organic and regular items, all grouped together by the type of product.
“That’s really what we bring to the table … it’s one-stop shopping,” said Fleishaker.
If the Nanuet store stocks the same sort of items as Pelham, as Fleishaker expects, shoppers will see 70 varieties of olives, 100 varieties of olive oil, more than 600 varieties of cheese and such specialty items as serrano ham, Kobe beef and artisanal creme fraiche. There will also be an extensive selection of beer and coffee, a large variety of gluten-free items, along with paper goods, health and beauty products and cleaning supplies.
The Rockland location will also stock kosher items.
While many residents welcomed Fairway, some worried what impact it would have on smaller organic and health food stores that have built a business in Rockland.
“I get a little worried for other stores run by local people,” said Risa Hoag, a Nanuet businesswoman who is trying to resuscitate the now defunct Nanuet Chamber of Commerce.
But rebutting her own concerns, Hoag said the competition could help smaller stores to upgrade and become more competitive.
If supporters of local stores were worried, organic and health food stores in the area indicated they weren’t losing a lot of sleep.
“We don’t share the same customer base,” said Heddy Tabet, owner of A Matter of Health, which opened across from the Nanuet Mall in August 2010. “Fairway is a conventional grocery store. We are a heath food store, a specialty store. We cater to people looking for a healthy lifestyle.”
Richard Trupp, owner of Back to Earth in New City, said Fairway would bring competition to his business but he was secure in his customers’ loyalty.
“It’s going to be a tough uphill battle, but our local customers that like our quality will come back,” said Trupp, pointing to the many products that his store had that Fairway wouldn’t likely carry. “When it comes to groceries, people don’t want to drive 20 miles to get it. People still like to shop local. Our lunch business and dinner business will not be affected.”
Clarkstown Supervisor Alex Gromack agreed smaller stores as well as other supermarkets shouldn’t worry.
“I don’t think Stop & Shop and others should be fearful of Fairway. It gives people choices and they can coexistent. Fairway is a great first addition and it sets the stage for positive and exciting announcements from Simon.”
1. Fairway will also be opening a similar sized store in 2013 in Westbury acording to Newsday. That store will be located in part of a former Home Depot Expo at the Roosevelt Raceway Center near Roosevelt Field Mall.
2. Again the JN gets an importent fact WRONG by saying that Palisades killed the old Nanuet Mall. That’s just poor journalism.
Did anyone by chance catch this?
China’s Wanda Group to Buy AMC Cinema Chain for $2.6 Billion
Zachary R. Mider, ©2012 Bloomberg News
May 21 (Bloomberg) — China’s largest entertainment group agreed to buy AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. for $2.6 billion including debt, expanding into the U.S. to create the world’s biggest cinema owner.
The deal by Dalian Wanda Group, controlled by billionaire real-estate developer Wang Jianlin, is the largest-ever purchase of a U.S. company by a Chinese firm, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Wanda, based in Dalian, northeast China, is also looking to buy a European cinema operator, Wang said in an interview via a translator today.
The purchase, which includes about $2 billion in assumed debt, gives Wanda the second-largest operator in North America, where movie-goers spent $10.2 billion on tickets last year. Kansas City, Missouri-based AMC, controlled by private-equity firms including Apollo Global Management LLC and Bain Capital LLC, will gain an additional $500 million investment from Wanda over time, the companies said.
“The acquisition will help Wanda’s overseas expansion,” said Ronald Wan, managing director at China Merchants Securities in Hong Kong. “Movie theaters aren’t politically sensitive assets, so this deal probably won’t encounter as much regulatory oversight as others.”
The companies declined to specify how much AMC’s owners will receive from the transaction.
Theater Upgrades
Wanda plans to spend the $500 million to reduce debt and improve AMC’s theaters, Gerardo Lopez, chief executive officer of the U.S. company, said in an interview. Those include upgrading theaters to show IMAX and 3-D movies, and adding more bars and dining options, he said.
The companies don’t expect significant U.S. regulatory obstacles to approving the transaction, Lopez said. They plan to make a voluntary filing with the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment, a Treasury-led group of government agencies that weighs the national security aspects of takeovers, he said.
It’s too early to talk about whether Wanda will combine the U.S. and European cinema businesses or list them, the company said in an e-mail after the interview with Wang.
The $2.6 billion acquisition surpasses Lenovo Group Ltd.’s $1.8 billion takeover of International Business Machines Corp.’s personal-computer business in 2005, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Wanda is one of China’s largest real-estate companies, with interests in luxury hotels and department stores. It is China’s largest cinema operator, with 86 locations, according to its website.
Adding AMC’s 346 locations, mostly in the U.S., would make Wanda the largest operator by revenue in the country, surpassing Knoxville, Tennessee-based Regal Entertainment Group. Regal had $2.7 billion of sales in the year ended Dec. 29, 2011, according to regulatory filings. AMC had about $2.5 billion in the year ended March 31, 2011, regulatory filings show.
Chinese Movie-Goers
Chinese box-office sales increased 35 percent to $2 billion last year, according to the Motion Picture Association of America, making the nation the third-biggest market after the U.S. and Japan. In the first quarter, China surpassed Japan on a trailing 12-month basis and is now the second-largest market, Lopez said, citing MPAA data.
Apollo and JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s buyout unit agreed to buy AMC in 2004 for about $2 billion including debt. They agreed a year later to merge the business with Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corp., owned by Bain Capital, Carlyle Group LP, and Spectrum Equity Investors, leaving the combined company owned jointly by the five firms.
AMC withdrew plans for an initial public offering in 2008, and filed a second time, in July 2010, seeking to raise as much as $450 million.
AMC has been in intermittent discussions with Wanda since shortly after the 2010 IPO filing, Lopez said. The U.S. company also held discussions with other buyers, including private- equity firms.
U.S.-China Ties
Film-industry ties between the U.S. and China have strengthened this year, after China agreed to provide greater access to U.S. studios, and Walt Disney Co., DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., and News Corp. formed co-production partnerships that will include some of their biggest movies.
Disney, the world’s largest entertainment company, in April agreed to develop animation content with Tencent Holdings Ltd., China’s biggest Internet company. The Burbank, California-based company will co-produce “Iron Man 3” from its Marvel unit with Beijing-based DMG Entertainment.
DreamWorks Animation, based in Glendale, California, and run by CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, said in February it will form Oriental DreamWorks, a Shanghai-based joint venture to develop entertainment projects in China that will include theme parks and live productions. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., owner of 20th Century Fox, this month bought a stake in Beijing-based Bona Film Group Ltd., a movie producer and distributor.
Ernst & Young LLP is providing financial advice to Wanda on the transaction, and AMC is using Citigroup Inc. Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP served as legal advisers for Wanda and AMC, respectively.
@SEAN, NO I HAVENT SPEAKING OF AMC SHOPS AY NANUET IS GOING TO HAVE A MOVIE THEATRE ALSO I THOUGHT THERE WERE NOT TO BE DUPLICATES AT BOTH MALLS. THERE WONT STILL BE TWO MACYS ALSO. HAVING THE MOVIE THEATRE AT NANUET MAY HURT PALISADES MALL AND THEY ALSO HAVE IMAX AS WELL . I AM VERY LEARY RESIDENTS OF ROCKLAND ARE NOT BIG SPENDERS AND I THINK THEY THINK ITS GOING TO BE OUTLETS LIKE WOODBURY COMMONS OR BERGEN TOWN CENTER BUT THESE SHOPS WILL BE REAL UPSCALE SHOPS. AND I THINK THEY WILL BE DISAPPOINTED
@rob, I thaught the AMC article was not only interesting from a retail perspective, but a nice springboard for further discussion on the shops at Nanuet.
For several years Cineplex Odeon opperated a 5-screen theatre at Nanuet Mall after Palisades opened. Same for UA at Spring Valley Marketplace. The UA closed around 2001 & Cineplex closed a year later I think. If a new theatre is built in Nanuet, it will have fewer screens than the Palisades AMC, but should have dine in facilities to differentiate it self http://www.amctheatres.com/dinein. Nearest locations Menlo Park 12, Essex Green 9 & Bridgewater Commons 7.
National Amusements has something similar called Cinema Deluxe at Ridge Hill in Yonkers & City Center in White Plains, but it’s not as comprehensive as AMC’s product.
Now having said all that, there are newer regional circuits who are building there brands on this diner & a movie concept such as Dallas, based Rave Motion Pictures & Fort Lauderdale, based Muvico. The former recently aquired half of National Amusements US theatres including one in Hazlet NJ, while the latter ended up divesting half it’s theatres to Cinemark & was baught by an investment group a year later.
@Rob, Of course it should have read dinner & a movie.
Check out this headline Are We Witnessing the Death of the Big-Box Store? http://business.time.com/2012/05/24/are-we-witnessing-the-death-of-the-big-box-store/?
This article although trying to make a valid arguement, ends up turning into something totally rediculous. That’s why I’m not posting this one.
Here’s my biggest problem with this piece of journalism – lets assume for the moment that what is written is for the most part correct regarding most big box stores outside grocery… can you imagine what the longterm impact will be? Not just the blight you would see on the street, but the finantial impacts as well on minissiple governments & their residents.
@SEAN, I HAVE A FRIEND WHO WORKS IN MCDONALDS IN NANUET HE SAID SOME PEOPLE COMPLAIN ABOUT PAYING CERTAIN PRICES ON SOME FOOD ITEMS. I SAID TO HIM THAT THIS TOWN WANTS UPSCALE STORES IN NANUET BUT DO NOT WANT TO PAY FOR SOME OF THE PRICES IN MCDONALDS. THEY ON LY WANT UPSCALE TO OUT SHINE PALISADES MALL BECAUSE THESE PEOPLE ARE SO STUCK ON NANUET MALL. THAT TELLS ME UPSCALE STORE WONT WORK, THATS HOW BROOKS BROTHERS POTTERY BARN CLOSED IT WAS PARTIALLY THE RECESSION BUT THE LOCALS WHO SPEND THAT KIND OF MONEY OR HAVED A MENTAL BLOCK OF NOT PATRONIZING PALISADES MALL.
@SEAN, I MEAUNT TO SAY THE LOCALS WHO WONT SPEND THAT KIND OF MONEY.
@rob, How many times have I said that regarding Rockland County shoppers on this thred? Notice Wwestchester doesn’t have that issue nore Bergen, Fairfield or even Essex for that matter.
Get a load of this TrafficCourt post.
Industry news, views and occasional strange stuff.
New Jersey Mega-Project Gets Financing
by Elaine Misonzhnik June 6th, 2012
It took a bit longer than expected (as has everything having to do with the 3-million-sq.-ft. American Dream project in the New Jersey Meadowlands), but the Triple Five Group, the project’s new owner, has secured a tentative $700 million loan from Deutsche Bank AG to finish the development.
Last year, Triple Five already secured approximately $400 million in funds from the State of New Jersey. The Wall Street Journal reports that it will now concentrate on finding equity investors.
Triple Five’s next step for financing the project is to find equity investors, a step for which it has enlisted Macquarie Group Ltd. as adviser. And it is seeking as much as $500 million in bond financing backed by future sales tax and property tax revenue, for which it is being advised by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Thaughts…
What I would like to know, is Goldman betting against the mall success? After all they did bet against the verry securities they underwrote durring the housing boom in the past few years, so what’s to stop them from sucking up public & commercial real estate finances now.
@rob, Any Nanuet news?
Just came back from Ridge Hill & I must say it’s verry interesting. There are still quite a few vacancies, but give it some time since a dozen new stores are scheduled to open in the next few weeks. I like the restaurant lineup including The Cheesecake Factory & Yardhouse wich I want to try the next time I go there.
The new Nanuet Mall will be moddled on Ridge Hill, but will have Macy’s, Sears & Fairway instead of Lord & Taylor, TJ Maxx & Whole Foods Market. That is of course if these Sears & Macy’s locations last after christmas.
@Rob, Some food for thaught.
Why your mall is putting in a grocery store
Trader Joe’s, Jimbo’s and Whole Foods are among planned food offerings in San Diego malls
By Tanya Mannes
Saturday, August 4, 2012
For many years, the mall was where you would go to browse through racks of clothes, see a blockbuster movie or stop by the food court for a snack.
Now you can also pick up a bunch of bananas, a gallon of milk or even a cellophane-wrapped steak for dinner.
There’s a new trend of supermarkets setting up shop in malls, and it’s changing our retail landscape. Grocery stores from Jimbo’s Naturally to Trader Joe’s are starting to move in. And Target is already a familiar mall presence with its recently expanded grocery sections.
These supermarkets are being welcomed — in some cases, even courted — by malls who have lost anchor stores such as Borders and Mervyns. They’re betting that fresh food will help re-energize their properties and bring customers back regularly.
“The economic downturn hitting in 2008 had a big impact on mall traffic as consumers pulled back on discretionary shopping,” said Mike Moser, senior vice president with CBRE in San Diego. “Daily needs such as grocery-type uses and gyms bring shoppers on a more regular basis, which is a trend seen across the country as it brings shoppers back to the mall more frequently.”
U.S. adults shop for food an average of 2.2 times a week, according to the Food Marketing Institute, so an in-house grocery store can drive up sales at nearby stores, analysts say.
“From a mall standpoint, a grocery store is attractive because you get the additional foot traffic,” said Phil Lempert, a Santa Monica-based consumer-behavior expert known as the Supermarket Guru. “From a supermarket standpoint, there are so many vacancies that they can get excellent deals. It’s very logical — it makes sense for everybody.”
The timing appears to be right for supermarkets to move in. The departure of some retail chains — and the prospect of Sears closing some stores — means there’s an opportunity to fit major grocery stores in large, vacant spaces. The cost of leasing space in major San Diego malls is about $23 per square foot per year, compared with nearly $30 at the height of the market in 2008, according to CoStar.
Target paved the way as a “transitional” retailer with expanded grocery sections, and Walmart is a close competitor. Now upscale and specialty grocers are reserving space. Here are a few food-focused markets coming soon:
• Jimbo’s Naturally: Taking over the Mervyns space at Westfield Horton Plaza
• Trader Joe’s: Retrofitting the Borders building at Westfield Mission Valley
• Whole Foods: Replacing an old cinema at Flower Hill Promenade in north San Diego near Del Mar.
Westfield, which owns seven of the region’s major malls, has been a leader in this strategy, and also has a Target store going into its North County mall. Tom Tierney, a senior vice present for Westfield in San Diego, has said that the Australian mall owner wants its malls to be “one-stop shopping destinations.”
The supermarket-mall trend is happening mainly in the major markets such as San Diego, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., New York City, said Garrick Brown, national retail research director at Terranomics/ChainLinks in the Sacramento area.
“These are all the top markets around the U.S. where retail performance is highest, where the chains want to expand,” Brown said. “I think it will spread when you look at who is closing down stores … There is a lot of space available; you’re going to see a lot of landlords looking to fill it.”
The concept of locating a grocery store in a mall is not new. Years ago, Grossmont Center and Westfield Horton Plaza both had grocery stores.
Grossmont Center, which now has a busy Target and a Walmart, benefits from having food as part of the mix, said general manager Mike Hansen. Both stores have expanded their grocery sections within the past five years. “I think it’s a good addition to any center,” Hansen said.
The Target store in Westfield Plaza Bonita expanded its grocery offerings in 2010. It carries the most commonly purchased items, such as family packs of chicken breasts, bagged organic spinach salad and bananas. There are also seasonal items, such as hot dogs for summer and stone fruit like peaches and plums. The Plaza Bonita store also caters to the Latino market with brands such as Takis snack chips.
“It’s a good assortment, and it’s the assortment that sells the best. It’s the high velocity items that we stock,” said Kristin Hales, food business partner for Target, during a recent walk-through. “We don’t have the store volume to carry everything, so we have to be very strategic with the core items.”
There can be challenges when you stick a supermarket in a mall built for department stores and boutiques. Usually, there’s a need for additional investment in tenant improvements to ensure that the space can provide adequate water and refrigeration. Another challenge: shopping carts in malls, especially in multi-level stores.
So far, mall owners seem willing to chip in. Westfield is footing the bill for millions of dollars in improvements at Horton Plaza to make way for the Jimbo’s with new escalators, elevators and a “Vermaport,” which is an escalator for shopping carts.
At Flower Hill Promenade, there’s no need to retrofit a building. The Whole Foods is new construction replacing a rundown theater.
Parking and traffic are always concerns, particularly in Mission Valley. Shoppers are worried about how the new Trader Joe’s will affect the already tight parking lot in the busy center between a Gordon Biersch restaurant and an Old Navy.
“Can a grocery store function in the holiday season in a mall?” said Brown of Terranomics. “Do you really want to brave mall traffic just to pick up a head of lettuce? But I think more and more people will start to roll the dice on it.”
Fortunately, grocery stores tend to be open for longer hours than stores, noted Rose Jabin, general manager of Flower Hill Promenade. Its retail stores tend to close at 6 p.m. but Whole Foods will probably stay open until 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. And the benefits outweigh the risks, she said.
“Having some big anchors like this really draws people,” she said. “It provides stability for the center, brings people in on a more regular basis — and it provides a convenience to them to have these other uses.”
Local observations
This is why the new Nanuet Mall will have Fairway, Ridge Hill Village has Whole Foods & White Plains City Center opened ShopRite a year & a half ago. Also cant forget Bergen TC has Whole Foods & The Fashon Center has Fairway as well.
Developers are trying to get ahead of the next hot trend by signing supermarkets that aren’t run of the mill or have the regional chains design stores to atract shoppers with higher incomes.
@SEAN, Well many department stores are gone no thanks to macys. The economy has stopped or slowed down opening of any new Nordstrom,jc penney, sears kohls etc. I n Poughkeepsie NY the South Hills Mall has a supermarket in a former sears first was Price Chopper now its Shop Rite. I bet that Nanuet Mall is having a hard time getting stores because of the economy because there havent been any new announcements. I totally disagree of the new movie theatre it will lure trouble and didnt they say no duplicate stores of whats at palisades mall.
@rob, http://www.amctheatres.com/dinein is AMC’s dinner & a Movie concept for adults. You wont find too many yoots, oh I ment youths hanging out there. Most new theatres are going this route as there are enough theatres in the US, but this is an oppertunity to capture an untapped customer base & keep out trouble at the same time. Other circuits in this arena include…
1. National Amusements
2. Rave Motion Pictures
3. Muvico
4. MJR
AMC has 3 NJ locations with this concept, Bridgewater Commons, West Orange & Menlo Park Mall.
National Amusement’s Cinema De Lux also has a trio of theatres Ridge Hill Yonkers, White Plains & holtsville in NYS.
@rob, Get a load of this from the NYT dealBook.
August 6, 2012, 9:08 am
Best Buy Founder Offers $8.8 Billion to Buy Out Company
By MARK SCOTT
Richard Schulze, the founder of Best Buy, offered to buy the electronics retailer on Monday in a deal that would value it as much as $8.8 billion.
A deal near that price would be biggest ever buyout of an American retailer, according to S.&P. Capital IQ data, topping the $8.4 billion buyout of Toys “R” Us in 2005.
Mr. Schulze, who resigned from the company’s board in June, said he would offer Best Buy shareholders $24 to $26 for each of their shares in the electronics company, according to a letter sent to the board that he made public.
The offer represents a premium of 36 percent on the low end of his offer and a premium of 47 percent on the high end from the company’s closing share price on Friday. In early morning trading on Monday, Best Buy shares were up 18.8 percent, to $20.96.
“There is no question that now is the moment of truth for Best Buy and that immediate and substantial changes are needed for the company to return to its market-leading ways,” Mr. Schulze said in a statement. “I am deeply concerned that further delay and indecision will cause additional loss of both value and talented leaders who are now uncertain of the company’s future.”
With a 20.1 percent stake in the company, the Best Buy founder is the company’s largest shareholder.
In his letter, Mr. Schulze said he had held discussions with several private equity firms interested in participating in the deal, as well as with former Best Buy senior executives, including Brad Anderson and Allen Lenzmeier.
“Bold and extensive changes are needed for Best Buy to return to market leadership,” Mr. Schulz wrote. “The company’s best chance for renewed success will be to implement these changes under a different ownership structure.”
The Best Buy founder said he planned to pay for the acquisition by contributing $1 billion of his own money, securing investments from private equity firms as well as debt financing.
In his letter, Mr. Schulz said that “Credit Suisse, who I have retained as my financial adviser, is highly confident that it can arrange the necessary debt financing.”
Best Buy has $2.2 billion in debt and $1.1 billion in cash on hand, according to Capital IQ data.
In addition to Credit Suisse, the law firm Shearman & Sterling is advising Mr. Schulze
$8.8 billion for Best Buy? Holy ****! That’s completely insane & this is comeing from someone who likes them & knows an employee.
@Rob, The following article is off topic, but may indirectly relate to the push for walkable outdoor malls.
The site is http://www.walkscore.com.
‘Walk Score’ Is Great, But it Still Doesn’t Capture ‘Walk Appeal’
Sarah GoodyearAug 07, 2012
Solana Beach, California, is one of a string of communities trailing north up the coast from San Diego, each one more ridiculously scenic and attractive than the last: Del Mar, Encinitas, Leucadia, and so one. These are towns with bougainvillea spilling onto the sidewalks, high-end boutiques along the shopping streets, and the Pacific breeze wafting in off the bluffs. Surfers trot down the stairways leading to the ocean carrying their boards, ready to catch waves for a few hours. At the farmers’ market, you’ll find baskets of heirloom tomatoes and jewel-like raspberries. It’s a beautiful cliché of the California good life.
Solana Beach is also a great example of just how miserable walking for transportation can be in America.
When I booked a recent hotel stay there, I looked up the Walk Score and was happy to see it came in at 82, or “very walkable.” This mattered to me because part of the time I would be there without access to a car.
In a lot of ways, the place did turn out to be “very walkable,” at least technically. Most important to the vacationing me, the beach was three blocks away, down very pleasant residential streets with great sidewalks. There was a strip mall with a couple of decent chain restaurants about a ten-minute walk up Highway 101, and a CVS a little farther along – a walking experience that was pretty grim, even though it was short. A train station with connections to San Diego and Los Angeles was just under a mile away along the same road, and at about a mile and a quarter was an excellent roadside Mexican joint. A running and biking path, nicely paved and landscaped, ran parallel to the train tracks for 1.7 miles. All of which should have meant that I wouldn’t even have want of a car.
But over the four days I spent in Solana Beach, I found myself bumping up against the limits of Walk Score’s calculations again and again. For starters: The first place listed under “groceries” was indeed just across a parking lot from the hotel, but it turned out to be a dingy market that sold mostly booze. I picked up a half-gallon of milk and some Corn Flakes, but there wasn’t much else there I wanted to touch — certainly not the very sad-looking boiled eggs and plastic-wrapped bagels in the cooler by the register.
The guy behind the counter told me the nearest real supermarket was about a 25-minute walk away, which corresponded with Walk Score’s data.
That wouldn’t seem undoable in my hometown of New York, but in Solana Beach, where sidewalks sometimes begin and end randomly and a lot of the walking is along four- or six-lane arterials, it didn’t seem worth it. Even a walk of half a mile alongside strip malls and parking lots can seem interminable, and it’s easy to see why people choose to make trips like this by car, thereby creating an even more unpleasant atmosphere for those who do choose to walk. Or, like the homeless guys I found myself sharing the Solana Beach sidewalks with, those who have to walk.
Walk Score is a terrific tool, as far as it goes. But we need other ways of quantifying walkability on our nation’s streets. The architect and urbanist Steve Mouzon is working on just such a measurement. He calls it Walk Appeal, and the idea behind it is something that we all know but don’t often acknowledge: A mile in an American suburb is a lot longer than a mile in Rome.
Walk Appeal promises to be a major new tool for understanding and building walkable places, and it explains several things that were heretofore either contradictory or mysterious. It begins with the assertion that the quarter-mile radius (or 5-minute walk,) which has been held up for a century as the distance Americans will walk before driving, is actually a myth….
As we all know, if you’re at Best Buy and need to pick something up at Old Navy, there’s no way you’re walking from one store to another. Instead, you get in your car and drive as close as possible to the Old Navy front door. You’ll even wait for a parking space to open up instead of driving to an open space just a few spaces away… not because you’re lazy, but because it’s such a terrible walking experience.
In a blog post introducing Walk Appeal, Mouzon does a good job of explaining why you can walk a mile effortlessly in one kind of streetscape and labor through a half-mile or less in another. And he says the kind of walking I had to do on Highway 101 in Solana Beach is about as bad as it gets:
The worst sidewalk you could possibly choose to walk on is one with an arterial thoroughfare on one side and a parking lot on the other. I use a Walk Appeal distance of 25 feet, but in reality, you’re unlikely to ever walk in a place like this unless your car breaks down. Not only does it terminally bore you and leave you constantly awash in a sea of car exhaust fumes and sweating uncontrollably from the heat in summer, but it also is an incredibly dangerous place to walk. So people don’t.
That’s the hard truth about walking in America. It’s not just about the miles you need to cover, or even about the sidewalks or the length of the blocks. What Walk Score can’t capture, and doesn’t pretend to, is the on-the-ground texture of the pedestrian experience and the resulting pedestrian culture of a place.
In Solana Beach and the surrounding communities, there are a few commercial pockets where walking is pleasant and socially acceptable – around a couple of bars near the ocean and on the few shop-lined blocks of South Cedros Avenue demarcated as a “design district.” People drive to get to these havens. The residential side streets are nice, but those sidewalks are usually empty.
As a result, pedestrians are automatically stigmatized, although being on foot is more acceptable if it looks like you are doing it for fitness rather than transportation. Runners are obviously out there for the exercise, but if you’re walking it helps to wear the technical clothes to prove it. Walking the mile-plus back from the Del Mar beach to my hotel one day, I was passed by another woman power-walking, clad head to toe in wicking fabrics and topped with a sweat-absorbing visor. She remarked, as she blew past me, that I was “setting a nice pace.” I was amused not only by her one-upmanship, but by the idea that I was “setting a pace” at all. I was walking to get from one place to another, not for “exercise.” And that set me apart as something of a weirdo.
Which is really what it comes down to in much of the country. You may well find yourself within walking distance of a store, or a movie theater, or some other amenity that is accounted for by Walk Score’s algorithms. There might even be a sidewalk that provides safe passage, and a button to push at the intersection to make the light change in your favor. But you usually will be walking alongside a river of cars, and the people in those cars will be thinking that you are strange. They will pity you. You will know this.
And that sense of being a social outlier, along with the hot tedium of walking past parking lot after parking lot, strip mall after strip mall, none of which are designed for your use, is enough to make you want to get in a car.
Walking for transportation shouldn’t be so unpleasant that people who do it are considered strange. But that’s kind of what we’ve come to in much of the country. The popularity of the Walk Score tool, despite its limitations, suggests that we might be changing direction at last. But it’s going to be a long slog to get where we need to go.
@SEAN, Hi Sean the articles were interesting. I heard on news 12 this morning a security guard was stabbed at Nanuet Mall at 11p.m last night near Macys.So that proves my point to these residents of Rockland that crime can happen at any maLL NOT JUST Palisades Mall Two weeks ago there was a fight in Garden State Plaza. You will always get rif raf at any maLL AND IT will HAPPEN MORE SO WHEN SHOPS aT NANUET OPENS AS WELL.
@rob, Get a load of this article.
Why shopping will never be the same
By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Nola Donato has seen the future of retail, and it is in a Magic Mirror.
Some say in a few years retail stores will exist for a “touch and feel” experience, but no actual sales.
The Intel scientist has designed a high-tech mirror that shows how clothes look on a consumer who simply stands in front of an LCD monitor. Parametric technology simulates body type and how fabrics fit — based on weight, height and measurements.
Think of it as a digital fitting room. The concept is three to five years from fruition but could open the door for Intel in the retail market.
The convergence of smartphone technology, social-media data and futuristic technology such as 3-D printers is changing the face of retail in a way that experts across the industry say will upend the bricks-and-mortar model in a matter of a few years.
“The next five years will bring more change to retail than the last 100 years,” says Cyriac Roeding, CEO of Shopkick, a location-based shopping app available at Macy’s, Target and other top retailers.
Within 10 years, retail as we know it will be unrecognizable, says Kevin Sterneckert, a Gartner analyst who follows retail technology. Big-box stores such as Office Depot, Old Navy and Best Buy will shrink to become test centers for online purchases. Retail stores will be there for a “touch and feel” experience only, with no actual sales. Stores won’t stock any merchandise; it’ll be shipped to you. This will help them stay competitive with online-only retailers, Sterneckert says.
Branding strategist Adam Hanft says this all might sound futuristic, but much of it is rooted in reality. He says satellite stores will open in apartment buildings and office centers. FedEx and UPS will delve deeper into refrigerated home delivery. Google trucks will deliver local services. Clothing — even pharmaceuticals — will be produced in the home via affordable 3-D printers.
“Every waking moment is a shopping moment,” says Steve Yankovich, head of eBay’s mobile business, which expects to handle $10 billion in transactions this year. “Anytime, anywhere.”
Game-shifting tech — such as smartphones, location-based services, augmented reality and big data, which makes sense of all the data on mobile devices and social networks — will most assuredly upend several multibillion-dollar retail markets, forcing retailers to adapt or die, say venture capitalists and analysts.
Eventually, 3-D printers will let consumers produce their own towels, utensils and clothes. While in their infancy, the devices have been used to print hearing aids, iPad cases and model rockets, says Andy Filo, an expert on 3-D printers. The technology is several years away, however, from being widely available and affordable, he says.
And almost all of it will be paid with … your phone.
“Cash will still exist, but no one will use it,” says Jim Belosic, CEO of ShortStack, a self-service, social-media platform that lets users create custom Facebook tabs. “Carrier payments and the swipe of a smartphone will do the trick.”
Technology advances won’t just change the physical appearance of stores for consumers, but should transform the retail workforce into more of a customer-friendly field, too. Retailers who don’t adapt quickly and successfully risk losing out, Sterneckert says.
What might this evolution mean for the nation’s malls and shopping centers and people whose paychecks depend on today’s retail model? Experts aren’t predicting the end of the in-store experience, but it stands to reason that as with other industries, technology might improve efficiency while setting retailers on a path toward a leaner workforce.
Retail’s revolution
Just as online retailers led a revolution in retail shopping in the 1990s, bricks-and-mortar retailers are ready to use technology to fight back.
By the time you walk into a store in the near future, the employees there will probably know what you want to buy, based on information on your trusty phone or tablet. Merchants will know your gender, age, race and income, analyst Sterneckert and others say.
Once you’re inside, imagine waving your smartphone over products and seeing what’s inside. Holding the phone over a DVD’s bar code might activate a movie trailer on the phone’s screen, for example.
All of this will be made possible with so much personal data on smartphones, and the ability of merchants to parse it to gauge who is just browsing and who’s on a mission to buy. The clerk greeting you at the door will be able to make targeted suggestions. Sound Orwellian? All of this is done online today through search engines and cookie technology. Putting a personal touch on one’s in-store experience could mean big bucks for bricks-and-mortar retailers, according to John McAteer, head of retail at Google.
There might be less merchandise inside, as bricks-and-mortar stores offer only special products that distinguish them from Web competitors.
“The first 15 years of online shopping was about making it easier for people to find and purchase items they were looking for,” says David Fisch, director of platform partnerships at Facebook, which is working closely with retailers. “Now, it’s about helping you find what you may not know about, based on your social (media profile).”
With computer chips seemingly embedded in everything — goods, smartphones and the like — merchants will not only know what’s in your shopping basket, but what you plan to buy next.
Target, for example, already combs shopping data via purchases, e-mail, activity on Target.com accounts and more to determine which customers are pregnant, so it can sell goods popular to them such as orange juice, according to journalist Charles Duhigg, who outlined the practice in his book, The Power of Habit.
“There is a trade-off between privacy and convenience, which I think will only accelerate,” Duhigg says. “People always choose convenience and don’t realize the cost of privacy.”
Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder acknowledges it uses “research tools that help us understand guest shopping trends … (but) we take our responsibility to protect our guests’ trust in us very seriously.”
Increasingly, where one shops will be irrelevant. Phones and bar codes will let consumers shop from their kitchens — a digital screen on a refrigerator, for example, will allow orders from home, with a delivery service dropping off the produce. “A screen is a screen is a screen,” says Jill Puleri, of IBM’s Global Business Services retail-consulting practice.
At the CeBit computer trade show in March in Hanover, Germany, an exhibit of a futuristic airport gave new meaning to duty-free shopping. Within a few years, travelers will be able to touch a store window containing a digital menu to order goods for shipping.
Subways in South Korea, the United Kingdom and elsewhere already contain virtual stores in which consumers wave their smartphones at bar codes to order. The goods are delivered before the commuter arrives home.
“Retailers are asking the question, ‘How do we address the demand for now?’ ” Gartner’s Sterneckert says. “Customers want their goods by the time they get home from work.”
Driving the future
All of this will be possible within several years because of:
•Smartphones. Location-based services and the growing adoption of Near Field Communication — a wireless technology standard for one-tap payment — will turn consumers’ phones into stand-ins for credit, debit and loyalty cards, says Bill Gajda, head of mobile at Visa. Meanwhile, Nordstrom, among many, is phasing out cash registers this year in favor of smartphones with store-designed apps for purchases and inventory.
•The death of cash. If credit cards diminished use of cash in the 1950s, powerful smartphones and tablets will hasten its demise. Both are reshaping the relationship between merchant and customer as newfangled wallets, and each is edging toward becoming credit card readers and (cash) registers.
“Cash has dug in its heels for small-value transactions, but with the arrival of each new tech offering (providing) an alternative way to pay for little stuff — text your parking payment, Starbucks mobile app, Square, etc. — cash is being further and further marginalized,” says David Wolman, author of the book The End of Money.
•Augmented reality. The increasingly popular technology adds a visual layer of information on top of surfaces such as a mirror. One breakthrough might come at the mall, with AR mirrors that let consumers shop based on data projected on glass, say social-media experts such as Brian Solis.
Another intriguing option is Google Glass, which puts computer-processing power, a camera, a microphone, wireless communications and a tiny screen into a pair of lightweight eyeglasses. Ultimately, Google hopes the “smart” glasses — which are a few years away — will be able to access information in real time, including the ability to identify locations and provide additional information about your whereabouts.
Harnessing social media
As smartphones and tablets grow in popularity, retailers are trying to get their hands around Facebook, Twitter and social media, and cater to consumers, says Niraj Shah, CEO of Wayfair, an e-commerce company that recently passed Crate & Barrel to become the No. 2 Internet retailer of home products. It racked up a record $500 million in revenue last year.
Only 8% to 13% of retail shopping in the USA is done online. Impressive as future retail technology might look, it will take good old-fashioned customer service to boost those figures, says Will Young, who heads Zappos Labs.
Some of that will come because of original editorial content from commerce sites such as Zappos, Fab.com and Etsy that offer shoppers advice on products and services. Zappos has beefed up its content with advice on fashion, trends, outfits and lifestyles.
Software giant SAP’s “clienteling” application, for instance, lets Burberry track and analyze customers’ buying and browsing patterns, giving sales reps the information they need to instantly make specific recommendations tailored to that person’s taste. For the first time, retailers can offer consumers the same personalized experience in the store that they’re used to when shopping online.
In the physical world, the same rules apply. Consumers won’t need a smartphone to get an interactive glimpse of what they want. Digital billboards on every conceivable surface will do the trick.
Thin, energy-efficient LED displays are being tested to show video on everything from a curved wall at the NASCAR Museum in Charlotte to subways and airports. China, home to some of the world’s largest buildings, is a prime candidate for even larger displays.
“The pace of change has never been faster,” says Google’s McAteer. “The big question is (turning) physical stores into a showplace, distribution center and place for consumers to have fun.”
I edited the links out of this story, the actual article can be accessed from Plain Vanilla Shell on the right.
Thaughts…
This is a bit creepy to me & there’s little mention of identity security. All you need to do is take someones smart phone & you could potentially do a lot of dammage. It’s like stealing social security numbers, but a whole lot worse because everything about you will be in that phone.
@rob, Hope you saw the article I recently posted, a little big brotherish I thaught & creepy.
FYI, went to both The Galleria & Cross County the other day. Both serve a similar demographic, however they are worlds apart in look & vibrency.
Cross County has only 6 empty stores out of 100, but The Galleria has 21 of them in a mall of 150. That translates to a percentage rate of 6% for the former & 15.75% for the latter in empty store spaces. Also with the Galleria, the information booth was removed less than a month ago, while the management office is now only open by appointment.
@rob, RT report… Analysts See Good Potential in Simon/GGP Merger
Aug 30, 2012 11:54 AM, By Elaine Misonzhnik, Senior Associate Editor
Two years after Simon Property Group lost a chance to recapitalize General Growth Properties (GGP) to Brookfield Asset Management, the showdown looks ready to repeat itself. Claiming that Brookfield has been trying to slowly acquire all of GGP on the cheap after becoming the REIT’s largest shareholder, the head of its second largest shareholder, Pershing Square Capital’s Bill Ackman, has been urging GGP to officially put itself on the block, with Simon as the most likely bidder.
Given that GGP’s share price has been trailing behind Simon’s since its exit from bankruptcy and that in the regional mall space “bigger is better,” such a deal would be a boon for both GGP and Simon, says Cedrik Lachance, managing director with Green Street Advisors, a Newport Beach, Calif.-based research and advisory firm. In the past 52 weeks, Simon’s share price has ranged between $103.32 per unit and $163.75 per unit, according to Chicago-based research firm Morningstar. During the same period, GGP’s share price has ranged between $10.38 and $21.12 per unit.
According to documents published by Ackman, Pershing Square and Simon executives have discussed a potential merger in the fall of 2011, and at the time Simon was willing to pay a 65 percent premium to GGP’s trading price, which was then $12.70 per share.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Rich Moore estimates GGP’s current price target at $18 per share, based on the high quality of the REIT’s properties. Today, the company owns 135 malls totaling 140 million sq. ft. In the second quarter, it reported consolidated portfolio occupancy of 94.1 percent.
“If they can get that price [$21 per share] and Simon is willing to pay and if GGP shareholders have the option of benefitting from the combined entity, I don’t see anything wrong with that,” says Todd Sullivan, author of the blog ValuePlays.
The hitch is that Brookfield, which has three members on GGP’s nine-member board of directors, including its CEO J. Bruce Flatt, who serves as chairman of GGP’s board, might have a conflict of interest in any sale discussions if it is interested in acquiring the REIT itself. Ackman claims that after he started talking about a potential merger with Simon, Brookfield indicated it might want to buy GGP as well, but then continued to ask for extensions to put together a deal. Brookfield was reportedly trying to secure financing and was planning to acquire GGP in partnership with an unnamed sovereign wealth fund.
In a press release issued on Aug. 23, Brookfield executives claim they are not taking any steps toward buying the company, nor do they have an interest in selling their existing stake in the firm. “Brookfield has no interest in selling its stake in GGP. We are 100 percent supportive of the current management team of GGP and believe that GGP’s business plan has and will continue to create significant long-term value for all stakeholders,” the release reads. “When Brookfield was chosen as an investor in GGP, it was explicitly on the basis that we were a long-term investor. We have invested considerable capital, time and attention to support management and the board as they enhance the value of GGP for all concerned. The results to date bear testimony to their success.”
Brookfield declined to comment any further on the matter. GGP did not respond to a request for comment.
REIT world insiders, however, are not buying Brookfield’s story. Both Sullivan and Lachance say that Ackman would not have spoken out against the investment partner he brought in to bail out GGP during the financial crisis if the facts did not bear out his story. “I think, based on Brookfield’s own words, they’d be more than happy to buy it,” says Sullivan. “They explored possibilities of buying it, including the disposition of some properties to Simon. I think they would have been happy, if no one said anything, to continue with the drip” acquisition.
That means that Flatt should step down from GGP’s board to allow it to make a decision about a sale that’s in the best interest of GGP shareholders, Sullivan notes. If Brookfield was interested in buying GGP itself, as CEO he would have a responsibility to get the lowest possible price for Brookfield shareholders that would be at odds with his responsibility to GGP shareholders to get the highest possible price for the REIT.
“I am shocked that GGP has not asked him to recluse himself from any conversations about a potential merger when there is a clear conflict of interest,” Sullivan says. “I am not sure how this isn’t sending up red flags all over the place.”
Thaughts
I think this could be quite interesting despite all the spin in articles like these. This will require both of us to keep our ears & eyes open & see if this merger goes anywhere. You realize of course the DOJ will require both companies to dispose assets before the merger gets the OK. Also this could be a benefit to investor groups who want to own decent quality mid-tier malls . They could potentially be able to expand them or even revitalize them.
@SEAN, Yes it will be interesting yo see. I just hope Simon dosent pull a fast one on us here in Nanuet.dicks at Palisades will be opening soon they are stocking the store. Yardshouse seems to be doing ok so far my nephew went there with his girlfriend and both liked it. I remeber when may and federated merged in 2006 i was not happy at all with macys taking away all the may stores.
@rob, I think it’s time to move beyond the May Federated merger & focus on what’s happening now.
There are enough mid-tier malls between Simon & GGP that if these companies were to merge, other mall opperators such as Macerich, CBL, DDR, Westfield, Glimture & other investor groups could see a tremendus oppertunity to enter markets that were once closed off to them for one reason or another.
I also went to Yardhouse & thaught the food was good, but the acoustics in the Yonkers location were horrific.
@Rob, I just posted an article from the WSJ for Mallguy on the Brunswick Square page. I’m reposting it here for your benefit.
Malls Get Facelift to Pull In Shoppers.
By KRIS HUDSON
The sprawling Roosevelt Field mall on Long Island, anchored by Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom and Macy’s, ranks among the 20 most-lucrative malls in the U.S.
But Roosevelt Field’s owner, Simon Property Group Inc. still intends to spend roughly $300 million in the next two years to improve the shopping center. The overhaul will add a Neiman Marcus Group luxury department store, expand the mall’s dining choices and upgrade its movie theater with lounge seating and full menus.
After decades of retail construction, the era of new-mall development in the U.S. is drawing to a close. Much of the country is overbuilt, and online shopping has crimped many retailers’ store-opening plans. In an attempt to keep shoppers coming—and to squeeze more revenue out of established locations—mall owners and retailers are shifting to renovations.
“There are very few markets that aren’t already served by sophisticated retail,” said Rick Sokolov, president of Simon, the country’s largest mall owner. “Making what you already have as good as it can be is the best way to go.”
If overhauls are done right, their returns can be higher than from new developments. Landlords and analysts say the improvements can generate annual income of as much as 10% to 12% of the cost of the upgrades. By comparison, new development typically yields returns in the high single digit range.
For example, Taubman Centers Inc.’s 2007 redevelopment of its Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi, Mich., which added a wing anchored by Nordstrom, yielded a 10% return on the project’s $63 million cost, according to Taubman.
Simon will spend roughly $300 million to renovate Roosevelt Field.
.Retail Recipe
The country’s top malls typically have a combination of the following:
Annual sales per square foot of $550 or more
More than one million square feet of space
High-end department stores such as Nordstrom, Saks, Bloomingdale’s or Neiman Marcus
Small luxury retailers of jewelry, accessories or fashion, such as LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Tiffany or Michael Kors, as well as high sales stores such as Apple
A given metropolitan area that has no more than three or four high performing malls, sometimes only one
Location in an affluent suburb or a major downtown, such as Chicago’s Water Tower Place mall
Built within the past 10 years or renovated and expanded in that time frame
Big public spaces, such as children’s play areas or center courts for live entertainment
Source: Green Street Advisors and Envirosell Inc.
.As they renovate, mall owners are incorporating the lessons they are learning about how to succeed amid the explosion of online shopping. For all the hand-wringing among store owners about sales lost to the Internet, many are figuring out ways to exploit the natural advantages that stores have over computers.
Mall owners are adding more restaurants, upscale movie theaters, supermarkets and other tenants that offer goods and experiences that can’t be found online. In their renovations, some malls also are reconfiguring more stores to have direct access to parking lots, so shoppers can dash in and out for quick service rather than having to traverse the entire shopping center.
General Growth Properties Inc. the second-largest mall owner, has earmarked $1.5 billion for redevelopment projects, including 17 that it started this year and another eight to begin in 2013. In one of its largest projects, the company is planning to raze a Sears Holdings Corp. store at its flagship Ala Moana Center mall in Honolulu and replace it with small shops that collectively would pay more in rent than single department stores.
Meanwhile, CBL & Associates Properties Inc. which owns 93 U.S. malls, had redevelopment projects in various phases at 20 of its properties this year. Westfield Group owner of 47 U.S. malls, intends to ramp up its redevelopment efforts, spending $3 billion over the next three years, compared with the $800 million it spent in the past three years.
Mall owners are being selective about centers to upgrade. The retail-property industry has a long history of throwing good money after bad by trying to save shopping centers facing tough competition and growing vacancy rates.
These days, most redevelopment is taking place at the country’s top-performing malls, like Roosevelt Field, which is packed with holiday shoppers scrambling to complete their gift lists. Only 289 of the country’s 1,070 malls are considered to be in this category because they generate median annual sales of $535 a square foot, compared with the industry average of $370.
Green Street Advisors, a real-estate research firm, estimates that Roosevelt Field, in Garden City, N.Y., generates average sales of $1,040 a square foot, thanks largely to the demographics of the market it serves. More than 1.8 million people live within 10 miles, and the median annual household income is $116,302 in that area, more than double the average in the U.S. of $50,502, according to Simon.
Returns also have proven to be more attractive for landlords that have invested in strong properties rather than weak ones.
Simon, for example, is redeveloping 25% of its top malls in terms of sales per square foot, 10% of its mid-class malls and none of its lowest-performing malls, according to Green Street. “That’s where you get the biggest bang for your buck—when you take good and make it great,” said Cedrik Lachance, a Green Street analyst.
For Simon, owner of 159 U.S. malls, the redevelopment push has the company planning to spend more than $1 billion in each of the next three years revamping its best properties.
“The more compelling we make our properties, the better they will be able to compete with all other forms of retail distribution,” Mr. Sokolov said.
Rob, this is what I’ve been trying to tell you for ever on this thred regarding the CRE business. These issues on Nanuet Mall aren’t specific to Simon.
@rob, Nanuet Mall overhaul to draw 50 new retailers, build ‘leisure’ destination
January 13, 2013 by BETTY MING LIU / betty.liu@cablevision.com
When shabby Nanuet Mall opens in October after an extreme makeover, it will offer more than “just” 40-50 new retailers.
Renamed as Shops at Nanuet, the new outdoor center aims to evoke the feel of a bustling suburban downtown, where landscaped streets are lined with an architectural mix of storefronts.
But the project isn’t just about shopping, according to Tom Schneider, executive vice president for Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group, which owns the Nanuet.
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“We are in the business of competing for people’s leisure time,” Schneider said during a phone interview. The goal is to create a destination that “fits into the fabric of the community.”
Also in the works: five to seven full-service restaurants, several casual eateries, a 24-Hour Fitness health club, a gourmet Fairway Market, a 12-screen Regal Cinema multiplex and 3,500 parking spaces.
CASH REGISTER KA-CHING
Simon said its $91 million overhaul of the 63-acre site will have an annual economic impact of $400 million to $500 million, according to company filings with Rockland’s Industrial Development Agency, which extended $4.5 million in tax breaks to help the mall developer jump-start its project.
Once complete, the mall is also expected to employ an estimated 1,200 full- and part-time workers. Already, the local economy received a boost when demolition on the site began in March 2012.
“It’s creating jobs, construction jobs, and it’s cleaning up what’s been an eyesore for more than a decade,” said elated Clarkstown Supervisor Alex Gromack.
The 59-year-old Nanuet native was a boy when Nanuet Mall arrived on the scene in 1969 as one of the first enclosed malls. “It had all the latest and greatest shops,” he recalled.
In its prime, the mall was also the scene of the famously horrible 1981 Brink’s armored car robbery. The holdup-gone-bad by two radical groups — the Black Liberation Army and Weather Underground — led to the shooting deaths of two police officers and an armored guard.
Although the shopping center recovered from bad press, its true demise began in 1998, when the enclosed, mega-sized Palisades Center Mall opened five miles away in Nyack, with hundreds of retailers.
“Now it will be interesting to see when Shops at Nanuet opens, what kind of impact it will have on the Palisades Mall,” Gromack said. Over time, he predicted, “As an outdoor mall, Nanuet will draw different types of people.”
And with Shops at Nanuet be just 3.5 miles from New Jersey’s Bergen County, where shopping is still banned on Sundays, Simon executives said they are hoping to draw upscale customers from New Jersey, Rockland and young folks from area college campuses.
‘DE-MALLING’ THE MALL
Reconfiguring the new Main Street-inspired mall had its unique challenges, Schneider said. For starters, longtime anchor tenants Sears and Macy’s stayed open during the entire demolition process.
In about two months, the steel framing for the site will be complete and the “skin” will go on the buildings. By summer, stores will start their build-outs, he added.
The new center will be about 800,000 square feet, compared with 1 million square feet for the old operation. It is one of numerous outdoor-mall makeovers done in the past decade on older holdings of Simon, the largest mall developer in the country. The company also owns The Westchester and The Galleria, enclosed malls in White Plains, as well as the Woodbury Common Premium Outlets in Harriman.
It would have been “very difficult” for Simon to redevelop Nanuet Mall as an enclosed mall and compete with the Palisades Center, which is “huge” and “has a great variety of food and fashion retailers,” Malachy Kavanagh, spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Centers, said in an email. “So it makes a great deal of sense to take the Nanuet Mall and de-mall it.”
The most recent addition of the outdoor mall in the Hudson Valley came in October 2011 with the opening of the 1.3 million-square-foot Ridge Hill in Yonkers. In that instance, however, Forest City Ratner Cos. built the shopping center anew.
Though retailers have not yet been announced at the Nanuet, one eatery at the former mall already has decided to be part of the new mix.
Banchetto Feast, a family-style Italian restaurant that opened seven years ago in the old site, returned in October 2012 after closing for seven months. Its location in a new, free-standing building that faces out to the street is going to be a “huge plus,” especially after the final days in the original location, where there was no foot traffic. It was an experience that co-owner Eddie Almeida described as “dismal.”
But these days, he said, “Seeing how beautiful this restaurant is now, it’s getting very exciting for the future.”
Thaughts…
I think someone needs to go back to Journalism school based on the opening paragraph of this article. Also can we please stop with the fanticy that Palisades Center killed Nanuet Mall since they coexisted for a decade?
@SEAN, First off if Nanuet is only going to have 40-50 shops that means a few will be restaurants. Fairway so it will not impact Palisades if they dont have victoyias secret, old navy, dsw Dicks etc people will still go to Palisades. Bergen shoppers look to go to Lord and Taylor a more modern Macys Target and certain restauranys like Cheesecake, Yardhouse etc.so I just dont think it will be so popular with the locals.I do not think we needed fairway. It should be more a BTC OR WODDBURY SETTING.
@rob, How many stores could Simon reasonably add without saturating what is already a small trade area that’s boxed in by Bergen & Westchester. We’ve gone over this in this thread so often it’s become nauseating. Besides do we need another mall with Gap, Victoria’s Secret, Old Navy & the like? That’s what Palasades is for. Don’t forget that this mall will still be 800,000 square feet wich is quite sizeable.
Bringing in Fairway is a nice change of pace & in a way Simon is taking a cue from Forest City’s Ridge Hill Village with it’s Whole Foods Market anchor. Infact supermarkets in lifestyle centers are the rage now since something needs to fill the void left by the oversupply of department stores. Grocery chains are also trying to develop new prototype concepts that can compete with Whole Foods & Trader Joe’s. This is just one part of the defersification process I mentioned to you on the Brunswick Square page.
In Newport Beach CA, Fashon Island recently opened Whole Foods as a way to seperate it self from other malls in the area. This center has Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Macy’s & Bloomingdale’s as anchors. Now Shops at Nanuet isn’t going to have that kind of roster, but they could take a few design cues from there & implament them here.
FYI the comments in another article in the Pearl River Patch I saw mostly ranged from the winey to the insane. I’m not making this up – one commenter went on a short rant regarding that the malls construction was tied to the UN & agenda 21 & not allow the mall to be built. Like I said, insane.
@ Rob, Here’s an article on this topic from last August in case you missed it.
Why your mall is putting in a grocery store
Trader Joe’s, Jimbo’s and Whole Foods are among planned food offerings in San Diego malls
By Tanya Mannes
Saturday, August 4, 2012
For many years, the mall was where you would go to browse through racks of clothes, see a blockbuster movie or stop by the food court for a snack.
Now you can also pick up a bunch of bananas, a gallon of milk or even a cellophane-wrapped steak for dinner.
There’s a new trend of supermarkets setting up shop in malls, and it’s changing our retail landscape. Grocery stores from Jimbo’s Naturally to Trader Joe’s are starting to move in. And Target is already a familiar mall presence with its recently expanded grocery sections.
These supermarkets are being welcomed — in some cases, even courted — by malls who have lost anchor stores such as Borders and Mervyns. They’re betting that fresh food will help re-energize their properties and bring customers back regularly.
“The economic downturn hitting in 2008 had a big impact on mall traffic as consumers pulled back on discretionary shopping,” said Mike Moser, senior vice president with CBRE in San Diego. “Daily needs such as grocery-type uses and gyms bring shoppers on a more regular basis, which is a trend seen across the country as it brings shoppers back to the mall more frequently.”
U.S. adults shop for food an average of 2.2 times a week, according to the Food Marketing Institute, so an in-house grocery store can drive up sales at nearby stores, analysts say.
“From a mall standpoint, a grocery store is attractive because you get the additional foot traffic,” said Phil Lempert, a Santa Monica-based consumer-behavior expert known as the Supermarket Guru. “From a supermarket standpoint, there are so many vacancies that they can get excellent deals. It’s very logical — it makes sense for everybody.”
The timing appears to be right for supermarkets to move in. The departure of some retail chains — and the prospect of Sears closing some stores — means there’s an opportunity to fit major grocery stores in large, vacant spaces. The cost of leasing space in major San Diego malls is about $23 per square foot per year, compared with nearly $30 at the height of the market in 2008, according to CoStar.
Target paved the way as a “transitional” retailer with expanded grocery sections, and Walmart is a close competitor. Now upscale and specialty grocers are reserving space. Here are a few food-focused markets coming soon:
• Jimbo’s Naturally: Taking over the Mervyns space at Westfield Horton Plaza
• Trader Joe’s: Retrofitting the Borders building at Westfield Mission Valley
• Whole Foods: Replacing an old cinema at Flower Hill Promenade in north San Diego near Del Mar.
Westfield, which owns seven of the region’s major malls, has been a leader in this strategy, and also has a Target store going into its North County mall. Tom Tierney, a senior vice present for Westfield in San Diego, has said that the Australian mall owner wants its malls to be “one-stop shopping destinations.”
The supermarket-mall trend is happening mainly in the major markets such as San Diego, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., New York City, said Garrick Brown, national retail research director at Terranomics/ChainLinks in the Sacramento area.
“These are all the top markets around the U.S. where retail performance is highest, where the chains want to expand,” Brown said. “I think it will spread when you look at who is closing down stores … There is a lot of space available; you’re going to see a lot of landlords looking to fill it.”
The concept of locating a grocery store in a mall is not new. Years ago, Grossmont Center and Westfield Horton Plaza both had grocery stores.
Grossmont Center, which now has a busy Target and a Walmart, benefits from having food as part of the mix, said general manager Mike Hansen. Both stores have expanded their grocery sections within the past five years. “I think it’s a good addition to any center,” Hansen said.
The Target store in Westfield Plaza Bonita expanded its grocery offerings in 2010. It carries the most commonly purchased items, such as family packs of chicken breasts, bagged organic spinach salad and bananas. There are also seasonal items, such as hot dogs for summer and stone fruit like peaches and plums. The Plaza Bonita store also caters to the Latino market with brands such as Takis snack chips.
“It’s a good assortment, and it’s the assortment that sells the best. It’s the high velocity items that we stock,” said Kristin Hales, food business partner for Target, during a recent walk-through. “We don’t have the store volume to carry everything, so we have to be very strategic with the core items.”
There can be challenges when you stick a supermarket in a mall built for department stores and boutiques. Usually, there’s a need for additional investment in tenant improvements to ensure that the space can provide adequate water and refrigeration. Another challenge: shopping carts in malls, especially in multi-level stores.
So far, mall owners seem willing to chip in. Westfield is footing the bill for millions of dollars in improvements at Horton Plaza to make way for the Jimbo’s with new escalators, elevators and a “Vermaport,” which is an escalator for shopping carts.
At Flower Hill Promenade, there’s no need to retrofit a building. The Whole Foods is new construction replacing a rundown theater.
Parking and traffic are always concerns, particularly in Mission Valley. Shoppers are worried about how the new Trader Joe’s will affect the already tight parking lot in the busy center between a Gordon Biersch restaurant and an Old Navy.
“Can a grocery store function in the holiday season in a mall?” said Brown of Terranomics. “Do you really want to brave mall traffic just to pick up a head of lettuce? But I think more and more people will start to roll the dice on it.”
Fortunately, grocery stores tend to be open for longer hours than stores, noted Rose Jabin, general manager of Flower Hill Promenade. Its retail stores tend to close at 6 p.m. but Whole Foods will probably stay open until 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. And the benefits outweigh the risks, she said.
“Having some big anchors like this really draws people,” she said. “It provides stability for the center, brings people in on a more regular basis — and it provides a convenience to them to have these other uses.”
Local observations
This is why the new Nanuet Mall will have Fairway, Ridge Hill Village has Whole Foods & White Plains City Center opened ShopRite a year & a half ago. Also cant forget Bergen TC has Whole Foods & The Fashon Center has Fairway as well.
Developers are trying to get ahead of the next hot trend by signing supermarkets that aren’t run of the mill or have the regional chains design stores to atract shoppers with higher incomes.
@SEAN, All I am saying I work in Rockland County in retail and you wont believe the number of frugal shoppers that are here. They buy and constantly return or try to get merchandise cheaper.
@rob, A good shopper should be angling for the best price & I think you know that. Now the mentality in Rockland you refer to is entirely another matter.
Read the article below, it explanes why Fairway signed on in Nanuet. I have a few comments of my own on the bottom.
@rob, Shops at Nanuet, Train Station Upgrades Discussed
Topics covered included revitalizing the train station area, marketing Nanuet, working with the Shops at Nanuet, parking issues and effects on the Nanuet School District
By Kim Tran
Nanuet Chamber of Commerce hosted Clarkstown Representatives to discuss the current and future condition of Route 59 and Main Street in Nanuet
Pearl River and many New Jersey train stations are the hubs of their downtown with shopping and food for commuters and visitors. However, in Nanuet, it’s a different story.
One of the hot topics of last night’s meeting was making Nanuet more of a destination, especially with the incoming Shops at Nanuet, formerly the Nanuet Mall.
At Thursday night’s meeting. The Nanuet Chamber of Commerce invited representatives from Clarkstown to discuss upcoming ideas and changes for Nanuet. An earlier Patch article looked at the discussion topics surrounding Route 59, Nanuet Main Street and zoning.
Shops at Nanuet
“With the decline of the Nanuet Mall, we’ve seen the decline of the façade of the businesses in the Nanuet downtown area,” said Clarkstown Councilwoman Stephanie Hausner. She and Clarkstown Planner Joe Simoes quickly recapped the update on the Shops at Nanuet by the numbers:
•$150 million—total Simon Property is putting into the Shops at Nanuet project
•1000 new retail jobs
•70+ shops
•1500 construction jobs
•approx $2.6 million in taxes annually, which will greatly benefit the school district.
Simoes described two parts to planning: short range and long range planning. Nanuet’s short range plan is the Shops at Nanuet and long range is zoning changes to the town’s comprehensive plan.
To provide an incentive and help facilitate development, “we try to cut the time of development (without) cutting corners,” he said. The town wants to condense the time an economic project takes to be reviewed by the town and county “and make it faster for development to happen. The Nanuet Mall was reviewed … in 5 months, which was an ambitious time period.”
He said that as properties and applications come in, the town will try to get them through the departments as quickly as possible.
“As the shops come in, changes are happening. We already got an application for one of the out-parcels from TD Bank,” said Simoes. The out-parcels are standalone buildings along the edges of the Simon property, such as Banchetto Feast.
“There are a lot of possibilities for Nanuet. We’re not trying to change the character of the town. But we should be cognizant and use the new Nanuet Mall as a push forward to find out how to sell ourselves,” said Hausner. “The involvement of the businesses and residents is crucial. We need to know what the everyday use is of your downtown and what you envision for it.”
Flynn added that there needs to be protection and incentives for businesses to stay along the border of the Shops at Nanuet.
“What can we do for the local landowners that own the properties (on Middletown Road bordering the Shops at Nanuet property) so that they can benefit from the mall? We’ve got a lot of Nanuet residents that are landlords that own these properties,” said Flynn. “I don’t want, where you wait five years and when the mall needs major room, they’ll wait for someone in your family to die and throw a few dollars at them.”
Train Station
“The big advantage for Nanuet is the train station. The fact that Nanuet has a train station lends itself to a great deal of funding and state of the art zoning, something called transit oriented development,” said Simoes.
The train station labels Nanuet as transit-oriented development, which is a help in getting funding and grants for redevelopment.
“That’s something to capitalize on,” said Simoes.
“In Long Island they’ve gotten funding exclusively for an area around transit. You’ll see apartment buildings and shops,” added Hausner.
Simoes said that the train stations around town are more for freight than commuting, which is why there is light industrial office near (former commuter) train stations.
“Part of the difficulty is that we have NJ Transit and Metro North in this location and have to bridge the gap and get them to work together,” said Simoes. “Metro north has the rail and NJ Transit is the service provider.”
Nanuet Resident and Former County Legislator Bob Jackson asked if there could be political pressure used to speed up the revitalization of the train station area.
“If the hub of the train station was on the other side and the (commuter) parking lot was moved over, it’s a whole different feel for the town and (Nanuet becomes more walkable),” said Hausner.
In the meeting, it was mentioned that zoning changes could allow for mixed-use buildings on Main Street with apartments on top of retail stores.
Nanuet Resident and Chamber Member Jim Flynn said that would be fine, as well as apartment buildings near the train station, but it needs to be done smartly to benefit the hamlet and not hurt the Nanuet School District.
“We see everywhere where there’s a train station, they’ve got some type of condo or co-op nearby. We’re bankrupting our school system sending all these kids from rental properties to the school. Maybe we don’t want to flood the school system with two or three bedroom (apartments), but maybe one bedrooms are good for us,” he said. “We need knowledge about those funds (such as development grants).”
“Don’t look at how it is now, think about what it could be,” said Hausner. “When you look at the transit, if you were a train station, what would you want around it? We’ve been to Park Ridge and other communities and seen how they have senior housing and loft spaces for young professionals and retail, but clearly we have to have the input from the residents and businesses in Nanuet.”
Marketing Nanuet
Nanuet has three levels of zoning:
•Community shopping – Middletown Road / Main Street; For the hamlet
•Regional shopping – Route 59; For the town and county
•Major regional shopping – the Shops at Nanuet and the Palisades Center. For town, county and possibly the tri-state area
“You have all three here; you don’t have that anywhere else in the town,” said Simoes. He added that with so many different shopping districts in one area, Nanuet has many possibilities with drawing people from outside.
“At the Metro North stops and trains, you see advertisements for different shopping areas in Westchester. This could be a real destination,” said Hausner. “It leaves it in our hands to make Nanuet a real destination. Maybe it’s something someone jumps on the NJ Transit train from Hoboken to come up to Nanuet for the day. Spend the day walking around the downtown area.”
Hausner added that she wants to look into making the commuters more connected to Nanuet’s downtown so “maybe when they get off the train, before they go to their car, they’ll grab a slice of pizza … Like in Pearl River, where the shops are right across from the train station
Public Comment
Nanuet Resident and Chamber Secretary Susan Farese brought up the issue of parking for Nanuet’s downtown area
“That’s something we can do now. We can do (parking) signage now … signs with arrows directing people to parking,” said Hausner. “Nanuet is different from some of our other hamlet centers where there is some parking behind some of the businesses. There’s only so much street parking and people don’t realize that where there is more parking.”
“We’ve done parking utilization studies on these lots,” said Simoes. “The town lot is 100 percent. The county lot is about 60 percent and MTA lot, which you have to pay for, is 10 percent usage. There’s parking but it’s not being used effectively.”
Flynn said that one of the problems he sees with the properties along Main Street is that the “properties that were laid out many years ago are very narrow,” which makes it difficult to upgrade or do construction improvements.
Flynn added that he wanted to look into revitalizing the Fisher Avenue area.
“We need a large group of landlords (to decide) what do we want there,” he said.
“I’m exited about it. I can’t wait until Oct 1 and can’t wait for Shops at Nanuet,” said Jason Fitzmaurice, owner of Head People Salon, which borders the Simon property. “There’s going to be Fairway and I’m going to be between two supermarkets, like a sandwich.”
He’s been here since the 1970s and added that a change he’d like to see for Main Street is a “Big Ben clock in front of my shop.”
Mark Boyle, a Nanuet resident since 1968 and chair of the chamber’s beautification committee, said that he’s looking forward to cleaning up Nanuet to “make it look warm and have a draw.”
“You have to have a vision and a look for what will draw people to our community. That vision is a uniform look to the buildings, a clean look to the buildings, make sure the sidewalk that is inviting. We need specialty stores (since the Shops at Nanuet will most likely have corporate box stores).”
He added that the chamber needed to work with Simon to make this happen as well. For future ideas, he said he’d like to see an annual tree lighting near the holidays, possibly at the Veterans’ Memorial Park near the train station and Jackson’s rose garden.
“I think if you could fast forward, when we draw from outside of the Nanuet community, then u can put down a flag and say we’ve done this right.”
Economic Funding
Hausner said that there are grants available through the NYS Regional Development Councils, which “the town has not received funding in this model, which was started two years ago.”
Last year the regional council only gave funding to two projects in Rockland. They are looking for manufacturing, pharmaceutical, and job creation projects and there are businesses in Congers that may be a good fit for that.
One project NYS REDC gives funding out to is a Main Street Redevelopment Plan.
“It talks about façade changes and matching grant programs with businesses. (However), there are some economic levels and is for lower income areas or areas doing economic development. (We’re) contacting state officials to find out if we’re eligible for it.”
@Rob,
New York grocery takes its national ambitions public
By WILLIAM ALDEN and PETER LATTMAN New York Times
New York – Until recently, Fairway was not much more than a legendary market on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where locals went for goods like smoked salmon, medjool dates and cheeses.
Today, it is a fast-growing 12-store grocery chain with ambitions of opening 300 outlets across the country.
On Wednesday, its stock started trading for the first time. Its initial public offering got off to a strong start Tuesday evening, with Fairway pricing its shares at $13 each, above the expected range, according to a person briefed on the matter. It raised $177.5 million, valuing the whole company at $536.1 million.
Fairway’s tag line claims that it is “like no other market,” yet it is seeking to expand in a hypercompetitive industry.
A chief rival is Whole Foods, which has aggressively expanded in the New York metropolitan area and in August opened its seventh store in the city. Grocers have also lost customers to the big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and Target, which have become forces in the food business. And even drugstore chains like CVS sell products once available only in supermarket aisles.
Fueling Fairway’s growth is Sterling Investment Partners, a private equity firm that acquired an 80.1 percent stake in the company in 2007 and will continue to control it after the IPO. With Sterling’s support, Fairway expanded in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and is making plans to open stores at a rate of three to four a year.
But with the expansion has come fresh risks. The company lost $11.9 million in the fiscal year that ended in April 2012, even as sales increased 14 percent, to $554.9 million. Its debt has grown, reaching $203.6 million as of last April.
The store in Red Hook, Brooklyn, one of the most promising outposts, suffered when Hurricane Sandy struck in late October.
Fairway had recently filed to go public. But with the Red Hook store closed, the company lost out on what might have been $12.7 million in sales, judging by results in the period a year earlier.
The store ultimately reopened at the beginning of March, with a celebration attended by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
For decades, Fairway was a family business, beginning in the 1930s as a fruit and vegetable stand run by Nathan Glickberg. Originally known as 74th Street Market, the store expanded in 1954, adding meat, cheese and dairy products, and adopted its current name in an effort to reflect its fair prices.
The founder’s grandson, Howard Glickberg, who is vice chairman of development, will continue to own a small stake after the IPO and will receive a $1.8 million bonus connected to the offering. His son, Daniel, who recently resigned as a director, has sold shares in the deal but will also retain a small stake.
Philip Lempert, the editor of Supermarket Guru, an online food-industry publication, said that Fairway would face challenges in the transformation from a local chain to a national one. But he said that two things the company had going for it were “adventure and value,” a combination that appeals to younger generation of food shoppers.
“Millennials wake up every morning not wanting to eat the same food twice in their lifetime,” he said. “Fairway has the Bounty paper towels and Coke but also these small-batch, artisanal items that make it an adventure.”
And soon there will be one in Nanuet.
@Rrob,
Is Fairway’s 300-Store Plan Realistic?
Apr. 23, 2013 Elaine Misonzhnik
The crowded national grocery market is about to welcome another player—New York-based supermarket operator Fairway Group Holdings Corp. On Apr. 17, the company conducted an IPO, selling more than 13.6 million shares at $13 apiece, with the stated goal of expanding to potentially 300 stores nationwide.
Given Fairway’s stellar performance in its New York metro home base, the IPO turned out to be the fourth best-performing public offering year-to-date, according to SeekingAlpha.com. As of Monday morning, the value of Fairway’s stock rose 33 percent, to $18.61 per share. Yet the question remains whether Fairway can replicate its success formula, based on very dense, urban demographics, in 300 additional locations.
That kind of growth might be at best challenging, according to David J. Livingston, of supermarket consulting firm DJL Research.
“That type of talk is usually reserved for large, profitable and debt free retailers,” Livingston says. “I think that was just salesmanship for the press release.”
“I think Fairway is learning as you get further away from your home base, like their store in Stamford, Conn., volumes start to drop off sharply. It’s very difficult to maintain the momentum as a company grows.”
Great model
Supermarket consultants had nothing but praise for Fairway’s operating formula, namely selling high-quality perishable foods at competitive prices. The company’s IPO filing states that during fiscal 2012, its stores delivered net sales of $1,859 per sq. ft., making them one of the most productive in the industry, according to Neil Stern, senior partner with McMillan Doolittle LLP, a Chicago-based retail consulting firm. In contrast, Whole Foods’ newer stores (opened in the last year and a half) delivered average sales of $764 per sq. ft. as of first quarter 2013.
But part of the reason Fairway has been able to achieve such high sales volume is that its stores are located in the densest market in the country, he notes. As of April, the chain operated 12 locations, in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Four of the stores are located in Manhattan, with a fifth scheduled to open this summer. There are also single Fairway stores in Queens and Brooklyn, and locations in Paramus and Woodland Park, N.J., Pelham Manor and Westbury, N.Y. and Stamford, Conn.
However, Fairway has indicated that its average net sales per store and per sq. ft. have declined as it opens new stores.
“It’s a very unique chain. Their business proposition is that their [sales] volume is much higher than that of any conventional supermarket,” Stern says. At the same time, “that means that they need specific types of locations that have enough density to support that proposition. As you leave the New York City metro area, that becomes more difficult to find.”
Fairway’s IPO filing indicates that it plans to open two new stores in fiscal 2014, followed by three to four stores a year in the New York region before expanding onto the national stage. That strategy makes sense for a regional chain as expanding too quickly is one of the most common mistakes retailers tend to make, according to Mark Heckman, of Bradenton, Fla.-based Mark Heckman Consulting Group. He expects that Fairway’s next step would be to start opening stores in other major metro centers along the Eastern seaboard, including Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
The challenge, according to Stern, is that those markets’ population density falls short of New York City’s, and that challenge is only likely to grow more pronounced as Fairway will attempt to break into other parts of the country.
“They don’t replicate New York City because nothing does, but they look and feel relatively similar,” Stern says of cities like Boston and Philadelphia. “For this type of chain, whenever somebody says we can open 300 of these stores, you are more concerned about the 13th and 14th unit than whether they will have 300 or not.”
Since 2009, Fairway has opened eight new stores. The company claims that its urban format stores—which average 40,000 sq. ft. in size and cost approximately $16 million to open, deliver a return on investment within about two years’ time. Its suburban stores, measuring 60,000 sq. ft. and costing approximately $15 million each, deliver a return on investment in approximately three and a half years. Fairway leases its locations.
Real estate angle
An additional challenge for Fairway as it tries to move into new cities might be finding appropriate spaces, according to both Stern and Heckman. The chain has proved creative in solving a similar problem in New York City—its store in Brooklyn is located in a former 19th century coffee warehouse, while in Queens it took over a gutted old Waldbaum’s.
As building new stores from the ground-up in urban centers tends to be quite expensive, Fairway will likely continue rehabbing existing locations as it expands, Heckman says. That strategy would have the added advantage of allowing the company to apply for any existing tax abatements and urban renewal financing packages, he adds, especially in the Northeast.
Ultimately, however, according to Livingston, “Fairway will add a few stores, mostly to adjacent trade areas near their existing stores. I would expect slow methodical growth until they can become profitable and their debt is reduced.”
Fairway reported a net loss of $11.9 million for fiscal 2012. It also carries $274.3 million in debt.
@Rob,
Shops at Nanuet rolls out restaurant lineup
May 7, 2013 by KARI GRANVILLE AND KEN SCHACHTER / kari.granville@cablevision.com
The Shops at Nanuet, the new open-air shopping complex being built on the site of the defunct Nanuet Mall, came into sharper focus Tuesday as developers announced a lineup of shops and restaurants.
Tom Schneider, executive vice president for development for Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group, which owns the Shops at Nanuet, said the emphasis will be on entertainment, dining and fashion and the company has “every confidence in the world” that Rockland County is underserved in retail.
Among the restaurants are: Bonefish Grill, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, Lime Fresh Mexican Grill and Zinburger Wine & Burger Bar.
The mall operators also introduced Coach as a new high-end retailer as well as Banana Republic, lululemon athletica, Michael Kors and a trio of Gap stores, for adults, kids and babies.
Schneider said that Simon had to plead its case to persuade specialty supermarket Fairway Market, a previously announced tenant, to come aboard.
“It bordered on begging,” he said.
Aaron Fleishaker, senior vice president of real estate and construction for Fairway, said that the store would be the “best, newest iteration” of the market’s 14 branches and would probably hire 350-400 unionized workers.
The 760,000-square-foot shopping center is scheduled to open in October.
Schneider said Simon looked at 50-75 possible designs before settling on the $91 million open-air plan. He said the options were limited in part because the location of anchor stores Sears and Macy’s did not allow for enough square footage between them in the enclosed plans. The two stores have remained open during demolition and construction, which began in March 2012.
All told, The Shops at Nanuet is expected to have about 760,000 square feet of retail space, about 150,000 less than the mall it replaces. The stores are laid out along a curving main road called Fashion Drive that will be open to cars and pedestrians and its intersecting side streets.
The shopping center also will include the previously announced 40,000-square-foot 24 Hour Fitness health club and a 12-screen Regal Entertainment Group movie theater that will feature regular and 3-D movies, stadium seating and digital projectors.
The Shops at Nanuet will be competing against several Hudson Valley shopping centers, including Palisades Center in West Nyack, one of the largest in the country.
Other clothiers announced Thursday were Chico’s, White House Black Market, Victoria’s Secret, Express, Jos. A. Bank, The Limited and Soma.
Specialty shops include Brighton Collectibles, Vera Bradley, Bath & Body Works, Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics, Lovesac, Teavana, Cohen’s Fashion Optical, Cups Frozen Yogurt, GNC Live Well and Salon FX Ltd. There will also be a TD Bank branch.
Schneider said all but a handful of the 50 shops are spoken for, and that tenants will be announced as they give permission to go public. He also said that most stores are expected to be ready for the grand opening in October.
Thaughts…
Several of the anounced retailers already have a Palisades location including…
Gap/ Gap Kids/ Baby Gap
Bath & Body Works
Brighton colectibles
Express
Cohen’s Optical
The Limited
GNC
Victoria’s Secret
As you can see you have a large number of mall standards that you’ll find at Palisades, Paramus Park & GSP or any nearby center, although signing Lovesac is a nice touch.
Retail wise Rockland County is under served? That makes no sence & everybody around here knows it.
@SEAN, Interesting but Alex Grommack had said way at the begining no duplicate stores sevan stores that are in Palisades are opening in nanuet .I n place better stores such as timberland store fossil store tornaeu herzog diamonds or jared jewlers would have been better to keep cusomers at both malls by doing this now we will see what will happen ay both malls in october through chrisfmas. Is macys going to do something to that decrepit store. In my opiion they should change it to Bloomingdales.
@Rob, Purely speculation here, but it could be that…
1. Simon inicially wanted to sign higher end tennents & realized they couldn’t sign enough of them to make that distinction from Palisades Center.
2. Alex Gromac is just full of it.
3. Perhaps a combonation of the two.
Well at least they got Fairway wich was the most importent. Also don’t forget that Palisades has been moving more mid-market over the past few years signing Burlington Coat Factory, IHOP & Joe’s Crab shack. Now to be fare, they did sign Yardhouse an unusual find in a Pyramid mall, but Dicks is a staple for Pyramid though.
@Rob,
You & others will find this interesting.
The Future of American Retail – Part 1
Created by Yaromir Steiner, Founder / CEO on May 08, 2013
There are few more recognizably familiar structures than that stalwart American retail icon: the mall. With the rise of the automobile and the growth of suburban living in the middle of the 20th Century, malls exploded onto the retail, social and cultural landscape in a big way. And, while today there is little question that the traditional enclosed regional mall behemoths are buffeted by the winds of change blowing across the retail and mixed-use landscape, malls still occupy a place of prominence in communities across the nation.
The retail world is extraordinarily diverse and the term “shopping center” is often casually used to describe a relatively broad category of retail and mixed-use centers that encompasses everything from traditional enclosed regional malls to neighborhood centers, grocery-anchored community centers, power centers, outlet centers and much more. But while design and development trends have evolved in recent years, there is no escaping the fact that despite the growing influence of new formats and design and development trends, regional malls have been the heartbeat of American retail for the last 50 years. While regional malls represent a fairly modest portion of the overall shopping center square footage in this country (approximately 1 billion square feet of GLA, or about 15% of the 7 billion-square-foot total), their outsized impact on the American psyche and their dominant place on the social and commercial landscape has made them the literal and figurative center of American retail for decades.
It is difficult to overstate the impact that the mall has had on our collective consciousness – not to mention our pocketbooks. Canadian author, researcher and political science professor Arthur Kroker once observed that: “Shopping malls are liquid TVs for the end of the twentieth century. A whole micro-circuitry of desire, ideology and expenditure [representing] ultracapitalism.” As Kroker points out, in many respects, the idea of the mall represents the pinnacle of retail enterprise; a virtual shrine to buying and selling. If we want to take a closer look at how shopping centers are evolving, and if we want to get a better understanding of what the contours of the overall retail forecast might look like, we would be wise to focus on where regional malls are going. Regional malls are the canary in the retail coal mine; the everyday challenges faced by regional mall owners, developers and retailers today are a microcosm of those that are impacting the industry as a whole. Regional malls not only remain a significant component of the larger design and development landscape, but they offer a revealing lens through which it is possible to examine the kind of underlying big-picture issues and trendlines that are shaping the evolution of the next generation of retail and mixed-use destinations. Simply put, examining where regional malls have been, evaluating where they stand today, and analyzing where they may go from here is a great way to create the kind of context and perspective that can provide a revealing glimpse into the future of retail.
What kinds of changes are regional malls wrestling with today? What are the larger economic and social forces that are motivating these changes, and how will those forces manifest themselves going forward?
It is helpful to separate the forces impacting the future of regional malls – and, to a large extent, the shape of the American retail landscape today and in the future – into two broad categories: internal and external. Internal forces include issues directly related to everyday business and operation (retail, development or financing considerations) and external forces include influences manifesting from outside the industry (new land use regulations, cultural and societal shifts). This internal/external distinction is not an easy one to make, and the lines are often blurry. The growth of the internet and the significant influence of online sales, for example, is legitimately considered from both an internal and external perspective (as the example of Apple’s highly successful brick-and-mortar retail locations illustrate). But examining individual issues in this manner does provide some helpful context, and frames the discussion in a way that can identify relevant trends and yield some important insights into the retail destinations of tomorrow.
Internal Forces
Changing role of the department store
Emergence of new consumer-driven department stores
Impact of REIT ownership format
Integration of leisure-time uses in retail environments
External Forces
The end of zoning as the sole urban planning tool
Demand for walkable, mixed-use high-density community spaces
Environmental considerations
Internet and online influence on brick-and-mortar shopping destinations
@Rob,
The Future of American Retail – Part 2
Created by Yaromir Steiner, Founder / CEO on May 08, 2013
The internal forces that have buffeted the regional mall format range from changes in management style, to design and programming philosophy, and the influence of new technologies on retail behavior. From California to the Carolinas, and from the Midwest to the Southern Plains, forces within the industry continue to exert a profound influence on traditional regional malls:
Department store
There is no question that the impact of the regional mall is not what it once was. The slow drift away from the format is reflected in the changing role of the traditional department store. The single-use urban planning model and the abundance of affordable and available land that gave rise to the first shopping centers also created a set of circumstances where, during that growth period, department stores were run largely by financiers rather then by merchants. The result of that shift was significant. To a large extent, the focus moved to achieving short-term financial goals instead of long-term vision; maximizing space productivity rather than establishing a diverse and appealing mix of merchandise; and maintaining cheaper occupancy costs rather than focusing on the strategic positioning and protection of the brand.
Cheap land and single-zoning shopping centers meant that there was less of a need to “go vertical,” and as (in the hands of merchant owners) the suburban regional mall essentially became the new department store, the traditional downtown department stores became less relevant to suburban America. Today, the most successful department stores are those that are largely merchant-run and have maintained an aggressive, responsive, and consumer-focused posture.
A new Target audience
It is said that “nature abhors a vacuum.” Similarly, as traditional department stores began to fall out of favor, innovative newer models began to establish themselves. Retailers like Target, Kohl’s and JC Penney’s have moved forward by largely abandoning convention along with any last vestige of the old multistory urban model. Understanding that translating the traditional format to the suburbs was never a great fit, these innovators have abandoned long-held assumptions to embrace an entirely new approach. By creating something new – a vibrant, freestanding single-story destination with a strong consumer focus – this new generation of department stores has redefined the genre. Retailers like Target have re-embraced the merchant ethos, and committed themselves to providing customers what they want and what they need. Instead of trying to transplant an urban format to the suburbs, these new malls have created something entirely new; reinventing themselves and exerting a profound influence the retail development industry in the process. What makes these retailers effective is that they have shown the ability to evolve. And as retail development continues to move away from single-use zoning environments in the future, that evolution must continue if they wish to remain successful. In fact, Target is already doing this to some extent; tasking their special units team to adapt to unusual land use conditions.
The REIT stuff
Economic realities and marketplace priorities can be a double-edged sword. The emergence of the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) as an increasingly common ownership format has had a profound effect on the long-term success of regional malls. Similarly to the dynamic that has seen department stores adopt more of a short-term bottom-line perspective, more and more often decisions are being driven by financial considerations rather than by merchandising considerations. When financiers are making the kind of strategic decisions that should be made by merchants, the results can be predictably uninspired. While some owners and developers have kept their regional malls relevant by investing their capital thoughtfully and carefully monitoring the quality of their tenant mix, the general trend line is clear.
The value of most REITs is based on short-term metrics. The funds from operations (FFO), a figure REITs use to define the cash flow from their operations, and the value of the shareholders to a great extent determines the value of the REIT. Assuming, logically, that the market objective is to maximize the value of that REIT, then capital expenditures take on a whole new level of short-term importance. To maintain upkeep on the premises and maintenance on the property requires a steady flow of cash; the same funding source that was typically invested to encourage retailers to upgrade facilities or work with owners to upgrade their stores. The trend away from proportionate Common Area Maintenance (CAM) fees reimbursed by the retailer, to a fixed CAM has had consequences. Now, REITs are faced with what can seem like a conflict: the desire to cut costs and maximize short-term value, or cut some corners in maintenance and improvements and pocket whatever does not get spent. Subsequently, many centers experience a gradual long-term degradation of the quality of the grounds and the maintenance, and tenant allowances may suffer. The natural process of replacing/upgrading tenants that any successful mall must engage in requires capital expenditures. That money either comes from the REIT (which obviously diminishes cash available for distribution) or from the retailer (which may directly impact their renting capacity). In this counterproductive dynamic, the system is organized to minimize capital expenditures and maximize rent collection; rewarding decisions that may make sense on paper and still have negative long-term consequences.
To be fair, some REITs have a bit more flexibility and are able to let their stock price sag somewhat in the short-term, but many cannot afford that luxury. The best examples of successful contemporary retail and mixed-use developments are living proof that investing in the quality of the environment is critical, and that the failure to do so risks not only diminishing the strength of the emotional attachment that shoppers develop to a place, but also ultimately potentially giving up strategic position in the market. Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio; Bal Harbour Shops in Miami, Florida; NorthPark Center in Dallas, Texas; South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California; and Somerset Collection in Troy, Michigan all offer vibrant and engaging environments and, ultimately, superior projects. It is not a coincidence that the ownership of those developments is not publicly traded; all of these projects are owned by groups or families who are experienced merchants in their own right.
A leisurely approach
The successful integration of increasingly dynamic leisure-time uses in retail and mixed-use environments has been one of the most profound evolutionary shifts within the industry, and has further clouded the future for the traditional regional mall format. From cinemas, bars, restaurants and comedy clubs, to spectacular sport-and-entertainment options, the commercial energy and mixed-use synergy that can be generated by incorporating leisure-time elements into traditional retail formats has opened both eyes and wallets. A powerful demonstration of the power of dense mixed-use environments to drive foot traffic and stimulate retail energy can be seen in a number of representative and dramatic examples around the country. It is not unheard of, for example, for a restaurant in a mixed-use town center to bring in significantly higher revenue compared to an identical restaurant across town in a single-use retail development serving the same demographic base.
Mixed-use designs and leisure-time elements must be thoughtfully conceived and skillfully executed to work well; it is not enough to simply graft a liner building or a short retail avenue to the side of a mall. Therein lies the difficulty for enclosed regional malls. Closed off and inward facing, they are not generally amenable to easy redevelopment or upgrade. When done right, however, the best mixed-use destinations use the power of the street grid and a rich urban fabric to capture the bustling energy of traditional urban centers.
While much of the long-term trajectory of regional malls can be traced via internal forces, influences from outside the retail development industry have also exerted unavoidable and (some would argue inevitable) cultural, behavioral, demographic and design pressures that are changing the ways that we perceive retail environments:
Zoned out
The gradual phasing out of zoning as the sole urban planning tool has opened up new realms of design and development possibility. People have begun to realize that applied literally, single-zoning development was creating an urbanistically orphaned America. The lack of true town centers and central community gathering places has taken a collective toll, and there is a growing and genuine appreciation for retail and mixed-use spaces that are more dense, organic and integrated into the space and places we use everyday. In this context, the sterility and relative remoteness of the stand-alone regional mall comes up short.
Walking the walk
When Americans are asked to name memorably great urban spaces that appeal to them, the vast majority of responses name places that were built in the first half of the 20th Century. In the ensuing decades, the population has gone from 200 million to 300 million, we have been to the moon, and yet in all that time, we have largely failed to create the kind of places that resonate. This is telling and troubling set of circumstances. There is a pent-up demand for walkable, mixed-use high-density community spaces; town centers, village squares, main streets and activated urban environments that recognize the need for something new and different and provide a built environment that supports experience and interaction. The success of thoughtfully designed residential components as an integral part of newer mixed-use developments has reinforced the notion that “live, work and play” design must be a large part of our retail strategy going forward.
Conservation nation
As our society continues to go green and prioritize healthy, environmentally sensitive lifestyle choices, higher-density projects and retail and mixed-use destinations that accommodate a car-free lifestyle will only continue to grow in popularity. Environmental considerations such as minimizing carbon footprints, reducing waste and participating in eco-conscious behaviors will continue to influence design and development decisions going forward. Efficiencies of space and resources and technological advances that facilitate a conservation-minded lifestyle are more practical in today’s denser mixed-use environments.
Online versus inline
The Internet has also played a significant role in changing the way traditional retail destinations are perceived. Beyond the direct competition or the raw sales numbers, the ability of the Internet and online shopping to impact the way that brick-and-mortar malls function and focus on the shopper’s experience has been profound. Retailers and developers alike are beginning to acknowledge that shopping can become an exploration; stores are turning to more guerilla retailing models and developers are abandoning the static monotony of the traditional regional mall setting in favor of more dynamic, flexible and experiential designs.
Commodities inevitably migrate to the internet and online shopping does allow for greater pricing comparison, and so it might be tempting to conclude that only specialty items that need to be tried and touched will remain the exclusive provenance of malls and retail destinations. But that conclusion would be wrong. Some common examples that illustrate this point clearly are no further away than the local bookstore or Starbucks. Starbucks coffee is available at a much reduced price for at-home consumption. Nonetheless, vast numbers of people go to their local coffee shop every day, because there is something about the place and the experience that appeals to them. Whether it is the barista, the smell of fresh-brewed coffee, or the warmth and conviviality of the space, there is a powerful attraction that cannot be replicated outside of Starbucks itself. Books can now be ordered and even read online, but browsing at the bookstore is still a popular diversion for many. Finally, perhaps the most dramatic example is the Apple Store. Despite Apple’s well-understood product line, their stores have some of the most successful sales-per-square-foot numbers, and that is directly attributable to the fact that customers enjoy the experience of visiting the store; talking, touching, playing and interacting in a way that they cannot do when ordering something online.
The leveraging of short supply chains and limited merchandise runs has worked well for retailers such as H&M, Zara, and Forever 21. The operational mechanics of these formats (the ability to go into production and get new items to the marketplace quickly and a reluctance to reorder) gives them the flexibility to design and update their lines much more frequently and creates a sense of retail “urgency.” The result is a retail model that, in some ways, short-circuits the most appealing elements of online shopping. Consumers are learning that almost every other week there will be a whole new set of merchandise and, more importantly, that if they want access to that merchandise, they will need to visit the store again…and again…and again!
Where do we go from here?
As evidenced by the example of the Apple Store, the interactive and experiential nature of shopping can provide something important that sterile retail venues or a clinical online experience cannot. Humans crave social engagement, respond to comfortable surroundings, and will always prefer to participate in eyeing, trying and buying when they are given the option to do so in a well-designed space.
So where does this insight leave us? More importantly, where will this take us? How do we integrate the idea of experience into our retail vision going forward? What is the retail landscape going to look like in five years; ten years; and beyond? With the dominance of regional malls no longer a certainty, and fresh new formats emerging as a force in the marketplace, the inevitable conclusion is that mixed-use town centers represent the future of American retail. Activated, dynamic new retail and mixed-use environments, together with the redeveloped or converted regional malls will likely be able to provide a more vibrant and viable spectrum of mixed-use options. Town-center-style projects, particularly those with a strong leisure time component, do more than just accommodate these live, work, shop, play and entertain environments; they actively inspire them. Communities want, need, and love their retail and mixed-use spaces, and it is up to developers to deliver them.
While Power Centers and Big Box projects will continue to have a niche and strong grocery-anchored community centers will continue to perform, opportunities for mixed-use projects at the regional level will increase as a significant portion of existing mall assets will likely need to be rethought or remade. Just as the death of a large tree in the Amazon rain forest opens up a valuable patch of sunlight for fast-growing seedlings, the demise of some regional malls in the face of challenging economic circumstances will continue to create gaps in the development canopy. The challenge for experienced developers is to demonstrate sufficient insight, innovation and redevelopment savvy to take full advantage of those opportunities and create a new generation of mixed-use projects growing toward that patch of light.
Thaughts…
This is where the shops at Nanuet comes up short by not taking advantage of mixing uses. Part of this falls on Clarkstown & some falls on the NIMBY’s who remain in the past. Steiner has discussed at length that this mindset needs to change & he is right.
Shops at Nanuet opens October 10.
@SEAN, Palisades Mall is starting their rennovation job. I heard Urbam Outfitters may open there as well.
@rob, Oh I know about the renovations at Palisades Center, they were long over due. Will Urban outfitters open in shops at Nanuet? they recently opened at the Westchester about 2-months ago in the former Restoration Hardware across from Crate & Barrel.
@SEAN, No i heard they are opening urban in palisades not shops at nanuet. They are opening a bunch of new stores in Palisades. I also heard that besides pyramid rennovating palisades they are also making over and expanding galleria at crystal run in middletown ny.
@rob, Hmmm, that is interesting regarding Urban Outfitters since you would expect them to open in Nanuet. Perhaps the renovations at Palisades were a catilist for them to sign better stores & fill spaces that never opened.
According to http://www.deadmalls.com, Galleria at Crystal Run hasn’t been doing well as of late. To be fair, the last post on it was some time ago. Regardless of that, Pyramid must have recognized that it was time for renovations. Perhaps Poughkeepsie Galleria will soon be in line for a similar treatment as the latter was the design basis for the former.
@SEAN, Well Palisades is up against Nanuet so they are trying to bring in stores that will keep their customer base so this is why they wont get bad mouthed by the locals of rockland county as they have for 15 years.
@rob, From the Journal News…
Bonefish Grill, P.F. Chang’s among businesses coming to Nanuet mall
Written by Hema Easley
Jun 05 http://www.lohud.com
Owners Simon Properties announced the names of 30 retailers that will open for business Oct. 10. About 20 other stores and restaurants have signed leases but asked Simon not to release their names yet, said Thomas Schneider, executive vice president.
Some of the restaurants announced Tuesday include Bonefish Grill, P.F. Chang’s, Lime Fresh Mexican Grill and Zinburger Wine & Burger Bar. Cups, which sells frozen yogurt, and Teavana, a tea emporium, will also open shop.
The new stores include White House Black Market, Victoria’s Secret, Chico’s, Express, Gap, Vera Bradley, Brighton Collectibles, Jos. A. Bank, The Limited, Express, lululemon athletica, Lush, Lovesac, Cohen’s Fashion Optical, Bath and Body Works, and Soma.
“We’ve been planning this project for what seems like forever,” said Schneider. “We’re excited about it.”
Clarkstown and Simon have been in discussions for years about the old Nanuet Mall, which began to lose customers and tenants when the Palisades Center opened in 1998. They hope a refurbished mall with high-end stores will lure customers back.
Simon previously announced the opening of Regal Cinemas with 12 screens, 24 Hour Fitness, which will have an indoor swimming pool, basketball on site, and cardio equipment, and Fairway Market.
“We are going to give the people of Rockland County a very new food experience,” promised Aaron J. Fleishaker, senior vice president for Fairway. “It will be our best and newest iteration of Fairway”
The store will have a sit-down cafe serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, Fleishaker said. It will likely employ 350 to 400 workers, he said.
The announcements were made at a media briefing at Banchetto Feast, a restaurants at the site that has already opened for business.
In Simon’s first presentation to Clarkstown in late 2011, Schneider emphasized that stores at the new mall would be unlike those at the Palisades Center, and give local residents shopping opportunities they did not already have.
But on Tuesday, Simon announced the names of many stores that are also located at the other mall. These include Gap, Express, White House Black Market, Victoria’s Secret, Banana Republic, Bath and Body Works, and Cohen’s Fashion Optical.
Schneider dismissed concerns about competition between businesses that have stores both at the Palisades Center and The Shops at Nanuet.
“There’s always competition between and among retail venues,” said Schneider. “What we offer is a much differentiated product mix and a different architecture.”
Renderings of The Shops show an L-shaped, open-air mall with a boulevard called Fashion Street flanked by single-story stores next to a two-story cinema and fitness center. Pedestrian walkways and landscaping flank the stores. A small park with seating and an events area will also be built.
Last week the Palisades Center announced it will spend “tens of millions of dollars” on a makeover that will include Wi-Fi, soft seating areas, interior landscaping and a four-story center court superstructure. It said the sprucing up had nothing to do with the openning of the Shops at Nanuet.
Thaughts…
Thomas Schneider is just full of it. Everyone is watching what there compitition is doing & are reacting acordingly.
@rob, Another article for you.
Palisades Center mall to get makeover, Wi-Fi
Written by Hema Easley
Jun 05 http://www.lohud.com
WEST NYACK — Faced with the first serious competition in more than a decade, the Palisades Center is planning to spend “tens of millions of dollars” on a makeover to include Wi-Fi, soft seating areas, interior landscaping and a four-story center court superstructure.
Rockland County’s largest mall said Friday that the sprucing up had nothing to do with the planned opening in the fall of The Shops at Nanuet, which is barely four miles away. The Nanuet mall is expected to announce a list of stores at a Tuesday news conference.
“We recognize it is time for an update and are always trying to enhance the customer experience
,” the Palisades Center said in response to a question during a Twitter news conference.
The face-lift will start in a few weeks and is expected to be completed by the end of the year. No stores or restaurants would be closed during the project, the mall said.
Images on the mall’s website showing what it would look like after the makeover reveal a warmer paint
scheme, architectural lighting, custom planters and glass handrails.
A photo of a seating area shows plush carpeting, soft seating, planters and architectural details.
An image of the mall entrance facing the New York State Thruway shows a colored glass mosaic, a large logo, an exterior color palette and landscaping.
The elevators would be upgraded during the process, the mall said, and some new tenants would be announced in the coming months.
After a $150 million transformation, Rockland’s oldest mall is to reopen on Oct. 1 as The Shops at Nanuet.
The Nanuet Mall opened in 1969 but began to lose customers and tenants when the Palisades Center debuted in 1998.
The owners, Simon Property group, and local residents have been hoping a refurbished Nanuet mall with high-end stores will bring customers back and improve the economy of the area.
In Rockland’s intensely competitive retail market, shoppers said they are always looking for something new.
Several who spoke to The Journal News on Sunday afternoon agreed that the Palisades Center could use a fresh coat of paint, among other improvements.
“They do need Wi-Fi,” said Baron Roper, 39, of Spring Valley as he left Macy’s with his wife, Kim.
Ray Piatkowski, 59, of Dumont, N.J., comes to the mall once or twice a week before starting work as a local bus dispatcher.
“It could use a little bit of a face-lift,” he said. “I don’t particularly like the concrete floors. But it’s not horrible.”
But Roz Lapin, 65, of Garnerville said she didn’t want retailers passing along the project’s cost to consumers.
“Too much money,” she said, frowning. “Not if it’s gonna cost anybody another dime.”
To see what the Palisades Center would look like after the makeover, go to http://www.palisadescenter.com/ohwow.
@rob, One more article.
Shops at Nanuet set to open in October
By: Mary Shustack Posted date: May 16, 2013.
Michael Kors, Coach and Vera Bradley will be among the retail mix when The Shops at Nanuet opens this autumn, the final step in a revamping of the former Nanuet Mall in Rockland County.
Most of the approximately 50 tenants at the 750,000-square-foot development off Route 59 will be ready for shoppers, diners and other patrons when the outdoor mall opens Oct. 10, said Thomas J. Schneider, executive vice president of development for Simon Property Group Inc., the mall’s owner.
More than 30 tenants, including restaurants, service companies and fashion retailers, were announced at a recent press conference that included a hard-hat tour of the future home of 24 Hour Fitness.
The state-of-the art, 45,000-square-foot workout center will join Fairway Market, a 12-screen Regal Cinemas complex and current anchors Macy’s and Sears, which have remained open during the yearlong construction project, as the largest tenants.
Schneider, based in Simon’s Indianapolis, Ind. office, said work at the revitalized center is proceeding on time and is meeting Simon’s expectations.
“We’re a little over five months from opening and we couldn’t be more excited,” he said. “We feel very strongly that this will be a very successful center.”
The open-air mall, which replaces a traditional indoor mall that dated to the late 1960s, ends a long saga of decline that saw the Nanuet Mall continue to struggle following the late-’90s opening of the Palisades Center in West Nyack, the Pyramid Management Group’s shopping and entertainment center that is about four miles from the Simon development.
The “clean, fresh” effort that will be the Shops at Nanuet will not attempt to replicate the Palisades Center, Schneider said. .
“There’s always competition between and among retail venues,” he said. “We’re clearly offering something different. I think we’re offering something different in terms of size, scale, design.”
“Malls never die easy,” he said of the Nanuet Mall. “At some point you’ve got to decide to start over.”
It just took time for things to fall into place.
“We’ve been planning this project forever,” Schneider said. “We were ready to go a few years ago when the economy took a dive.”
He said the Shops at Nanuet went through “50 concepts” before the current incarnation gained approval. Design is by Dorsky + Yue International L. L. C. architects in Cleveland, Ohio, with construction by Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., headquartered in Baltimore, Md. .
The cost of the redevelopment was not disclosed.
“We never release the cost of the project,” Schneider said. “It’s significant,” he added after a pause, eliciting laughs from the audience.
Schneider said the bulk of retailers will be ready for the October opening, with the remainder expected to join the lineup next spring. A mall boulevard, complete with greenery, will welcome shoppers to the pedestrian-friendly center.
“Most of the project is oriented around what we call Fashion Drive,” Schneider said.
Among other retailers leasing space there are Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, lululemon athletica, Brighton Collectibles, Chico’s, White House/Black Market, Victoria’s Secret, Jos. A. Bank, Lovesac Alternative Furniture Co. and Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics.
Dining options will include P.F. Chang’s, Bonefish Grill, Lime Fresh Mexican Grill and Zinburger.
“We’re very pleased with the leasing effort,” Schneider added, noting that by next spring he expects the Shops at Nanuet to be “virtually full.”
And, Schneider added, the project is about to move into its final phase.
“The tenants will be taking possession this month,” he said, preparing their individual stores for opening.
Sharing the enthusiasm for the Shops at Nanuet was Aaron Fleishaker, senior vice president of real estate and construction at Fairway Market, who said the iconic New York City grocery company’s first venture into Rockland County, and 14th store overall, will offer residents something special.
“I think we’re going to give the people of Rockland County a unique food experience,” he said.
He added the Fairway store will also boost the local economy, with hundreds of skilled workers needed to man the 66,097-square-foot destination that will feature specialty foods and a sit-down café.
“Fairway is a good job store,” he said. “Our average store hires between 350 and 400 employees.”
Alexander J. Gromack, supervisor for the town of Clarkstown, said The Shops at Nanuet project is a boost for the surrounding community.
“To say that this is an important project is an understatement,” Gromack said. “We’ve really been a part of this every step of the way.”
And, he added, having the entire town board on hand for the announcement reflected its importance. “We want the town of Clarkstown to show we are indeed business friendly. It’s not just a slogan.”
Gromack said the project has already “revitalized the spirit of the people of Clarkstown.”
A major mall developer in this region, Simon Property Group also owns Woodbury Common Premium Outlets in Orange County, The Galleria at White Plains and The Westchester in White Plains.
@SEAN, Sean , i have been getting some reaction to some people i deal with where i work and said sure on nice days in spring and summer nice to shop an outdoor mall but how about winter snow and rainy days like we just had all will take cover at Palisades.I see how people here are hesitent to spend in the two stores i work at a dept store and a supermarket. They just want this as a show piece to out shine Palisades. There will be still certain stores and restaurants people will still want to go to at Palisades. I spoke to pyramid and they said they are bringing in new stores and make sure palisades stays fully occupied. They will not compete with palisades 50 shops against over 200 at palisades.i
@rob, The idea is that Nanuet & palisades will coexist serving different market segments as GSP & the other Paramus malls do. In the Paramus case however, most stores at Paramus Park can be found at GSP. So here what creates the seperation isn’t demographics but geography. Mallguy has mentioned this in the Paramus Park thread & elsewhere.
I do see one potential pitfall with the shops at Nanuet & it has nothing to do with the climate, rather it has to do with the fact that a fair percentage of the retailers beyond dining can be found at Palisades & other nearby malls. Of course Fairway is a real standout & will draw the shoppers along with the restaurants, 24-hour Fitness & the Regal Cinemas.
Rob, Keep in mind that despite that Palisades has 200-stores, many spaces actually never were occupied & I’m not talking about the areas that were never allowed to open. Speaking of wich… now that Palisades is being renovated, will the closed off areas of the mall finally get a chance to get some use? After all Palisades doesn’t want to lose out on a potential tennent to Paramus just because that Clarkstown officials come off as pig headed. Same for Nanuet.
@SEAN, I get what you are saying Palisades ha s 15 restaurants Nanuet will only have 5 When I worked at Lord and Taylor they wanted the third floor but clarkstown wouldnt approve it. They are going into home depts their manhattan and ridgewood stores have but i dont think they will in palisades because of jcp macys target and bed bath . I know GSP AND PARAMUS PARK DO HAVE SOME OF THE SAME STORES BUT MONEY FLOWS BETTER IN BERGEN COUNTY MORE SO THAN ROCKLAND AND THATS WHAT CONCERNS ME AND AS I SAID I SEE IT WORKING IN TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF RETAILERS,
@Rob,
The Shops At Nanuet Releases Four-Day Grand Opening Plans
Posted by Robin Traum (Editor) , September 27, 2013 at 04:15 PM
Signs for the retailers and restaurants opening at The Shops At Nanuet are now visible as the center announces its grand opening plans. After an 18-month long multi-million dollar redevelopment, The Shops at Nanuet officially opens with a four-day celebration beginning at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 10th.
The new, 750,000 square foot open-air center will welcome customers with a ribbon cutting and flag ceremony followed by live music, prize-an-hour giveaways, entertainment, food and drink, and the opening of dozens of new stores.
“The special four day celebration promises something for everyone and serves as a thank you to our loyal customers for their patience and continued interest,” said Ryan Hidalgo, The Shops at Nanuet general manager. “We look forward to reclaiming our position as the premier shopping destination in the Rockland County region.”
On Thursday through Sunday morning, the first 500 shoppers to register will receive a special gift as part of the Simon Premium Giveaway. Hourly giveaways during the four-day celebration include gift cards donated by mall retailers Macy’s, J. Jill, The Limited, Tiara Jewelers, Gap, Soma Intimates, Zinburger Wine and Burger Bar and CUPS Frozen Yogurt. One $1,000 Simon Giftcard® will be given away.
As shoppers walk around the new 750,000 square foot center they will come across Entertainment Zones, musical performances and a Food Truck Court. The entertainment will feature caricature artists, stilt walkers, henna tattooists, jugglers, magicians, balloon animal makers, face painters and a fire-eater. Local artists will be giving musical performances throughout the four days. The Food Truck Court will offer a variety of dining options from Thai Elephant, French Quarter, Incrediballs, Taqueria Autentica, Dark Side of the Moo and Waffle de Lys.
Special activities are planned for each day. On Thursday, Nyack Hospital will offer complimentary Health Screenings and The Limited hosts an Evening of Style, a special meet and greet with its head of design, Elliot Staples, and a chance to win an apparel makeover.
On Friday, at Macy’s Black Tie Affair visitors can sample complimentary hors d’oeuvres and consult with personal stylists and professional makeup artists. Guests can join in on the Crossfit Workout with Drew Davies from Rebel Fitness, enter to win a $1,000 Simon Giftcard® and celebrate with Gap Style Event+Fashion+Food+Drink+Music+You
Saturday activities are geared toward children with the Then & Now Handprint Ceremony” involving local children as they leave their mark in a cement monument. In 1969 a handprint monument was created at the original opening of Nanuet Mall, which has been preserved. The Rockland Reading Council will share two beloved children’s books and Clifford the Big Red Dog and Curious George will make special appearances.
On Sunday join Fairway Market’s “Food for Thought…and Stomach” for a series of food talks, tastings, cooking demonstrations and samplings to promote healthy eating. Participate in a Workout with 24 Hour Fitness in an group exercise class hosted by team members and enter to win a 24-day membership with five personal training sessions. Check out Sunset Yoga by lululemon athletic wear with Jaime Dickow from Jaime Surya Yoga.
Anchored by Macy’s and Sears, The Shops at Nanuet will include 50 specialty stores along with junior anchors Fairway Market, Regal Cinemas and 24-Hour Fitness. At least 30 of the shops are expected to open on Oct. 10th.
The grand opening hours are Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. For additional information, call the Shopping Line at (845) 501-4272; visit http://www.simon.com, http://www.facebook.com/shopsatnanuet or Twitter:@ShopsNanuet.
Simon Property Group, Inc. owns and manages The Shops At Nanuet.
@Rob,
The Urbanization of Suburbia? Examining the notion of the “rush to placemaking”
Created by Yaromir Steiner, Founder / CEO on September 26, 2013
Perhaps the best way to begin a discussion about the “urbanization of suburbia”—a concept that has been discussed and debated with increasing frequency in recent years—is to correct a simple misunderstanding: there is no urbanization of suburbia. Rather than a new version of “urban sprawl,” what we are seeing instead is the strategic selection of promising sites and opportunities: high-density nodes of mixed-use development. Some, of course, are more successful than others, and some have been executed with a greater or lesser degree of aesthetic, synergistic and commercial skill than others, but it would be a mistake to think about it as urbanization on a widespread scale.
When that kind of high-density mixed-use development works, it works very well. Some of the most well-known examples include projects like Crocker Park in Cleveland, Ohio; Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio; The Grove in Los Angeles, California; Zona Rosa in Kansas City, Missouri; Bowie Town Center in Bowie, Maryland; and City Place in West Palm Beach, Florida. All of these projects feature not just a mix of uses, but also powerful synergies and impactful experiential elements. All have demonstrated the durability and profitability of great spaces and places.
Understanding what these success stories mean—what distinguishes them and what they might herald for the future—requires a thoughtful and thorough examination of some of the mechanics and misconceptions about placemaking, urbanization, and the future of commercial development.
Deliberate and articulate
One of the misconceptions is that there is a “rush” to try and turn every new project into an exercise in placemaking. Industry professionals who have been in touch with design and development trends for decades understand quite well that, while more new developments (and redevelopments) are embracing the kind of dense, human-scale design elements and integrated mix of uses that distinguishes high-quality urban design, there is no widespread “rush” to placemaking.
Make no mistake, the placemaking pendulum is swinging back, but it is (for the most part) doing so in a deliberate and organic manner. More importantly, this shift is not a temporary fad or design preference—it is in response to some fundamental trends that are deeply rooted in the way that that we, as a society, think about and use space, and spend our time and our money. To resort to an overused but still powerfully descriptive phrase: the way we live, work and play.
Trend #1: Sustainability and environmental responsibility
Land is precious. Quality land is even more precious—and it continues to become more so with each passing year. As a result, we are seeing higher densities and more creative and consequential efforts at adaptive re-use. Natural resources are scarce, driving increased sustainability awareness and boosting LEED certifications. Even infrastructure is precious, sparking an increased appreciation for leisure time uses that extend the day and provide more bang for the built-environment buck. Whether it is time, money, properties or places, fewer resources means that doing more with less is more important than ever before.
Trend #2: End of Euclidian zoning
Euclidean zoning, where rigid land-use tenets segregate commercial, residential and leisure time activities and place arbitrary limitations on development, are increasingly viewed as inflexible and outdated. To a large extent, architects are reclaiming urban planning from engineers, applying proven urban design principles to integrate a mix of uses with the improved design of public spaces and a range of innovative social- and customer-centric designs.
Trend #3: Reintroduction of leisure time uses into the retail mix
As leisure time uses become an increasingly familiar feature on the mixed-use landscape, the social role of the marketplace has begun to reassert itself. Designs (and expectations) are changing. Entertainment anchors are on the rise. The importance of open-air environments, natural gathering spaces, and authentic environments and experiences is becoming clearer.
Trend #4: Emergence of strong retail brands
The diminishing role of anchors in design and development, and the growing preference for “direct access” by customers have combined to facilitate the growth of stronger and more prominent brands. The consequence of that trend is less reliance on the design and development limitations of traditional anchors, and greater emphasis on meaningful, engaging design. The built environment is important only insofar as it fosters and enhances access to brands and experiences.
Consequences and characteristics
From a design and development standpoint, the consequences of these trends are significant. The key characteristics that define the successful execution of this new generation of commercial developments include: public spaces as anchors, a mix of uses, open-air environments, and the thoughtful integration of leisure time uses. These are projects designed according to traditional urban design principles, destinations that function as not only commercial, but also civic and social hubs. When done well, these characteristics are mutually reinforcing for successful execution. This is not so much a checklist as it is a feedback loop: a true case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. It is the very definition of synergy.
What’s Where’s next?
If we understand and accept the prevalence and inevitability of these trends, the natural next question to ask is: what’s next? What does this mean? And what will be the impact on future retail real estate development?
A better question than what is next might be where is next. It seems virtually inevitable that, over the next 25 years or so, the traditional mall will be continue to be phased out and “replaced” by a new generation of New Town Centers. These mixed-use environments will feature a strong retail component joined with leisure-time uses, with traditional urban principles guiding designs that integrate public spaces and include more environmentally responsible buildings with adaptive re-use potential.
For developers, the practical impacts of those principles in action means that we will likely see more extensive use of parking decks, larger building blocks to accommodate vehicles and pedestrians, city planning driven by street grids and environments rather than by zoned uses, and the resurgence of urban planning as an architectural discipline.
The happy conclusion is that it is increasingly clear that, when it comes to commercial development, form is function: New Town Centers can be both commercial engines and social hubs; both aesthetic and architectural triumphs. In that context, it is perhaps not so hard to envision America’s planned commercial landscape a couple of decades from now as once again being not only bountiful, but also beautiful.
Yaromir Steiner is the founder and CEO of Columbus, Ohio-based Steiner + Associates. http://www.steinerassociates.com
@Rob, One more related article,. Sorry, it’s lengthy.
Since the Great Recession, retail has shifted to two realms: more precise and compact on one hand, and more grand and luxurious on the other. In denser areas, developers are turning to architects and designers to create projects that are infill and that fit the use needs of a limited community and of retailers who want smaller stores that fit their demographic. At larger centers, developers want more amenities and place-making features that allow customers to spend time and have experiences at centers, not just in-and-out shopping trips. Retailers, as well, are tailoring their environments to the customer, captivating their interest, embracing technology and maximizing physical space.
“Retail development is constantly in a state of change and seeking to become as efficient and as relevant as possible,” says Angelo Carusi, principal of Cooper Carry’s retail specialty practice group. “Economic change puts stress on consumers during certain times and in other times allows consumers to be more frivolous in expenditures. There will always be winners and losers.”
Quality Versus Quantity
The biggest shift in retail has come with the changes that have occurred as a result of the recession’s effect on the shopper. Consumer spending habits — not only with money, but also with their time — have changed. An omnichannel retailing environment now exists where consumers can shop in stores or online with little price differential, so the experience often makes the sale. While this has forced a change with consumers, it has also made retailers and retail owners smarter about determining how much space is needed, and how retail space is used.
“Retailers are using space more economically,” says Frankie Campione with CREATE Architecture. “We are finding the recession provided an opportunity for retailers and developers to rethink the status quo; and that stores did not have to get bigger for more sales. Consequently, we are seeing tenants downsize and provide economy of scale.”
Retail owners have reacted by developing more conservative projects that focus on flexible space and areas for pop-up retail, food trucks and other trends that may exist in the future.
“The economic downturn has meant smaller and more focused projects tailored to the market demands and demographics,” says Tony van Vliet, partner with DDG. “This has, in some ways, moved the focus from quantity toward quality and better design. The markets for projects are much more unique and selective, and the expansion-era merchandising formulas aren’t always appropriate. Much of the focus has been on renovating, improving and expanding properties to strengthen their position in their marketplace.”
“Most of our clients are looking to develop quality projects,” adds Owen McEvoy, design director for Kenneth Park Architects. “Where a few years ago, it was about quantity — how many roll outs in a year, how to maximize buildable square footage — the trend is now toward quality and value creation. Our clients recognize that people are more aware of their spending habits, and as a result they expect a higher level of service and experience for their money.”
By creating projects that are tailored to the market, developers are increasing sales for retailers by giving consumers the right environment that creates a good experience to do business.
“In mid-sized markets, infill projects appear to be the current development path,” says Carusi. “Infill projects occur in mature markets that may be underserved, where an obsolete form of retail project becomes available for redevelopment. A smaller regional mall may get converted to a large format center, or a successful community center may have a large space become available that can be redeveloped into higher yielding small shop space.”
Since the proliferation of power centers in the 1990s, big boxes have continually adapted to changes in the market. Now, nearly built out in suburban areas, many big box power center tenants are trying their hand at creating smaller environments designed for infill or urban markets.
“The need for large format retailers to find positions within existing urban and suburban locations require adjustments to sales and loading configuration and, when mixed with a vertical relationship or other uses above, structural and mechanical implications are involved,” says Ken Smith, partner with Architects Orange. “These projects tend to be more pedestrian oriented and require more of a street-front ambiance that has included showcase windows and graphics, as well as the inclusion of smaller retail tenants along busy walkable locations. Strong identity signage and environmental graphics have become necessities in these types of projects.”
The changes in retail also affect how tenants of all sizes are designing their stores.
“Tenants are re-evaluating the needs of the sales and storage areas, often reducing them by 25 to 30 percent of the building area needed in previous times,” says Jack Selman, partner with Architects Orange. “Some of this can be attributed to utilization and limitations of existing built space that is available, but the current trend has been finding efficiencies on the sales floor and storage capacities.”
“Stores are using creative merchandising to downsize their footprint to reduce occupancy costs and to open new stores in space-constrained urban neighborhoods,” adds Tipton Housewright, principal of Omniplan, Inc. “Increasingly sophisticated distribution and inventory systems have all but eliminated back-of-house inventory areas further reducing store sizes.”
This restructuring of the retail experience is carrying through to retailers, who are eager to get their experience — their message and brand — through to a wiser, informed, refreshed and smarter consumer.
“The architectural design component is evolving as we are seeing retailers beginning to renovate and update their stores to be more attentive to their customers and improve the shopping experience,” says Robert Gehr, vice president of brand architecture for Larson Design Group. “Our marketing tagline this year, ‘Think Inside the Box,’ is a direct reflection of the renovation work we are seeing. Good retailers will find success in any economy. Architecturally, we are beginning to see design becoming a more integrated part of the entire process as retailers seek to influence their customers’ shopping experiences.”
Helping retailers and developers create unique spaces has enabled architects and designers to become more savvy and smart in the way they partner with clients.
“Our client-focused ‘design for development’ approach is inherent in everything we do,” says Kevin Zak, principal of Cleveland-based Dorsky + Yue International LLC. “We truly add value when we’re involved with a development, going beyond the successful planning and design work we’ve always done to, in part, help our clients do more with less, and offer solutions that make sense from a development standpoint.”
Dorsky + Yue is working on the redevelopment of Nanuet Mall in Clarkstown, N.Y., which it is recreating into The Shops at Nanuet, for Simon Property Group. The $100 million redevelopment will create an open-air town center anchored by Regal Cinemas, 24 Hour Fitness, Macy’s, Sears and Fairway Market.
Greater Sense of Place
Since the first regional mall opened in the 1950s, shopping center owners have been trying to figure out a way to increase the amount of time shoppers spend at their centers. For the consumer, who was harried, busy and rushed throughout the 1990s and early 2000s — and who now has the option to shop at home — going to a shopping center has now become a way to enjoy leisure time. Consumers expect an experience when they go shopping, and if a center fails to deliver, just like an old, tired web site, they won’t return.
“Customers are looking for experiences,” says Angelo Carusi, principal of Cooper Carry’s specialty practice group. “Places that not only meet the functional requirements of a retail development, but also create a place that is engaging and meaningful to its users and will appeal to shoppers. This might be in the form of interactive technology, fountains that children can run around in or seating areas where people can linger and partake in the best sport of all: people watching.”
Cooper Carry’s project The Mercato in Naples, Fla., operated by Madison Marquette, is anchored by an entertainment area that includes a British pub and an Asian fusion restaurant, both with open-air dining, as well as an upscale cinema that has its own bistro.
“The interaction of all these uses creates an exciting district within the development and draws people from miles around,” says Carusi.
For center owners, who know that consumers are weary of spending time and money today, creating a more exciting and enticing environment means adding more features that not only extend the customer’s desire to stay, but makes them plan their visit in advance.
“The experience of shopping is being emphasized with more customer-friendly amenities in shopping centers, even for value-oriented retailers and developers,” says Everett Hatcher, president of Birmingham, Ala.-based CMH Architects, Inc. “Common areas are more frequently being used to generate revenue with corporate sponsorships and third-party advertising, and to incorporate family-friendly features such as children’s play spaces.”
For architects, factoring in these amenities means more time planning every possible use of a center, now and in the future.
“For architectural design, developers are looking for tailored solutions that uniquely fit the particular project,” says van Vliet with DDG. “This is a reflection of the types of retail projects being done — renovations and expansions of existing centers and redevelopments for repositioning properties. This requires the team to spend more time in the concept and schematic design stages to create the right narrative.”
Van Vliet says that what is driving this trend may not so much be the want of consumers to spend dollars, but to spend time together. In DDG’s overseas work, it has seen the amenities of shopping centers used similar to the way people use parks.
“What’s driving the trend is that some cities often have very few parks or green spaces anymore, so the public areas of these centers quite literally become the public recreation and social spaces,” he says. “Parents regularly take their kids and families to these projects on weekends and in the evenings, enjoying the amenities, seating areas and children’s play areas. Some projects are going one step further by planning and anchoring the retail mixed-use properties with sports arenas and entertainment plazas.”
Similarly, the social aspect is increasing in centers.
“Like the growth in social media, we see a similar growth or interest in creating social spaces that offer the customer and community amenities that enhance the shopping experience,” Zak says.
“[Shopping center developers] are looking to attract their customer base, which lives within the city neighborhoods just outside downtown,” adds Chris Bauer, principal of Baltimore-based ci design, of his clients. “Those customers are spending more time shopping and dining in an exciting environment that provides them gathering spaces and technology access.”
Bauer points to ci design’s work on the redevelopment of Ellsworth Place, which will transform the six-level enclosed urban mall in Silver Spring, Md., into a 380,000-square-foot vertical power center. The new Ellsworth Place will have street-facing retail shop entries on the first level and is anticipated to be anchored by national big box tenants.
While power centers and lifestyle centers are among those increasing amenities to extend the visit time, more recently top enclosed malls are upping their game to make sure they remain strong choices in a market.
“Class A malls are getting a big shot in the arm,” says Campione. “That’s a nice new trend when everyone was predicting the death of malls just a few years back on the wave of open-air and lifestyle centers. We are watching our developers really infuse design dollars and retail mix into their best performing malls with a goal to put them truly over the top.”
Terry Dalton, managing principal of Charlotte, N.C.-based DMR Architecture, agrees with Campione. “The traditional mall and traditional shopping center are changing the most with significant lifestyle elements being added to make properties more attractive to the shopper. We have seen a significant increase in the repositioning and repurposing of existing retail with lifestyle elements that help increase foot traffic and provide shoppers with more retail options.”
“In the mixed-use centers we are designing, we see a demand for unique, interactive public spaces placed near strong retailers and restaurants,” says David Parrish, principal of RDL Architects. “These features keep the visitor occupied and entertained, incorporating more natural materials to keep the experience authentic. The retailers we are working with are focused on being a part of some of the more dynamic centers that are either expanding or are under construction. Feature elements, including large skylights and monumental stairs are important elements to these companies.”
Experience is key and retailers and center owners are quickly realizing that today’s consumer has many choices to buy goods — the shopping center being just one in an omnichannel retail world.
“Shopping is an event,” says Ben Wauford, principal in Cooper Carry’s New York office. “It is entertainment for most. Creating a place that is fun and immersive for the entire center as well as individual tenants makes for success. Electronics have blurred the traditional shopping experience as it has evolved into a more social and personal experience.”
“I believe that people prefer to shop and visit places that are a bit aspirational to their daily lives,” says Carusi. “We create the environment where these experiences occur. What we really want to do for our clients is to create places that are memorable to their customers. While the end result may to be buy a pair of jeans, it is the memories three moms get from shopping with each other, trying on different outfits and having lunch to catch up on their busy lives that will last far longer than the jeans.”
The new shopping paradigm has forced some centers to change their formats altogether.
“In the U.S., we think the trend from enclosed mall to open-air centers certainly continues,” says van Vliet. “Particularly, we are seeing some challenged properties become hybrids. We see that with a number of properties are converting vacant anchors to semi-open areas, or adding lifestyle areas attached to enclosed malls.”
“All categories in the retail environment are undergoing a significant change in how shopping is conceptualized,” adds McEvoy. “In order to stay competitive, both retailers and developers recognize that they need to offer an experience greater than shopping. By providing restaurants, events and public spaces, these environments become centers of activity in people’s lives.”
Outlet Boom
The recession saw outlet centers forced into the spotlight as traditional retail developers realized that in good times, outlets are strong, and in bad times they are even stronger. The past few years have seen a boom in outlet development as larger REITs with ready-to-place capital entered the sector at a time when outlet retailers and manufacturers eased their radius restrictions from traditional retailers. The result has created a number of new centers closer to urban markets, where strong developers can afford to build new outlets or infuse older centers with outlet retail.
“In the past, outlet centers were simple buildings with few frills built in outlying communities,” says Housewright. “Several examples now exist of enclosed outlet centers with better design and convenient locations.”
Omniplan recently completed design for The Outlet Collection at Riverwalk in downtown New Orleans for The Howard Hughes Corporation. The former festival marketplace is set to become a 230,000-square-foot urban outlet center along the Mississippi River.
Dorsky + Yue International is currently designing The Outlets at Seasons – Seasons of Tuxedo in Winnipeg, Manitoba, for IKEA and Fairweather Properties. The 200-acre mixed-use project combines an IKEA location with a power center, main street outlet shopping district, residential and restaurant space, creating a retail destination for Manitoba. The company is also working with New England Development and Eastern Real Estate on Palm Beach Outlets, a 500,000-square-foot outlet center in Florida that will bring outlet shopping to one of the most affluent areas of the country.
CREATE is working on Tanger Outlets – Texas City, a project that has been considered a game changer because it combines top outlet shopping with the sense of place that shoppers want in a traditional retail environment.
“There is a delicate balance in providing a setting to shop in and finding a bargain, but at the same time create an environment that is totally engaging and pleasing,” says Campione. “Overall, we are seeing a conscious effort by clients to raise the bar from an aesthetic standpoint.”
Recovery
All the architects and designers that SCB spoke with agreed that while their activity levels are not where they were pre-recession, they are stronger than they were when the recession was at its lowest point.
“Our retail studio workload has more than tripled over the past couple years as the pent up demand from the last several years has worked its way back onto the table,” says Parrish of RDL. “We were fortunate to have a significant residential backlog that sustained us during the recession and kept our firm stable and intact.”
“After several boom years of rapid and expansive growth, the recession haltered the development of almost all new retail centers,” says Hatcher of CMH. “Grocery-anchored centers continued through the recession, albeit at a much slower pace. Back-filling of dark boxes with new tenants has also been a priority for owners throughout this period.”
Many see the sector strengthening. The recovery has come in the form of redevelopments and site work for planned centers, as well as the occasional new project set for the next few years.
“Planning and preliminary work for new, well located ground-up retail centers is gaining strength,” say Smith and Selman of Architects Orange. “These centers have signed up major tenants and are slated for construction in 2014 and 2015.”
While there are new projects, many architects report that what they are being asked to design is very different than projects that they were working on pre-recession, and they are glad for that.
“The downturn gave developers and owners a reason to improve the quality and character of their centers. For a while, when things were going at such a rapid pace, the quality and general aesthetic was starting to get lost,” says Campione. “The goal was to get it done faster, cheaper and just do what the tenant wants. Once those tenants closed their doors, vacated or went out of business, center owners found themselves with, perhaps, less than desirable vacancies. Savvy property owners have been able to make their centers more desirable than the next.”
“It may sound contrary, but the economic fluctuations of the past decade have strengthened the retail environment,” adds McEvoy. “Retailers and developers have become more strategic and deliberate in their projects, allowing the industry as a whole to focus on the most promising. The restructuring that has occurred has enriched the retail portfolios and products of most companies. This presents architects the opportunity to provide economy and quality in our design and construction.”
Nanuet mall, challenge to Bergen County shopping centers, opens
Thursday, October 10, 2013 Last updated: Friday October 11, 2013, 9:24 AM
BY JOAN VERDON
STAFF WRITER
The Record
The Shops at Nanuet – the first major competitor the North Jersey malls have faced in 15 years – opened Thursday in Rockland County, N.Y. with its developers banking on it being enough of a shopping siren to lure big spenders from bordering Bergen County and even New York City.
The fact that only about half the 50 stores planned for the former Nanuet Mall were open, and the soggy weather, didn’t deter the crowds.
More than 1,000 people waited in the early morning rain to enter the Apple store, the produce aisles of the Fairway Market were packed, and politicians at the opening ceremony predicted the new mall on Route 59 will generate $15 million in county sales tax next year, with a good chunk of that expected to be paid by North Jersey residents.
“We think this is going to be one of the go-to places that is going to draw people from a big area,” said Alexander Gromack, Supervisor of the Town of Clarkstown. He is expecting visitors from Bergen County, “especially on Sundays,” he said in a nod to Bergen’s blue laws that keep most stores shut on Sundays.
The mall – built on the site of the demolished Nanuet Mall – is the first from-the-ground-up new mall construction near North Jersey since the Palisades Center Mall, also in Rockland County, opened in 1998. With 750,000 square feet of retail space, it will be slightly smaller than Paramus Park Mall.
The owner of the property, Simon Property Group, the largest mall developer in the U.S., opted to tear down the existing enclosed mall, built in the late 1960s, and replace it with a mall designed around a central, outdoor courtyard, with “Main Streets” lined with stores each with separate outside entrances, and angled parking in front of those stores. The two department store anchors of the former mall, Sears and Macy’s, remained in place during the demolition, and now flank the new mall.
One of the speakers at the opening ceremony, New York State Sen. David Carlucci, said the new mall is a sign that Rockland County is ready to ramp up the competition with Bergen County malls, which draw New York shoppers because there is no New Jersey sales tax on clothes and because of the abundance of stores.
“To compete with our neighbors to the south, we’ve got to do things differently”, Carlucci said.
He said after the ceremony that New York needs to be aggressive about getting New Yorkers to shop locally, rather than in New Jersey.
Simon Property Group isn’t saying how much it spent to makeover Nanuet, but Clarkstown officials who reviewed the initial plans have estimated it at in excess of $150 million. Simon executives said Thursday they believe the investment will pay off.
“The reason we’re here is the market. This is a phenomenal market,” said Tom Schneider, a Simon executive vice president. The mall is expected to draw residents of higher-income Bergen County towns such as Montvale and Park Ridge, which border Rockland County, and from North Jersey towns along the Garden State Parkway and Palisades Interstate Parkway, as well as residents of New York City, in addition to Rockland County citizens.
On Thursday, when nearly all of the approximately 3,000 available parking spaces were occupied, about 10 percent of the cars had New Jersey license plates, according to an informal count by The Record.
Barbara Jacobs of Montvale was one of the Bergen County residents who came to the grand opening, curious to see what the new mall looked like. She said she used to shop at the Nanuet Mall years ago, and expects that the restaurants and movies will be the attractions most likely to draw her to the new shopping center.
Gromack and Rockland County Executive Scott Vanderhoef said the county estimates that the mall will generate $4 million in county sales tax in the fourth quarter of this year, and $15 million for the full year in 2014. With a county sales tax of 4 percent, that means the county is anticipating sales of $100 million at the mall during the first three months it is open, and annual sales of $375 million. Simon doesn’t release revenue projections for new properties.
Two tenants expected to be among the biggest draws – the 12-screen Regal Cinemas and the 24 -Hour Fitness gym – won’t open for several weeks, at least. The movie theatre is expected to open in November, and the gym will open in December, mall officials said.
None of the six restaurants planned at the mall were ready for the grand opening. One of them, Bonefish Grill, will open Monday, and another, Zinburger, will open Oct. 28.
Schneider said Simon Property Group would have liked to have more of the stores and restaurants ready by the grand opening, but the company is happy that nine additional tenants will be open before Thanksgiving.
Email: verdon@northjersey.com
@Rob, that should have been http://www.steiner.com.
Sorry.
@SEAN, Hi Sean I went to nanuet fairway is much bigger than the paramus store,the layout of the mall is horrible roads in between shoppers walking an accident waiting to happen especially on sundays and during the holiday season. on rainy snowy cold days i will be warm and dry in palisades or garden state plaza. Many people are feeling the same way and many feel macys is old and depressiing in comparison to palisades and paramus. Joan verdon cannot compare nanuet to garden state or palisades.
@rob, Most of these new age lifestyle malls are designed with roads passing through them. The intent is to have a village center feel rather than an enclosed mall even though the retailers are the same. http://www.steiner.com is a good resource to understand how a lifestyle center should work. Look at the story & homepage of there prized property Easton Town Center http://www.easton.com as well
As a footnote, it was reported Thursday that Sears is in serious trouble. The company has been selling real estate to add liquidity. A dozen high-value stores were sold in the past 18-months.
@SEAN, Sean this the northeast i am not shopping in outdoors cold snowy rainy weather The way some new yorkers drive and we have alot of cab drivers that drive terrible i see a bad accident waiting to happen..How can Joan Verdon from the bergen record compare nanuet to the paramus malls. or even palisades. palisades and Garden State have 200-240 stores nanuet only has 50. I am not impressed with Nanuet I will be sticking to Palisades or Paramus Malls. The only day bergen county needs ro worrry is sunday because of blue laws.
@rob, If you want to make that arguement, then lets look at a few other outdoor centers that are similar to Nanuet.
1. The Falls is a 100 store mall in southwest Miami Florida & you know how hot & humid it gets there from May to October. The mall has been successful for over 20-years inspite of that fact. It’s customer base is a bit more upscale than Nanuet though.
2. Town Square is a rather sizable lifestyle center & office complex that opened in 2005 on Las Vegas Boulevard a mile south of the strip near the airport & has about 80-stores, a dozen restaurants & an AMC 18-screen theatre. I can tell you first hand that the place gets quite busy despite the extreme summer heat, and I guess having Whole foods as one of the anchors doesn’t hert eather.
The Closest center to Nanuet around here is Ridge Hill in Yonkers, but it is nearly twice the size & still has numerous vacancies despite landing Lord & Taylor, Cheesecake Factory, Yardhouse, Whole Foods & LL Bean.
@SEAN, SHOPS AT NANUET IS TOO EXPENSIVE.
I WORK IN RETAIL AND THERE ARE MANY FRUGAL SHOPPERS CUSTOMERS FIGHT OVER .50. JOS A BANK A SHIRT 89.00 IN THEIR OUTLET AT BERGEN TOWN CENTER 24,99. THE FIRST TWO MALLS YOU MENTIONED ARE IN WARM CLIMATES. FOR WHATS NANUET IS WORTH I WILL STICK TO GSP BTC AND PALISADES.
@rob, I wish I could shop at Neiman Marcus, but I cant aford it. So we go where we can.
Yes those are warm weather climate cities, but Miami is extremely humid for much of the year & las Vegas can get quite nippy in January & Febuary. Late May through early October can get dangerously hot. For a week this past June temps were as high as 124 with a low of 95.
If you want a colder climate comparison, swap out the centers I posted above & insert Crocker Park outside Cleveland or even Old Orchard & Oak Brook Center near Chicago.
@SEAN, I cant afford neimans either I GO TO GSP FOR A CHANGE OF PACE JCP LORD AND TAYLOR MACYS IS BETTER THAN NANUET AND A FEW RESTAURANTS AN D I MAINLY FOR BTC AND OF COURSE PALISADES ARE THE MALLS I CAN AFFORD. NANUET HAS 18 EXPENSIVE STORES AND THE OTHER 29 ARE EITHER AT PALISADES OR GSP SO THERE IS NO NEED FOR ME TO GO TO NANUET. JOS A BANK IS THE REG PRICED STORE I GO TO THEIR OUTLET AT BTC IN PARAMUS AND GET GOOD DEALS.
@rob, We’ll see what happens once the rest of the retailers open. Only then can a propper judgement be made regarding Nanuet’s success or failure. Looking at this from another angle, Ridge Hill Village after 3-years in opperation still has nearly half of it’s retail space vacant & only one condo tower constructed out of four.
@rob, FYI, 3-days ago Business Insider Magazine published an article on Sears with a photo essay. The 18 pictures were taken in New York City metropolitan area stores includingNew Jersey, but the stores them selves were not identified.
Sorry, I don’t have the link, but you can do a google search for it. Use Business Insider Sears & it will come up.
@rob, Here’s something from the NYT.
Once-Mighty Sears, Pictures of Decay
By DAVID GELLES
Updated, 8:46 p.m. |
When Brian Sozzi, the chief executive of Belus Capital Advisors, visited Sears locations in New York and New Jersey this month, he said, he found barren shelves, haphazard displays and badly stained carpets.
Also missing: customers.
“It’s just badness throughout,” Mr. Sozzi said in an interview. “Every store has something fundamentally wrong with it.”
Photos of the stores that Mr. Sozzi posted on his blog attracted more than a quarter-million views and captured the sentiments of customers dissatisfied with the company. The website Business Insider titled a post: “18 Depressing Photos That Show Why Nobody Wants To Shop At Sears.”
Yet it is these core Sears stores that Edward S. Lampert, the hedge fund manager who is Sears’s majority owner and chief executive, believes represent the future of the retailer.
To help raise cash for that future, Sears announced on Tuesday that it was looking to split off its Lands’ End and Sears Auto Center brands, two of the company’s best-known assets. It also said that Sears Canada, which it controls, had sold five store leases for $384 million.
In a statement, Sears said the moves would let it become “a more focused company that is easier to understand and to manage,” and that it would concentrate on its best-performing Sears and Kmart stores.
But even after the disposals, what remains of Sears appears to have rapidly diminishing value.
On Tuesday, the company also released limited information about its financial performance that suggested that its core retail business was plummeting. Sears said that comparable store sales fell 3.7 percent in the 12 weeks ended Oct. 26 and that it expected adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, of negative $250 million to $300 million.
Gary Balter, a retail analyst with Credit Suisse, said in a note that the early results represented “an amazing rapid deceleration into the abyss for the U.S. retail operations.”
Sears has been under pressure for years. Among brick-and-mortar retail competitors, it has lost out to Walmart, Target and Home Depot, while Amazon.com and other online outlets have forced all retailers to trim prices.
J.C. Penney, a Sears competitor that came under the influence of another hedge fund manager — William A. Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management — is also struggling to survive. (Mr. Ackman recently sold his entire stake for a loss.) Other department stores like Macy’s and Nordstrom have moved upmarket.
Ten years ago, Mr. Lampert took control of Kmart while it was in bankruptcy. He then orchestrated Kmart’s $12 billion buyout of Sears in 2005. With both companies under his control, he formed Sears Holdings, an umbrella group that included several business units, each competing for limited resources.
Performance initially improved, but in recent years a lack of investment has hurt the core retail business. After cycling through several chief executives while reportedly micromanaging the company, Mr. Lampert himself became chief executive in January.
“He’s not a retail executive, he’s an asset manager,” said Mary Ross Gilbert, managing director at Imperial Capital. “What we’re seeing reflects what an asset manager would do, which is find ways to realize value.”
Mr. Lampert, a mercurial free market advocate and a professed Ayn Rand fan, declined requests for an interview.
Sears is likely to spin off Lands’ End, which was acquired for $1.9 billion in 2002, giving shareholders stock in a new public company. It employed this strategy successfully this year, spinning off Sears Home and Outlet Stores.
It will try to find a buyer for Sears Auto Centers, but it may have trouble given that the brand is weak, many centers are attached to bigger Sears stores and there may be liabilities involved with the sale of environmentally sensitive businesses.
With those assets gone, analysts say, it is only a matter of time before the company continues its liquidation. One likely disposal is the 51 percent of Sears Canada that the holding company still owns. Kenmore and Craftsman, two brands under the group’s control, are also mentioned as possible targets. Some of its real estate in the United States may also make for attractive targets.
“They are a zombie retailer,” said Mr. Sozzi, who has a sell recommendation on Sears stock. “And with today’s announcement, they are dismembering their body.”
The moves announced on Tuesday gave investors some hope, with shares of Sears surging 11.75 percent, to $62.09.
“There’s much more value in the company broken up than there is when it’s together,” Mr. Balter of Credit Suisse said in an interview.
So far this year, Sears shares are up 50 percent. Yet since reaching a peak in 2007, shares of Sears have fallen more than 67 percent.
The plight of Sears today represents a depressing decline for a once-proud American retailer. Founded 120 years ago as a mail-order catalog merchant, Sears became one of the country’s great department store chains. In 1973, it held the naming rights of the Sears Tower in Chicago, then the world’s tallest building. But the company has failed to keep pace with a rapidly shifting retail environment, especially in recent years.
After the expected disposals, what remains of Sears and Kmart is likely to be a collection of down-market stores that are badly in need of a makeover, as illustrated by Mr. Sozzi’s photos.
“They haven’t spent on the store base, and that’s the issue,” said Ms. Gilbert of Imperial Capital.
On Tuesday, Sears seemed to reaffirm this view, saying it would consider closing more stores while trying to minimize any associated costs. But analysts cautioned that even this could be a costly process because of costs associated with severance, pension obligations and real estate.
“It’s not free to close stores,” said Mr. Balter of Credit Suisse.
He was among those who viewed the dismal pictures posted by Mr. Sozzi. But Mr. Balter said he wasn’t surprised by what he saw.
“I go to the stores all the time,” he said. “Those pictures weren’t unique.”
Thaughts…
This could be challenging for The Shops at Nanuet, Cross County, The Galleria, Jefferson Valley & other malls that depend on Sears anchors. Many of us here on this site saw this comeing a few years ago, refer back to the J C Penney page.
@SEAN, well SEAN I HAVE BEEN IN SEARS IN NANUET ITS HORRIBLE I RATHER SHOP AT JCPENNEY. JC PENNEY I HEAR ARE FINALLY MAKING A PROFIT I HAVE SEEN A DIFFERENCE AN INCREASE IN CUSTOMER TRAFFIC IN PARAMUS AND PALISADES. IF SEARS CLOSED IN NANUET I CAN SEE BONTON OR BOSCOVS OR BOSCOVS IN CROSS COUNTY OR PARAMUS PARK. I AM NOT IMPRESSED WITH SHOPS AT NANUET AND MANY IN THE AREA FEEL THE SAME. I HAVE A FEELING A FEW SHOPS WILL EITHER CLOSE OR MOVE TO PALISADES MALL NEXT YEAR ONCE THE RENNOVATION IS DONE THERE.MANY FIND SHOPS BORING AND HIGH PRICED AT LEAST PALISADES GSP AND BTC HAVE A GOOD MIX OF STORES AND RESTAURANTS.
@rob, I understand, but can you see the inormous impact of Sears failing? Some shopping centers could withstand the loss of Sears, but many aren’t strong enough to do so.
@rob, FYI, Saw the progress on the Palisades rennavation & the place is a mess. Already new floor tiles have cracks, there are areas without propper lighting amung other things. With that said, you can project what the mall will look like & it’s a massive upgrade to what Palisades use to be.
Surfing the Meadowlands? World’s largest surf riding pool eyed for American Dream
By Ted Sherman The Star-Ledger
on October 08, 2013 at 8:00 PM, updated October 09, 2013 at 7:00 AM
The world’s largest wave pool is part of the proposed expansion of the stalled American Dream complex.
American Wave Machines EAST RUTHERFORD — The indoor ski slope remains empty and devoid of snow.
The skydiving wind tunnels are still a bunch of holes in the floor.
And the huge Ferris wheel has yet to be built.
But the developers of the long-stalled American Dream now are staking claim to another attraction they say is in the works — one they hope will inspire words like “gnarly,” “rad,” and “sa-weet.”
They want to bring surfing to the swamps of the Meadowlands.
Triple Five, the Canadian company seeking to restart the dormant entertainment and retail mall in East Rutherford once known as Xanadu, said it is planning to build the world’s largest wave-generating pool as part of a proposed expansion at the site. The indoor facility — the size of a football field — is to be built by American Wave Machines of Solana Beach, Calif., which specializes in high-tech wave pools for surfing.
“This is one of the companies we’re working with to make our water park the best in the world,” Triple Five spokesman Alan Marcus said. “Triple Five always seeks to exceed what it has done in the past to enhance customer experience.”
Triple Five also owns the West Edmonton Mall in Canada — which has a water park that includes a surf pool — as well as the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.
The proposed water park addition to American Dream, though, remains a major stumbling block in the $3.7 billion mall project that has been idle since the previous development consortium overseeing its construction, headed by California-based Colony Capital LLC, ran out of money in 2009.
Triple Five says it wants to expand the unfinished mall with a 22-acre addition that would not only include a water park, but an adjoining indoor theme park.
The Giants and Jets, which play at nearby MetLife Stadium, have been fighting the expansion for months in Superior Court in Bergen County. Attorneys for the National Football League teams argue the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority violated a 2006 agreement when it allowed the complex to grow beyond the initial design of Xanadu without the teams’ approval.
The teams claim any expansion would bring traffic to a standstill around the stadium on game days and want Triple Five to keep the water park and amusement park shut down when the teams play at home. The developers have refused to put a limit on operating hours.
In its own lawsuit, Triple Five charged the Giants and Jets with orchestrating a campaign to prevent the project from opening.
The former Xanadu project, now called American Dream, where developers are looking to add a water park.
Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger Marcus said the litigation has not changed the financial and construction schedule although he said a date for the groundbreaking of the American Dream reboot has not been set. While it will be privately funded, Triple Five is seeking to arrange for up to $800 million in tax exempt bonds that would be issued through various public agencies to help finance construction.
The former Xanadu project – widely derided for its garish exterior – was never completed on the inside, with most of the storefronts still empty shells. It incorporates an indoor ski slope, a sky diving attraction and is to include a Ferris wheel, an ice skating arena, movie theaters and other attractions.
Triple Five so far has offered little detail about the scope of its ambitious expansion plans, although it has an agreement with DreamWorks Animation, the Hollywood studio that created “Shrek” and “Madagascar,” to license its characters, storytelling and technology for the theme park.
No information on the water park has been released, but word of the huge wave pool project leaked out during an industry conference in Laguana Beach, Calif., last month. John Luff, who heads business development for American Wave Machines, told attendees the indoor surf park would be the size of a football field and be able to generate everything from 8-foot barreling peaks to beginner learning waves, allowing for authentic surfing on real surfboards with fins.
Luff would not comment yesterday on the project and company officials referred all questions to Triple Five.
The firm is one of several that design surfing pools. American Wave Machines constructs both stationary wave machines and larger wave and swell pools that simulate real ocean waves. In one, a wave is created at one end and then travels and breaks within the pool, mimicking the ocean. The other creates an endless standing wave made by continuously pumping water in a recirculating pool, much like a big rapid in a river.
According to the company’s webite, it has 15 installations located from the Caribbean to Sweden, and is building a major indoor surfing facility in Nashua, N.H.
New Jersey already has a sizable surfing community along the Jersey Shore. But long-time American Dream critic Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, said the addition of a waterpark only adds to the environmental impact of the mega-project.
“It’s pretty ironic that they are putting in a waterpark atop a wetlands,” he said. “Surfing? Why don’t they just wait for the next hurricane storm surge? You could have been talking about doing some real curls in the parking lot.”
@rob, Hay there. Here’s a holiday gift urtisy of Simon.
Simon Property Group Announces Plan To Spin Off Its Strip Center Business And Smaller Enclosed Malls
Creates a Retail Real Estate Company Poised for Growth
Simon to Focus on its Global Portfolio of Larger Malls, Mills® and Premium Outlets®
INDIANAPOLIS, Dec. 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Simon Property Group (NYSE:SPG) (“Simon” or the “Company”), a global leader in the retail real estate industry, today announced a plan to spin off all of its strip center business and smaller enclosed malls into an independent, publicly traded REIT (“SpinCo”).
SpinCo’s mission will be to own stable, quality strip centers and malls that effectively serve the communities in which they are located. SpinCo is expected to initially own or have an interest in 54 strip centers and 44 malls (each of the malls generating annual net operating income (“NOI”) of approximately $10 million or less). SpinCo’s initial year NOI is estimated to be in excess of $400 million and its initial year funds from operations (“FFO”) is estimated to be approximately $300 million which is approximately $0.80 per share. SpinCo will operate one of the largest, most diversified portfolios of strip centers and malls in the U.S., having 53 million total square feet in 23 states. Occupancy of SpinCo’s strip centers and malls is 94.2% and 90.4%, respectively, as of September 30, 2013, and substantial recent investment has been made in SpinCo’s assets.
The new company, which will have an independent, dedicated executive management team and conservatively capitalized balance sheet, will be well-positioned to deliver internal growth through active asset management and re-developments and external growth through acquisitions and selective new developments. SpinCo intends to pursue an investment grade credit rating from the major credit rating agencies.
Key transaction highlights:
•Creates a Retail Real Estate Company Poised for Growth. With one of the largest, most diversified portfolios of strip centers and malls in the United States, SpinCo’s significant scale and flexible balance sheet will provide a unique ability to act as a leading acquirer of these assets.
•Independent Company Benefits from Relationships with Simon. SpinCo will be led by a dedicated, independent management team and a board consisting of a majority of independent directors. SpinCo will also benefit from continued relationships with Simon. Richard Sokolov, Simon’s President and Chief Operating Officer and member of its Board of Directors, will also become Chairman of the Board of Directors of SpinCo, and David Simon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Simon, will also serve as a director of SpinCo. Simon’s strip center management team and personnel will become employees of SpinCo, SpinCo’s malls will continue to receive property management services from Simon, and SpinCo’s support functions will be provided by Simon on a transitional basis.
•Simon to Focus on its Global Portfolio of Larger Malls, Mills and Premium Outlets. The spin-off will result in higher sales per square foot, NOI growth and occupancy for Simon, while maintaining Simon’s scale and conservative leverage profile and its unrivalled portfolio of high-quality assets. No change to Simon’s credit rating or related outlook is expected.
•Increases Total Dividend to Simon Shareholders. Simon’s current annualized dividend of $4.80 per share will be maintained and is expected to continue to grow in-line with the growth in the Company’s FFO and taxable income. SpinCo’s initial year dividend is estimated to be at least $0.50 per share, which is approximately 100% of estimated taxable income.
•Tax Free Transaction to Simon Shareholders. The distribution is intended to qualify as tax-free to Simon shareholders and Simon’s limited partnership unitholders for U.S. federal income tax purposes.
Mr. Simon commented, “Today, on the twentieth anniversary of Simon’s initial public offering, we are pleased to announce this significant transaction which we believe will unlock the potential of the strip centers and malls to be owned by SpinCo. We believe we are creating a new company that has both a strong Simon heritage and all of the requisite tools to grow its business and succeed. At the same time, this transaction allows Simon to focus on our global portfolio of larger malls, Mills and Premium Outlets while maintaining our considerable scale and conservative leverage profile.”
Mr. Sokolov commented, “I am excited about this transaction and look forward to serving as SpinCo’s Chairman. There are many very attractive investment opportunities in SpinCo’s targeted asset classes which it will have the ability to pursue. As future members of SpinCo’s Board of Directors and significant shareholders in SpinCo, both David and I are dedicated to putting the right management team in place to successfully execute SpinCo’s growth-oriented business strategy and deliver attractive total returns to shareholders.”
The spin-off will be effected through a pro rata special distribution to Simon shareholders. Simon Property Group’s limited partnership unitholders will receive units of SpinCo’s operating partnership subsidiary. The initial Form 10 information statement relating to the spin-off is intended to be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) before the end of 2013, and the distribution is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2014. Simon’s Board of Directors has unanimously approved a plan to pursue the spin-off. The transaction is subject to certain conditions, including declaration by the SEC that SpinCo’s registration statement is effective, filing and approval of SpinCo’s listing application, customary third party consents, and formal approval and declaration of the distribution by Simon’s Board of Directors. Simon may, at any time and for any reason until the proposed transaction is complete, abandon the separation or modify or change its terms.
BofA Merrill Lynch and Goldman, Sachs & Co. are serving as exclusive financial advisors and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is serving as legal advisor to Simon in connection with the proposed transaction.
Conference Call Details
Simon Property Group will hold a conference call to discuss the transaction at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time today. The conference call can be accessed by dialing 1-800-237-9752 (toll free) or 1-617-847-8706 (international) and entering the passcode 58725446. Live streaming audio of the conference call will be accessible at investors.simon.com. An online replay will be available until December 27, 2013 at investors.simon.com.
Supplemental Materials and Website
Supplemental information on the transaction, including a copy of the investor presentation, is available at investors.simon.com. This press release has also been furnished to the SEC in a current report on Form 8-K.
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Hi Sean Happy Holidays
Very Interesting. I tell You the people here in rockland are not happy with shops at nanuet especially after the snow we just had i knew it. Now everyone apprecites the palisades mall it looks better its warm and they have a nativity scene which nanuet dosent. The stores are dead a week before christmas.Palisades was jammed on sunday.stop and shop and shop rite feel no affects from fairway and the restaurants and the theatres and Levitty live dont feel the affects from nanuet either. Simon just cannot get in right here in rockland and didnt when they owned bergen mall in paramus thats why they sold it to vornado and now thats a popular mall along with garden state plaza
@rob, Same to you. I thaught the above articles on Simon I posted the other day & the one on American Dream would interest you.
As for Shops at Nanuet, We’ve gone over this countless times. The locals in Rockland are fickle in that they hated Palisades from it’s inseption & wanted the old Nanuet Mall back or something else built on the NM site. Well they got what they wanted & once again they hate what they got so they show fow love towards Palisades all the while they continue to take their money to Paramus, and you know this since you made the same statements on this thread over & over.
@SEAN, Sean thats the right word the people in tockland are fickle i work in two retail stores and the other thats fits also frugle. I know but that what decbribes simon they will never get it right with people like we have here in rockland pyramid at least has more of a chance.i think pyramid and westfield are the beter mall companiesr
@rob, Westfield is a well run company, but Pyramid I’m not so sure. Localy GSP has been having serious issues regarding vermin in the prep & storage areas of the food court along with general back of house upkeep. Several people I know who work in stores throughout the mall have told me about this & strongly erged me NOT to buy food there, but bringing my own is OK. The restaurants are in good shape as well as the AMC theatre.
Pyramid has a few good properties like Poughkeepsie Galleria & Crossgates, but they to have there share of duds just like everyone else. That is why the Simon press release I posted just up thread is so interesting. What this says is to keep earnings up, it is nessessary to spin off the weakest properties into a seperate company & let them sink or swim. GGP did the same when they revived the Rouse brand. Meanwhile, both Macerich & Westfield have been dumping properties as well. This leeds to an interesting quandry – how many malls will the big REITS dump into these vertual waistland companies. Also will these companies at sometime atemp a merger to squeeze as much value from these second & third tier centers before they become useless?
It’s a lot to digest in one post, but the questions are nessessary to keep up with all the recent news out there.
@SEAN, I have had no issues with GSP foood courtt I ATE THERE LAST FRIDAY WHEN IWAS CHRISTMAS SHOPPING. tHE FOOD LOOKS FRESH THE WORKERS ARE ALWAYS MAKING SURE THE SEATING AREA IS CLEAN. THE MALL IS SPIC AND SPAN. I HAVE SHOPPED GSP FOR OVER 30 YEARS AND NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WITH THE MALL. SOMETIMES YOU GET PEOPLE WHO SAY NEGATIVE THINGS BECAUSE THEY DONT LIKE WORKING THERE.TO ME GSP IS ON MY A LIST.
@rob, I was in Paramus on Friday & GSP was farely busy, but getting around was hardly a challenge. However it took nearly 90-minutes to get there on NJ transit as a Peter Pan bus was disabled just west of the lincoln tunnel mouth. Busses were backed all the way up to the PABT ramps.
On the other hand, Roosevelt Field yesterday was absolutely mobbed & getting through there became so disorienting that I had to leave after lunch & yet I’m use to RF being like that. I doubt Nanuet was that crowded, but Palisades I bet was- despite the renovation that’s in full swing.
@SEAN, I work in Kohls customers told me Palisades was mobbed yesterday and so were we and paramus closed on sundays. I am sure GSP was packed on saturday they just opened more new parking in november. Nanuet was a little busy but not like Palisades RF OR GSP. wE will see in 2014 whats going to happen with Nanuet.
@SEAN, I was in Paramus a couple of times in December. On 12/7, I went to Garden State Plaza and it was packed! Ended up parking on the roof of the Nordstrom deck. Paramus Park was also pretty busy, but parking was easier. I was also up there last Thursday, and before a party I went to in the area, stopped at Paramus Park and Riverside. I also went to Downtown Ridgewood, which was nicely decorated for Christmas and was pretty busy! Paramus Park was busier, but parking was easy; Riverside’s parking was challenging (mostly for the restaurants) but the mall seemed quiet. Crazy drivers on the Bergen County back roads were out in full force!
@mallguy, Hay there, happy holidays to you & rob as well.
Was at GSP on friday meeting my GF there & it wasn’t bad as far as crowds go. The new wing is scheduled to open around March, but the new parking deck opened in November. I wonder if they will rebuild the other deck near Lord & Taylor in the same fashon & add retail space at that end of the mall.
Downtown Ridgewood is loaded with restaurants & stores on both sides of the train Station, but most of them can be found along East Ridgewood Ave. & ajacent streets. One of the interesting highlights is “The Original Pancake House” at 140 E Ridgewood ave. It was featured on the Food Network, but I cant recall wich program though. It touted the enormous portions & boy they weren’t kidding.
Roosevelt Field was evacuated for a short time do to unconfirmed reports of gun shots, but it was a group of shoplifters knocking over a display rack in Macy’s.
@SEAN, And to you as well!
One of my favorite spots in Downtown Ridgewood is Bookends – a great independent bookstore with many signing appearances by famous authors!
I really like the parking system in the Nordstrom deck at Garden State Plaza – to my knowledge, it’s the only mall in NJ that has that technology.
Last Friday, I visited Short Hills and it was packed! Lots of security around (such a tragedy what occurred there this month – security in the parking decks needs to improve) and full parking lots/garages! Also visited Rockaway Townsquare, which was also packed yet parking was a lot easier.
I heard about what happened at Roosevelt Field. Did they start on the expansion wing yet?
@mallguy, Yes, construction just got under way at Roosevelt Field with relocations of 8-stores on the upper level between Dicks & the Bloomingdale’s wing. This will be the new home of the food court, with the existing food court turning into aditional store space. External construction for the Neiman Marcus wing will begin shortly.
Havent been to Rockaway Townsquare in years, but I do remember the original AMC 6-plexes both inside & outside the mall,but now the AMC is in the strip on MT Hope Ave.
Fun fact – Rockaway was owned by NYC based Corporate Property Investors CPI until Simon baught it in 1998 along with the formentioned Roosevelt Field, Lenox Square, Phipps Plaza & Town Center at Boca Raton.
@mallguy, And of course I forgot this included Nanuet Mall as well.
@SEAN, Rockaway isn’t someplace I go out of my way to visit, but it’s a nice mall if I’m in the area. The new 12 screen movie theater (similar to the one in GS Plaza) is on the ring road of the mall. The original 6 plexes are now Best Buy and Forever 21, respectively. Rockaway Townsquare recently got a renovation – one it didn’t really need. New carpets and paint scheme make the mall seem a lot darker.
Better location fpr the food court. They need to get rid of that supid zeppelin and thankfully it seems they are!
@Mallguy, So true regarding RF’s food court.
I’ve described it before as the international terminal at JFK. Even some of the office staff I know there have made comments & told me they cant wait until the new one opens. The stresses of renovating a mall the size of RF has already started taking it’s toll on them & a few of them want the job done already & yet construction began only a month or so ago. Some compared it to a complete home remoddle multaplide by a factor of 100 & you can understand why everyones stress level has been so high over this.
@mallguy, Went to Palisades yesterday & I can report the renovations are complete, however there were a few lingering questions in terms of leving large sections of the HVAC piping exposed & not completing the drop seeling. I wonder if if Pyramid ran out of money & made due with what they had. Also as strange as it may seme, the Apple store closed. I’ll bet it will relocate to Nanuet.
The mall had no heat & as a result water pipes were leaking in some bathrooms including The Cheesecake Factory. Infact one pipe burst between the takeout counter & the door while I was waiting. It was just one of those nights.
@SEAN, I know someone in the management office they wanted to get the mall mostly done for the holidays. They still have work to do once the winter weather subsides they are putting in all new entrances etc yet they didnt run out of money and also new food court seating.they have a list oof new stores coming. I know one will be nordstrom rack.
@rob, Thanks for the info. It semes as if the remoddle was only half done & they just left it in that state. At least cover up the exposed housings of the light fixtures- to me it just looks odd.
Where are they putting Nordstrom Rack. Do you know if they are also putting Off 5th in as well? Those two outlet stores tend to go hand & hand, but not always.
@SEAN, In comparison to what the mall looked before it looks a heck of alot better if you look on the computer and compare it looks better and even to the locals. I think Nordstrom rack will be on the first floor where brooks brothers was They stopped working to get the mall through the holiday season. Many find alot of negatives with shops at nanuet especially with this weather we have been having as i said from the start.
@ROB, FYI, Corner Bakery Cafe will be opening a location at the Shops at Nanuet in 2014. The franchisee is 4M Bakery of White Plains who has a 17-restaurant deal in the Hudson Valley & in suffolk County Long Island. Corner Bakery is akin to Panera Bread.
@Rob,
Here They Come! Over 40 Stores Announced for Shops at Nanuet
Posted August 8th, 2013
It’s what Rockland has been waiting for, great new stores without the hassle of the Palisades Center Mall. Simon Group has announced over 80 percent of the stores that will take residence at the new Shops at Nanuet, located at the site of the old Nanuet Mall, due to open this fall. Here is what Rocklanders will have to choose from in just a few short months.
· J.Crew: Offering a wide range of quality contemporary apparel and fashion accessories for men, women and children, J.Crew will provide shoppers with chic styles that incorporate vibrant and bold colors for the whole family. http://www.jcrew.com/index.jsp
· J.Jill: A leading fashion retailer of women’s apparel, accessories and footwear, this retailer has a relaxed approach to style; never complicated, always easy, striking the perfect balance of comfort and fashion designed for real life. http://www.jjill.com/jjillonline/index.aspx
· Sur La Table: Cooking enthusiasts will love shopping at Sur La Table, a store that offers innovative and high-quality culinary tools. Not only does Sur La Table feature superior goods, but it also provides excellent value. This location will also feature cooking and baking classes for adults and children. http://www.surlatable.com/
· Corner Bakery Café: Delicious treats of the sweet and savory kind can be found at the new Corner Bakery Cafe. This brand new eatery has a variety of delectable offerings, including a full breakfast menu, signature sandwiches, fresh paninis and a wide variety of salads, soups and baked goods. This bakery started out as a small local business, rapidly grew into a neighborhood staple, and soon became a nation-wide franchise. http://www.cornerbakerycafe.com/100under600.aspx
· Paper Source: Arts and crafts aficionados are sure to enjoy browsing in Paper Source. This retailer provides crafty supplies and original artistic items including artisanal paper, invitations and announcements, personalized and distinctive gifts, greeting cards and more. http://www.paper-source.com/
· Big Dog Sportswear: Featuring high quality, reasonably priced activewear and accessories for men, women, and children of all ages, this Santa Barbara, California based retailer is known for its collection of graphic tees, lifestyle apparel and accessories that reflect the activities and sports popular on the west coast and across the country. The location will carry all the popular Big Dog merchandise. http://www.bigdogs.com/
· Ann Taylor: With contemporary pieces catering to the modern working woman, Ann Taylor offers a broad range of clothing, shoes and accessories suitable for shoppers in search of fashionable flare to sport within the workplace. http://www.anntaylor.com/
· LOFT: Specializing in universal, versatile and affordable fashion pieces for women, Loft’s philosophy is centered on trust and building relationships with customers by providing fashion advice and suggestions. http://www.loft.com/
· Tiara Jewelers: A family-owned jewelry retailer specializing in Pandora products, watches and a wide range of jewelry items as well as repair services, Tiara Jewelers also purchases outdated pieces from customers at high prices. Pieces that the retailer is known for include stunning diamond engagement rings and alternative metals. http://www.tiaraofnewyork.com/
· European Wax Center: At the new European Wax Center, visitors will enjoy an affordable yet luxurious waxing experience. This state-of-the-art facility offers high quality treatment rooms, experienced and professional waxing specialists, and a relaxing and therapeutic environment. http://www.waxcenter.com/
· Sleep Number by Select Comfort: With a goal of providing customers with the ultimate in bedding comfort, every aspect of Sleep Number’s products are personalized and individualized for a supreme sleep experience, from mattresses and pillows, to adjustable temperature sheets. http://www.sleepnumber.com/
· Fairway Market: Fairway Market is true to its entrepreneurial and customer-focused, and strives to never lose sight of all of the things that make Fairway: being the first to carry or import something new and delicious, daily-delivered produce, a generous kosher selection, the freshest seafood, custom-cut USDA Prime meat from our Butcher Shop, an immense variety of organic and natural foods and products in every category. http://www.fairwaymarket.com/
· Regal Cinemas: The largest and most geographically diverse theatre circuit in the United States. Regal develops, acquire and operates multi-screen theatres primarily in mid-sized metropolitan markets and suburban growth areas of larger metropolitan markets throughout the United States. http://www.regmovies.com/
· 24-Hour Fitness: 24 Hour Fitness clubs come in a variety of shapes and sizes to match the distinct fitness goals and lifestyles of our members. No two clubs are exactly alike, so to find out which amenities are offered at a particular club, you can search by detailed amenities, or you can search by club location. http://www.24hourfitness.com
· Banana Republic: A chain of clothing stores owned by Gap Inc., with quality clothing for men and women, as well as shoes, handbags, jewelry, and accessories. Gap Inc. is a leading global specialty retailer offering clothing, accessories, and personal care products for men, women, children, and babies under the Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime, and Athleta brands. http://bananarepublic.gap.com/
· Coach: During the last decade, Coach has emerged as America’s preeminent designer, producer, and marketer of fine accessories and gifts for women and men including handbags, men’s bags, women’s and men’s small leathergoods, weekend and travel accessories, footwear, watches, outerwear, scarves, sunwear, fragrance, fine jewelry and related accessories. http://www.coach.com/online/handbags/Home-10551-10051-en
· lululemon athletica: Men and women can find comfortable yet high-quality, authentic clothing at lululemon athletica. The store specializes in yoga-wear but provides apparel for many other purposes and in a large selection of fabrics. http://shop.lululemon.com/home.jsp
· Michael Kors: Michael Kors is a fashion designer known for creating stylish mid-range sportswear. His clothing is aimed at both men and women, and sold at large department stores across America. He regularly uses colorful designs that pop with his collections. http://www.michaelkors.com/
· Brighton Collectibles: Brighton is an accessories manufacturer and retailer with over 140 stores in the United States, and is known for designing products with a message. Many of the items in the collection have a defining detail that gives them special meaning. http://www.brighton.com/
· Chico’s: Chico’s is a specialty retailer of private branded, sophisticated, casual-to-dressy clothing, intimates, complementary accessories, and other non-clothing gift items. In addition, each brand publishes its own catalog and maintains its own ecommerce website: http://www.chicos.com/store/home.jsp?
· White House | Black Market: White House | Black Market is an American fashion store targeting women 25 years of age and older. White House | Black Market is known for its sleek lines, and its focus on white, black, and other variants of the two colors. http://www.whitehouseblackmarket.com/store/home.jsp?
· Victoria’s Secret: Victoria’s Secret is the largest American retailer of lingerie and offers a wide selection of intimate apparels as well as swimwear, clothing, shoes, and beauty products such as perfume. http://www.victoriassecret.com/
· Express/Express Men: Express is a specialty apparel and accessories retailer of women’s and men’s merchandise, targeting the 20 to 30 year old customer. The company finds inspiration and trends from all over the world and interpret them in a way that is uniquely Express. http://www.express.com/
· Gap/Gap Kids/BabyGap: Gap, commonly known as Gap Inc. or The Gap, is a multinational clothing and accessories retailer. Today, Gap Inc. is a leading international specialty retailer with six brands – Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime, Athleta and INTERMIX – about 3,100 stores and 136,000 employees. http://www.gap.com/
· Jos. A. Bank Clothiers: JoS. A. Bank Clothiers is a retailer of men’s classically styled tailored and casual clothing, sportswear, footwear and accessories. Its boasts an extensive selection of beautifully made, classically styled tailored and casual clothing, and prices typically 20 to 30 percent below their competitors’. http://www.josbank.com/menswear/shop/Home_11001_10050
· Vera Bradley: Vera Bradley Designs, Inc. is an American design company best known for its patterned bags. Creating stylish quilted cotton luggage, handbags and accessories, the company combines smart product designs with distinctive and colorful fabrics and trims. http://www.verabradley.com/home.jsp
· Bath & Body Works: This company specializes in lotions, bath items, personal care items, and home fragrances. They have recently opened stores in international locations. http://www.bathandbodyworks.com/home/index.jsp
· The Limited: The Limited is well-known as the store concept that began mall-based specialty retailing as we know it. The Limited provides the modern young woman fashion that reflects her up-to-the-minute sense of style. http://www.thelimited.com/
· Soma Intimates: Soma Intimates offers an exclusive collection of women’s lingerie. Shop for bras, panties, sleepwear, swimwear, shapewear and more. Soma helps you embrace your body by making you look and feel gorgeous. Expert Fit Stylists can determine your exact bra size in minutes and wardrobe you with an always perfect fit. http://www.soma.com/store/home.jsp?
· LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics: LUSH is an international cosmetics company. As a company, they believe in standing up for animal rights, protecting the environment, and supporting humanitarian causes. LUSH makes effective products from organic fruits and vegetables. http://www.lushusa.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Lush-Site/en_US/Home-Show?lushportalref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
· LoveSac: LoveSac is not just another furniture retailer, or brand of bland designs. Each core LoveSac product is a legitimate furniture invention, with patents to prove it. The “Sacs” that made LoveSac famous, put simply, are massively oversized bean bags filled with chopped Durafoam instead of styrene beads, and comes with a two-lifetime guarantee never to go flat, or break. The Durafoam is recycled from new sofa foam tailings, and is far more comfortable and resilient than bean bag beans—more like a gigantic pillow, than a stiff bean bag. http://www.lovesac.com/
· JLK Salon, formerly Salon FX: Whether an old style has regained popularity or something new has emerged. JLK Salon is always ready to give your hair the perfect look. Choose from the latest styles for a night out, something casual to visit friends, or your favorite everyday look; JLK Salon stylists accommodate every occasion. Trends and styles have come and gone in the last 20 years, but JLK Salon’s dedication to quality hair care remains constant to this day.
Teavana: Teavana is a specialty tea and tea accessory retailer. As their name implies, Teavana’s goal is to be a heaven of tea and to offer our customers the tea lifestyle and wonderful tastes of tea. This unique name is meant to describe the experience each customer has with their tea and staff.
· Cohen’s Fashion Optical: Cohen’s Fashion Optical is an optical retailer featuring fashion products such as eyeglasses, frames and sunglasses, lenses, contact lenses, and accessories. Professional eye exams are usually available with on-site Doctors of Optometry. Cohen’s Fashion Optical predominantly sells prescription or non-prescription eyewear, as well as contact lenses and sunglasses in the latest European and American eyewear styles. http://www.cohensfashionoptical.com/
· CUPS Frozen Yogurt: Cups Frozen Yogurt is a fun, quirky frozen yogurt shop offering expertly crafted frozen yogurt products that come in a variety of decadent flavors. http://www.cupsfrozenyogurt.com/
· GNC: Shop GNC for vitamins, supplements, minerals, herbs, sports nutrition, diet and energy, and health and beauty products. GNC is the world’s largest company of its kind devoted exclusively to helping its customers improve the quality of their lives through personal health. http://www.gnc.com/home/index.jsp
· TD Bank: TD Bank, N.A., is a national banking institution in the United States which offers banking, insurance, brokerage, and investment banking services. http://www.tdbank.com/
· Bonefish Grill: Bonefish Grill is an American casual dining seafood restaurant chain that specializes in fresh fish. BFG offers unique fresh fish from all over the globe, hand-cut daily and wood-grilled to perfection, as well as other foods such as Angler’s Steak and Lily’s Chicken. http://www.bonefishgrill.com/
· P.F. Chang’s China Bistro: P. F. Chang’s China Bistro is an Asian-themed US casual dining restaurant chain. Their menu features a large selection of Asian-inspired cuisine to suit anyone’s personal preferences. http://www.pfchangs.com/index.aspx
· Lime Fresh Mexican Grill: LFMG, a Mexican restaurant, uses the best ingredients available, delivered daily and prepared on-site for homemade salsa, sauces, and sides. They also have vegetarian, low-carb, and low-fat options. http://www.limefreshmexicangrill.com/
· Zinburger Wine & Burger Bar: Energetic, modern, upbeat, fun, and delicious, Zinburger offers a great selection of gourmet burgers, salads and sides, decadent shakes and desserts, and a carefully crafted selection of wine. http://www.zinburgernj.com/
· Banchetto Feast: This Italian restaurant offers fine pasta, chicken, veal, seafood, and many other dishes crafted with a delicate touch. http://www.banchettofeast.com/home.html
Going to check out the shops at Nanuet this weekend, and will give my opinion on it afterwards. Based on the YouTube videos I previously viewed, it looks interesting.
@Rob, The shops at Nanuet has some real positives in it’s favor including a decent store & restaurant roster including a very nice Fairway Market. in adition, the ability to walk around outside most of the year is a good thing. I know – what about the horable weather we’ve had since december? It’s a factor one needs to consider when choosing the center that fits their needs.
Interestingly, nearly all of the store spaces are either open or spoken for wich is not the case at Ridge Hill. Speaking of Ridge Hill as a point of comparison, they have a 3-year head start & shockingly still have a vacancy rate of nearly 50% wich is rediculous since it is litterally ajacent to I-87 & the Sprain Brook Parkway. I wonder if the paid parking plays a roll? It doesn’t seme to effect White Plains or Stamford that much if at all.
Nanuet isn’t without it’s flaws however – mostly the issues stem from the preexisting Macy’s & Sears stores forsing the center to be built in a rather tight footprint. Despite that fact, the property doesn’t feel tight or cramped. As for cars passing through, it’s not a big deal as long as people use the crosswalks wich are plentyful. It would have been better if some structured parking were added over aditional retail, but it’s not a big deal.
@SEAN, Fairway is nice i work at stop and shop and many do not kike Fairway and they cant do a weekly shop there.Surlatable wont last they are pricy and rather buy household things in Bed Bath or Kohls. i am in contact with many between Kohls and Stop and shop many dont care for the mall and rather shop Kohls or Palisades especially macys palisades.Many are mad that premiere fitness closed. Simon property comes and puts pther places out of business and steals tenants from the mall. Thats why i dont like this mall and i will continue to shop palisades and shop the paramus malls who all compete fairly in the that area.
@rob, We’ve gone over this too many times to count – what ever it is about Rockland County residents & there fow atachment to the original Nanuet Mall as they take there dollars to Bergen instead. And don’t get me started on Palisades. The locals look at that mall as the read headded stepchild & you know it. Working in retail should give you as good an insight as anyone around here.
@SEAN, You are missing my point first off Shops does not have any affordable stores except the same ones that are at Palisades and many prefer to shop indoors either the way this winter has beem and the hot summers.Fairway is good for a special item like i said its not a supermarket for weekly food shoppingThis should have been outlets like BTC THATS WHY NOW PEOPLE WILL SHOP AT KOHLS AND PALISADES.
@rob, What ever stores that have duel locations at both Nanuet & palisades are most likely to close the latter location with the noted exception of Macy’s once there leases come up for renuel. Palisades is moving towards low/ middle tier retailers & nanuet is a step or two above that. However the better retailers are focusing on Paramus & White Plains as I said numerous times here.
As weird as it may seme, Sears & Lord & Taylor should swap locations in Rockland County.
@rob,FYI Radio Shack maybe closing 500-stores. This is about 20% of the entire chain.