Retailer to expand in new downtown space

Toys “R” Us Inc. by early May will relocate its downtown White Plains toy and baby products store from the Westchester Pavilion on South Broadway to City Center, where it plans to add 30 full- and part-time positions to its current downtown staff of more than 45 employees.

The new Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us store will occupy a 55,000-square-foot space at 7 City Place on the second floor of the City Center retail and entertainment complex. The company, headquartered in Wayne, N.J., will vacate its space at 60 S. Broadway, where it has been a tenant of Greenwich, Conn.-based Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. since 1994.

Company officials said the City Center location has been designed to incorporate the side-by-side store format launched by the retailer in 2006 to bring its Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us brands under one roof. The integrated stores vary in size from 30,000 square feet to 70,000 square feet. The company operates more than 200 such stores in the U.S.

Troy Rice, executive vice president of stores and services at Toys “R” Us Inc., in a statement said co-locating the store brands “is a key initiative for the company, and our customers nationwide have been responding favorably to the convenience and breadth of selection these stores offer.”

“Whether guests are shopping for must-have toys for the kids in their lives or products for the more than 11,100 babies born in Westchester County each year, this new side-by-side store will provide parents with both a convenient shopping experience and great values,” Rice said.

The store will hold its grand opening weekend May 3- 5.

In conjunction with the opening, the Toys “R” Us Children”™s Fund has awarded a $10,000 grant to Make-A-Wish Hudson Valley. Make-A-Wish grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions. The Toys “R” Us charity has donated more than $2.3 million to the Make-A-Wish organization since 1995 and its parent corporation has contributed $200,000 in holiday gift care for terminally ill children in the last four years.