Ascena Retail Group Inc., the parent company since 2011 of Dress Barn, the women”™s clothing retailer, next summer will relocate its corporate headquarters a six-mile distance from Suffern in Rockland County to Mahwah, N.J.
The New Jersey Economic Development Authority gave the company a $32.4 million incentive package to make the move. In exchange, Ascena will bring all 400 of its current employees and create 100 additional jobs within two years. The company”™s five major retail brands include Catherines, Dress Barn, Justice, Lane Bryant and Maurices.
Most of Ascena”™s real estate in Suffern has been vacant for the past year since it moved its distribution facility to Ohio. Looking to downsize and upgrade, Ascena President Jeffrey C. Gerstel said the company”™s new location allows the company to best fit its needs and to expand while staying within 15 miles of its current location, so that employees will not have to move.
“The move is driven by finding space suitable to our current and future needs,” Gerstel said. “It would have been difficult to expand our Suffern offices and find a warehouse user for the unneeded space.”
When Dress Barn moved from Stamford, Conn., to Suffern in 1994, New York state reportedly gave the company a $2.7 million financial package to help with site improvements, new machinery and employee training. “We have to fight Connecticut and New Jersey, and I don”™t like to do that,” then Gov. Mario Cuomo was quoted in an Associated Press article announcing the move in 1993. “I don”™t like the fact that Connecticut is losing jobs. It”™s a new world and this is a victory for us in the new struggle.”
Reducing the impact of Ascena”™s New Jersey move on the Hudson Valley job market, the Empire State Development Corp. has offered Raymour & Flanigan, the furniture retailer based in suburban Syracuse, a total of $2.3 million in Excelsior tax credits to open a $46 million regional distribution center at the former Dress Barn site. The new center is projected to create 300 jobs.
“New York was very helpful and supportive during our search,” Gerstel said. “However, there were not an abundance of alternatives for our needs and the Mahwah location was the best fit.”
With New Jersey as its neighbor, Rockland commonly sees businesses move across the state border in both directions, said Michael DiTullo, CEO of the Rockland County Economic Development Corp.
“It”™s unfortunate that they decided to leave, but at least we were able to bring in another company,” DiTullo said.
Commenting on the economic bidding wars between states, DiTullo said the county has to “scratch and claw” to do everything it can to attract and retain corporations.
“It happens,” he said. “We did everything we could, believe me.”
