With less than two months before its opening, The Shops at Nanuet project is right on schedule, according to the general manager of the Rockland County shopping center owned and managed by Simon Property Group.
“Everything has been moving very smoothly,” Ryan Hidalgo said. “We continue to make progress toward our opening in October. No hiccups.”
On a recent morning, countless construction workers could be seen completing tasks throughout the 750,000-square-foot development off Route 59 in Nanuet, a hamlet in the town of Clarkstown.
“Right now, basically every piece of the property is being touched,” Hidalgo said, with work that ranges from planting trees and restriping ring roads to ongoing façade work.
The project to revamp the former Nanuet Mall, a regional shopping destination that opened in the late 1960s, is set to be unveiled to the public Oct. 10.
Shoppers will still find long-time Nanuet mall anchors Macy”™s and Sears, which have remained open during the year-plus construction, but similarities will end there.
With an open-air concept, the center will feature shops concentrated on a pedestrian-friendly boulevard called Fashion Drive.
“We”™re working on the entrances from Macy”™s and Sears onto Fashion Drive,” Hidalgo said.
All work, though, will leave behind memories of the former indoor mall there, most of which closed in 2012 after struggling to compete with Palisades Center since the mega-mall opened in West Nyack in the late ”™90s.
But Hidalgo added that Simon Property Group, with other local properties including Woodbury Common Premium Outlets in Central Valley, the Jefferson Valley Mall in Yorktown Heights, The Galleria at White Plains and The Westchester in White Plains, is not pitching itself as a competitor to the Palisades, a Pyramid Management Group property some four miles away.
“We don”™t focus really on the competition,” he said. “The way we view things ”“ in this day and age, our competition is everything. We”™re competing for people”™s leisure time.”
At The Shops at Nanuet, the largest tenants, in addition to Macy”™s and Sears, will be Fairway Market, a 24 Hour Fitness center and a 12-screen Regal Cinemas complex.
There will be some 50 tenants in all. About 30 ”“ from Coach to Vera Bradley to Michael Kors and restaurants, including Bonefish Grill and P.F. Chang”™s China Bistro ”“ were announced in May. Earlier this month, 11 more tenants were announced.
“We really focused on trying to bring stores to the area that are new to market,” Hidalgo said.
The Shops at Nanuet will include such new Rockland shopping opportunities as J. Crew, J. Jill, Sur La Table, Corner Bakery Café, Paper Source and Big Dog Sportswear. Other retailers new to Nanuet include Ann Taylor, LOFT, Tiara Jewelers, European Wax Center and Sleep Number by Select Comfort.
Most retailers are expected to open in October with the remainder joining the mix in 2014. Hidalgo said more tenants will be announced closer to the fall opening.
The center is projected to bring hundreds of jobs to the area. Simon Property Group, headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind., coordinated an Aug. 23 job fair at which some 25 retailers were accepting applications for positions ranging from entry-level retail and sales to management.
“It kind of came to us as a natural fit,” Hidalgo said of the job fair, noting Simon Property Group works for its tenants. “One of our main responsibilities is to drive their business.”
And, he added, it is simply a reflection of what the old Nanuet Mall was all about.“The Nanuet Mall was always the community”™s mall.”
For Hidalgo, it will be a chance to return to his business roots. The manager of the former Nanuet Mall from early 2007 until it closed, he also found his first retail job at the mall, working at the Disney Store.
