A New York-based real estate firm is upgrading a shopping
center in Pohatcong Township, N.J., to attract tenants and shoppers.
Among the new tenants is ULTA Salon, Cosmetics &
Fragrances Inc., a national beauty retailer that’s expected to soon open a
store.
The site, Pohatcong Plaza off Route 22 near Phillipsburg,
includes a mix of tenants as recent construction shows a key effort to fill
spaces that have been vacant for a decade.
National Realty & Development Corp. of Purchase,
N.Y., has been developing the project since 2012, said Dovid Spector, senior
vice president of leasing for National Realty. That’s when the firm started
working with Wal-Mart to relocate the store to a larger site which opened as a
Wal-Mart Supercenter at the former Laneco supermarket, also in the township a
short distance away.
Since that time, the firm backfilled Walmart’s old space
in Pohatcong Plaza with retailers Marshalls, Home Goods and Hobby Lobby.
Now that those department stores are in place, the firm
is repositioning the merchandising in the shopping center, Spector said.
The firm has been successful in transforming the shopping
center into a power center, Spector said.
These centers are regarded as centers that have a gross
leasable space of about 537,410 square feet, he said. These centers include few
small tenants and usually three or more dominant anchors.
“What we have done is create a merchandising mix of soft
goods, health and beauty, dining and entertainment categories,” Spector said.
“It’s multiple categories that ultimately drive traffic.”
Pohatcong Plaza was redeveloped into a regional center
anchored by Stop & Shop, Regal Cinemas, Marshalls, Home Goods and Hobby
Lobby, he said.
“ULTA enhances the merchandising mix at the center,”
Spector said. “The new tenants reposition the center as the key regional power
center in the area.”
Party City needed a larger store and decided to move, he
added.
“We then were able to take two stores that were empty
about 10 years, they were very narrow,” Spector said, referring to the interior
space. “We were able to combine a vacant Hallmark store and with a portion of
the vacant Party City.”
ULTA will then occupy that space, opening this year,
Spector said.
The space is about 12,000 square feet.
Between ULTA and Hobby Lobby is another space available
that’s 11,310 square feet. Spector said the firm is talking with tenants who
could occupy it.
Even with these new tenants, Pohatcong Plaza is not fully
leased. One of its big tenants, a chain called Club Metro USA Fitness Center,
decided to relocate to another spot in a nearby shopping center. That space has
to be filled, ideally with a tenant in the fashion industry, he added.
Spector declined to disclose the construction costs for
the upgrade project.
National Realty, which is an owner, developer and general
contractor firm, completed the exterior work for the upgrades, while ULTA has
its own contractor for the interior work, Spector said.
Source: LVB
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