A major, but by no means complete, remake appears to be the strategy being adopted at the once-thriving South Hills Mall in Poughkeepsie, where there is an approved site plan promising radical remodeling and modest downsizing of the 70s-era mall. Meantime, the partly vacant New Paltz Shop Rite Plaza, where empty storefronts outnumber active businesses, may have found light at the end of the tunnel, with the mall developer seeing positive commercial activity “fairly soon.”
The two shopping malls are emblematic of troubles besetting retailers nationally as consumers experiencing declining home values and soaring gasoline prices rein in their spending.
“We”™re in the process of redevelopment,” said Samantha Scotti, property manager of the South Hills Mall located on Route 9 in the town of Poughkeepsie. A recent visit showed heavy construction equipment instead of cars in the vast parking lot. She declined any additional comment, beyond adding, “It”™s going to be great.”
“We”™re not trying to keep it empty by any means,” said Art Cooper, a partner in New Paltz Property Development LLC, at Route 299 and Putt Corners Road in New Paltz of the ShopRite Plaza. “We are talking to several tenants right now. Something is going to happen fairly soon.” He said Thomas Cervone is the Realtor with exclusive listing rights, but Cervone did not return calls seeking comment.
A site plan approved July 2 in the town of Poughkeepsie shows the owners, Vornado South Hill LLC, of East Paramus, N.J., are demolishing most of the existing mall on the 72-acre site and will ultimately replace the current 747,000 square feet of retail space with a layout providing 555,000 square feet of retail. There will be more than twice as much additional restaurant space, from the current 9,600 square feet to over 21,000 square feet of eateries. Overall, the developed footprint of the project will be reduced from 759,000 square feet to 580,000 square feet.
Originally opened in 1974 with such well known retailers as Sears and K-Mart as well as various smaller specialty shops, the facility is now surrounded by fencing, although it still has a Burlington Coat Factory a Bob”™s Store and a K-Mart adjacent and a Shop Rite. There is also a theater complex featuring discount prices for second run movies. The Shop Rite, the K-Mart and the Burlington Coat Factory will remain, the rest of the mall will be demolished under the site plan.
The layout will not be the same as the current design. Rather than one continuous structure, there will be three groupings of shops. There will apparently be no single dominant anchor franchise or big box store. The site plan shows no new retail outlet any larger than the current Burlington Coat store, and most stores depicted are considerably smaller. Â
The three-quarters-empty Shop Rite Plaza would seem well situated for business, located at the gateway to New Paltz just west of Thruway Exit 18. But the mall has been bedeviled by empty storefronts with only two of its six available store fronts currently occupied, one by its anchor tenant, Shop Rite, and one by a hair salon. A former bedroom furniture outlet and a former Rite Aid sit vacant, along with another available space.
“We are looking for a certain kind of tenant,” said Cooper, citing a Staples store for example, instead of accepting any more restaurants, with which New Paltz is well stocked. Just like at South Hills, where the adjacent Galleria Mall provides competition, there is a thriving shopping center in New Paltz just a quarter mile down the road with a new Stop-N-Shop that is competing with Shop Rite for customers.Â
