Ryan Hidalgo is riding a retail high.
Ask the general manager of The Shops at Nanuet how the outdoor retail center is doing and you”™ll likely get a nearly nonstop reply punctuated by a stream of “positives,” as in tenant response has been positive, customer reaction has been positive, sales have been positive.
“We hit a home run,” Hidalgo said of the open-air center that opened Oct. 10.
“Every month we have a new opening. In November, Regal Cinemas opened. In December, 24 Hour Fitness opened. Starbucks opened.” This month Sephora has joined the mix.
Fairway Market opened in October and Hidalgo said the response to the specialty food store “blows away every expectation they had.”
Hidalgo, who managed the Galleria mall in White Plains before taking on his post in 2007, said the retail trio of fitness, groceries and movies is a major draw.
“We want to be part of people”™s daily lives. Everyone is strapped for time,” he said. By having a gym and a grocery store, “people can kill two birds with one stone.” He added that as The Shops at Nanuet expands its food offerings, shoppers will find “another reason to spend the day here. We”™re an alternative to the enclosed mall. Shoppers feel like they”™re on vacation.”
Before it became an open-air venue, The Shops at Nanuet was the site of the Nanuet Mall. Opened in 1969, the beginning of a decade in retail that found thousands of enclosed malls opening across the nation, the Nanuet Mall eventually became a shell of its former self. In its death throes, the final nail in the Nanuet Mall”™s coffin came in 1998 when the Palisades Center in West Nyack opened.
The old mall holds memories for Hidalgo, whose first job was at the Disney Store. It”™s also where he met his wife.
In 2007, Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group “came aboard,” Hidalgo said. After several years of planning, construction began last year on the open-air design. With 100 percent of the center leased, and more openings such as Chicos and Lucky Brand in the offing, Hidalgo said by summer every space will be open for business.
The shopping center is proving to be a draw for retailers as well as shoppers. The Apple store, a longtime fixture at the Palisades Center, left the megamall to set up shop at the Nanuet site. Hidalgo said other defections are in the offing.
Hidalgo said he is finding that the shopping center is also tapping northern New Jersey shoppers, especially on Sundays when Bergen County”™s Blue Laws are in effect.
While he doesn”™t have hard numbers, Hidalgo said anecdotal information culled from parking lot security patrols shows roughly 25 percent of Sunday shoppers are from New Jersey. “We offer a great alternative to Routes 4 and 17.”
Buoyed by core retail sales numbers nationwide, Hidalgo said his retailers did very well during Christmas.
“But after Christmas it was ridiculous. The 26th was jammed. People weren”™t coming just to return items, but to buy,” he said.
Hidalgo said he and the Simon Property Group are not relaxing.
“There”™s always things we need to tweak. It”™s learning the market.”
Pointing to a winter fest that included singer Judith Hill as well as a tree lighting, Hidalgo said more events are planned for this year, including concerts and a wine and food festival.
“We have to keep fine-tuning.”
