Just five months after a group oflocal commercial real estate investment firmsacquired the Broadway Commons mall in Hicksville, the new owners plan to transform it into an open-air lifestyle center.
The ownership group, which unveiled its $100 million redevelopment project at a meeting of the Northwest Civic Association of Hicksville on Monday, plans to razethe shuttered 300,000-square-foot Macy’s store, consisting of five stories over a lower-level. In addition, about 100,000 square feet of the mall’s interior will be demolishedas part of the plan to turn the mall inside out and create the new open-air concept that will be renamed The Shoppes on Broadway.
An as-yet-unnamed national retail tenant will be occupying a new 100,000-square-foot store, which will also include gasoline service and electric vehicle charging stations. Other new offeringsat the Hicksville complex will include new restaurants with outdoor seating and additional experiential and entertainment tenants, according to Kenneth Schuckman, one of the property’s ownership group principals.
Also part of the redevelopment plan are internal roadway improvements and new way-finding signage aimed at upgrading the overall shopping experience at the 68-acre property. The Shoppes on Broadway will have increased security with new lighting and cameras, new landscaping and open spaces.
“This will be a complete transformation and reimagining of the property. It will be more shopper friendly, more pedestrian friendly and more community friendly,” Schuckman told LIBN. “You go to work, you go home, and this should be the third place you go to.”
The project team for the redevelopment includes two Long Island architecture firms, New Hyde Park-based Rosenbaum Design Group and Woodbury-based Spector Companies. Huntington-based R&M Engineering will provide civil engineering services and Frank Filiciotto is the project’s traffic engineer.
Attorney Bram Weber, of Melville-based Weber Law Group, is representing the Hicksville redevelopment.
“We’re going to be making an application to the Town of Oyster Bay this summer for the approvals needed to implement this redevelopment plan,” Weber said. “Right now, we’re doing the important work of building community support for the plan.”
The first step in the project’s community outreach was the presentation before the Northwest Civic Association of Hicksville, which attendees said was met with overwhelming support. State Sen. Steve Rhoads and Nassau County Legis. Rose Walker were at the meeting, and both expressed support for the plan, Schuckman said.
The new ownership group of the Hicksville property, K/BTF Broadway LLC, which closed on the $40 million purchase in February, includes Rockville Centre-based BTF Capital; the KABR Group, headquartered in Englewood, N.J., and AJM BRE Ventures, a joint venture of Long Island firms AJM Real Estate, headed by Adam Mann, and Burman Real Estate, headed by Scott Burman.
Besides being a principal of BTF Capital, Schuckmanis also principal of the commercial real estate brokerage firm Schuckman Realty, which will continue as the exclusive leasing broker for the Hicksville retail complex. He said the redevelopment is attracting national and regional tenants that would not have considered coming to the mall in its current state.
“There has also been interest from former tenants considering a return to the property,” Schuckman said.
The 240,000-square-foot Ikea store, which Ikea owns, andthe 137,000-square-foot Target store, which Target owns, will remain at the new Shoppes on Broadway.
First opened in 1956 as an open-air retail center called Mid Island Shopping Plaza, the center was enclosed in 1968, renamed Broadway Mall in 1989 and completely redeveloped in 1995. Vornado Realty Trustacquiredthe Hicksville property in 2005 for $153 million and sold it to KKR & Co. for $94 million in 2014. In 2017, the property was renamed Broadway Commons andKKR sold five parcels for over $60 million, according to a source familiar with the transactions. KKR fully exited in 2018 and the mallwasoperatedby Pacific Retail for its previous owner UBS, before the local ownership group took it over earlier this year.
The “de-malling” of Broadway Commons is part of a national trend to design more walkable, consumer-friendly shopping experiences. Here on Long Island, the former Huntington Square Mall in East Northport was turned inside out 17 years ago and the former SunVet Mall in Holbrook is currently being redeveloped into an open-air shopping center. The Sunrise Mall in Massapequa is also facing an upcoming redevelopment project.
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