Despite bleak times and perhaps even bleaker prospects for retailers, developers remaking Cross County Shopping Center in Yonkers have not slowed the pace or narrowed the scope of work there this year. And leasing interest from potential and existing retail tenants continues strong, said officials from Macerich, the retail real estate company managing and redeveloping one of the country”™s first and largest open-air shopping centers.
Donning and dispensing hardhats, Macerich managers recently led representatives of the center”™s owner, New York City-based Brooks Shopping Center L.L.C., and invited guests on a tour of the four-year work-in-progress that began last spring. The estimated cost of the renovations and new construction on the 72-acre site rose a year ago from $105 million to $174 million. Having recently submitted revised site plans to the City of Yonkers Planning Board, Macerich developers said they were still calculating the project”™s updated cost.
That “has grown significantly” since Macerich, a publicly traded real estate investment trust that owns or operates 72 regional shopping centers nationwide, was asked 2 ½ years ago to join Brooks in creating a new identity for the 1 million-square-foot shopping center, said Sean T. Cutt, senior development manager for Macerich. “Ownership has made a larger commitment to this project and they”™re going to make a greater investment,” he said.
Among the changes to original plans, “We found a greater need for restaurants,” Cutt said. “We”™re looking at less of the big-store square footages and going more to the inline retail shops.”
Two of the center”™s anchor tenants, Macy”™s and Sears, plan to expand by 50,000 square feet and 11,400 square feet respectively. Cutt said accommodating the Macy”™s expansion was a large part of the site plan revision. The plans also include construction of eight retail buildings, some on the sites of razed structures, that total approximately 308,000 square feet and a new 8,500-square-foot restaurant.
In another change of plans, Cutt said an eight-story office building on the grounds, originally a hospital, will be demolished to make way for a 150-room hotel. The building is about 50 percent occupied, he said.
Facade renovations to existing buildings and construction of a 25,000-square-foot retail building will be completed by November in time for the holiday shopping season, Cutt said. Current tenants relocating to expanded space there are Bath and Body Works, Wet Seal and Suzette Hosiery Inc., the oldest remaining tenant at Cross County, which opened in 1954 as a prototype of the postwar American shopping experience. Isaac Sagman, owner of Suzette, said his business will increase its space by 300 percent when he moves around the corner to the new 1,500 square-foot space.
Sagman said his business and others at Cross County, some of whom have signed new 10-year leases with Macerich, so far have survived the economic downturn and rising gasoline prices that have driven retailers nationwide into bankruptcies and store closings. “It”™s definitely more of a nail biter for retailers in general,” he said. “So far here it”™s held. We”™ve held strong in regard to our sales, so we”™re blessed.”
Robert J. Ryan, Cross County property manager for Macerich, said the gloomy retail climate has not clouded the redevelopment.”With this great real estate and the strong demographics, we”™re continuing to find these retailers are very interested in coming to the center,” he said. “There is going to be significant leasing activity in the coming months.”
