J.Crew, Paris Baguette among tenants lined up for $75M revamp of Huntington Shopping Center
The Huntington Shopping Center is being redeveloped and new tenants have moved in or are coming. Credit: Rick Kopstein
The redevelopment of the Huntington Shopping Center is on track to be done by next year, and three more new tenants have been announced for the revamped property.
BFT Fitness, clothing retailer J.Crew and cafe chain Paris Baguette are the latest businesses to sign leases for space at the property, Federal Realty Investment Trust, the Rockville, Maryland-based owner of the shopping center, said this week. A Whole Foods Market, which will be the largest tenant on the property, is among the incoming businesses that have been previously announced for the shopping center.
"The redevelopment of Huntington Shopping Center continues to attract best-in-class brands validating the demand for this area," Chris Fleming, vice president of asset management for Federal Realty, said in a statement Tuesday. "Whole Foods will be paired with like-minded tenants to better serve the community and the greater region in a high-quality, customer-focused environment."
Located on a 21-acre site on Route 110, at 350 Walt Whitman Rd., the shopping center will be redeveloped with updated facades, reconstructed parking lots and new landscaping, walkways and outdoor seating areas, according to Federal Realty. The center sits along Huntington’s main retail corridor.
The estimated $75 million revamp will reduce the retail space by 25%, though two new outparcels will be added, to create a more upscale property that will total about 210,000 square feet when the project is finished next year, Federal Realty said.
By the end of 2024, most of the tenants will be new to the property.
Aside from Whole Foods, previously announced incoming tenants include Burger Village, REI and The Container Store.
Whole Foods will occupy 43,609 square feet when the grocery store opens next year, while The Container Store, which sells storage and organization products, will open its second Long Island location next spring in a 15,676-square-foot space in the shopping center.
Burger Village, an organic burger eatery, is set to open in a 2,756-square-foot space at the end of next month, said Dix Hills resident Nick Yadav, who co-founded the burger chain on Long Island with his three brothers in 2013.
Outdoors goods store REI will occupy a 21,226-square-foot unit when it opens in the fourth quarter of this year.
Newly arrived tenants are furniture store Lovesac, which opened a 1,412-square-foot showroom in July, and a Just Salad eatery, which opened in a 2,382-square-foot unit Tuesday.
As for BFT Fitness, the studio will open in the fourth quarter of this year, franchisee David Wolk said.
BFT, which stands for “body fit training,” uses technology to create personalized training sessions in a group setting, he said. His 2,649-square-foot studio will offer 13 types of classes in group strength training, including high-intensity interval training.
Wolk is also a franchisee for three other studios, all of which are Club Pilates locations, on Long Island. BFT and Club Pilates are among the brands owned by Xponential Fitness, an Irvine, California-based franchise group of boutique fitness studios.
J.Crew and Paris Baguette did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Exits create an opening
Built in 1962, the Huntington Shopping Center in recent years has lost several large stores, such as Bed Bath & Beyond in 2018, Modell’s Sporting Goods in 2020 and Nordstrom Rack in 2021, due to their parent companies’ bankruptcies or other financial issues.
The stores’ exits created an opportunity to overhaul the property's outdated layout, Fleming told Newsday in October.
Only six of the current tenants were there before the revamp began in the second quarter of 2022: Michaels and Visionworks, which relocated in the shopping center, as well as Verizon, clothing store Tillys, cosmetics store Ulta and PetSmart.
The shopping center is now 90% leased, according to Federal Realty.
Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.
