Former mall to become Shops at Nanuet

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. Â 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.Â 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.