Kenneth Schuckman and fellow investors have proposed adding a BJ’s Wholesale Club and a three-story building for restaurants in their proposed redevelopment of the mall Shops on Broadway in Long Island’s Hicksville.
The BTF Capital founder and a group of regional partners, including New Jersey-based KABR Group and a joint venture formed between Long Island-based AJM Real Estate and Burman Real Estate, submitted a site plan to the town of Oyster Bay on Monday.
They also presented their plans at the Commercial Industrial Brokers Society of Long Island’s meeting on Tuesday, Newsday reported.
The partnership teamed up in February to buy the majority of the mall, at 358 Broadway Commons, for $40 million from UBS Group AG.
The transaction included 730,000 of the site’s 1.1 million square feet, as the mall’s Target, Ikea, and four other parcels of land were not included in the sale.
If plans are approved, a BJ’s Wholesale Club would be located in a new, freestanding 105,000-square-foot building that would include a gas station and electric vehicle charging stations. BJ’s has 12 stores open on Long Island.
The redevelopment would also demolish a vacant 300,000-square-foot Macy’s building as well as tear down other retailers adjacent to Macy’s, all of which would be replaced with parking.
Plans also call for converting the mall’s common corridors to open-air space, establishing an entertainment wing called The District, which would house the Round1 bowling alley, and constructing a 70,000-square-foot building for restaurants.
Showcase Cinemas announced in September that its movie theater at the mall is scheduled to close Jan. 5 because its operator didn’t renew its lease. The ownership group is in talks with several other theater operators to take over the space, Shuckman told the outlet.
If the theater remains, it will be included in The District, but possibly downsized.
The mall has struggled with vacancy rates for several years. The pandemic exacerbated its low occupancy; anchor tenant Macy’s closed in early 2020, and a 17,000-square-foot Old Navy shut down in June 2023.
Despite those setbacks, the mall still has significant assets such as the Round1 bowling alley, Target, and Long Island’s only Ikea retailer, which are the site’s largest property holders. Both Ikea and Target own their buildings within the mall.
“It’s a superb location,” Scott Burman, founder of Burman Real Estate, told Newsday. “It’s right in the heart of Nassau County. It’s within a couple minutes’ drive of the LIE and the [Northern State] Parkway. And the surrounding [economic] demographics are incredible.”
— Caroline Handel
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