Ground broken at Cortlandt Crossing

A 65,000-square-foot ShopRite will be the anchor store of Cortlandt Crossing Shopping Center, a 130,000-square-foot commercial retail center to be built along the north side of Route 6 in Mohegan Lake.

Acadia Realty Trust, the White Plains-based developer behind the new shopping center, announced at a groundbreaking ceremony on Oct. 21 that the grocer, the largest retailer-owned supermarket cooperative in the U.S. with 260 stores, will relocate from its storefront at 2094 Main St. to the complex at 3144 E. Main St.

The development includes a 98,000-square-foot main building and three to four stand-alone buildings totaling approximately 32,000 square feet. The shopping center will feature 10 separate storefronts ranging from 1,000 to 15,000 square feet and 816 parking spaces on 17 of the site”™s 32 total acres.

Cortlandt Crossing will be adjacent to another complex managed by Acadia Realty, Cortlandt Town Center, home to retailers including Walmart, Marshalls, PetSmart, Barnes & Noble and Best Buy.

“When we saw this property come up for sale across the street, we jumped on it, quite frankly without a plan in place,” said Christopher Conlon, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Acadia Realty, “but at least (we had) the intuition to understand what it could mean for the region, including what it could mean to us, a company who develops these kind of things.”

The project is expected to bring $1 million in additional tax revenue to the town of Cortlandt, Conlon said.

“I”™m just really delighted because this new shopping center is going to provide more jobs for our area ”“ we”™re always looking for new jobs ”“ in the construction period of it and also once the retail is up and running, so that is really exciting,” Cortlandt Town Supervisor Linda Puglisi said.

The development company will also invest $8 million in off-site improvements, including sewer remediation and the installation of a traffic signal at the Baker Street and Route 6 intersection.

“That”™s going to provide great access for homeowners who live down in the Baker Street area, so they”™re delighted,” Puglisi said of the new traffic signal. “We”™re very pleased that they”™re doing that.”

Acadia Realty said additional retailer announcements will be made during the course of the two-year development process.

“One thing that made this property extremely attractive to us is that we”™re oversubscribed across the street,” Conlon said, adding that “there”™s a list of retailers that we can”™t put in there, either because their use is restricted by other tenants or we don”™t have the physical space.”

“It”™s a wonderful thing for our community to have businesses expand and open like this, because it brings new residents,” said Deborah Milone, executive director of the Hudson Valley Gateway Chamber of Commerce. “Residents want services and having a center like this along this wonderful corridor is incentive for people moving into our community, and the more people who move in, the more people who can patronize these businesses.”