REI, Just Salad among new tenants coming to revamped Huntington Shopping Center
Artist rendering depicts revamped Huntington Shopping Center. Credit: Federal Realty Investment Trust
Outdoors retailer REI and eatery Just Salad are among the new tenants that will be headed to Huntington Shopping Center next year amid the property’s approximately $75 million redevelopment.
The shopping center’s 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 in 2024, said Chris Fleming, a vice president of asset management for Federal Realty Investment Trust, the Rockville, Maryland-based owner of the Huntington site.
“But there will be certain parts to the redevelopment coming online at different times between now and then,” he said.
A Whole Foods Market also will be opening in the shopping center, which Newsday reported in May 2021. The Austin, Texas-based retailer and Federal Realty have declined to say when the store is expected to open.
What to know
- Outdoor store REI and eatery Just Salad have signed leases to open locations at Huntington Shopping Center next year.
- A Whole Foods Market also will be opening in the shopping center.
- The approximately $75 million redevelopment of the shopping center should be finished in 2024, the owner said.
Built in 1962 on Route 110, at 350 Walt Whitman Rd., Huntington Shopping Center is still a desirable shopping area, but its loss of several major tenants in the past few years allows Federal Realty to revamp the property’s outdated layout. Demolition is planned in December for a two-level building that was occupied by a Michaels, Bed Bath & Beyond and BuyBuy Baby, Fleming said.
Struggling retailer Bed Bath & Beyond closed its store there in November 2018.
Fourteen Modell’s Sporting Goods stores on Long Island, including the one in Huntington Shopping Center, were among 134 locations that the retailer closed after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March 2020.
A Nordstrom Rack in the shopping center closed in May 2021 due to “economic reasons,” according to Nordstrom Inc.'s filing with the New York State Department of Labor.
“Those vacancies created an opportunity for us to reinvent the shopping center,” Fleming said.
REI will open a 21,100-square-foot store in Huntington Shopping Center next summer, the retailer said in a statement. The store will move into combined spaces formerly occupied by Modell’s Sporting Goods and Dressbarn.
Headquartered in Seattle, REI is a co-op with 178 stores in 42 states and Washington, D.C., including one existing Long Island store in Carle Place.
“We’ve long been interested in better serving the Long Island outdoor community and in complement to our existing tri-state stores,” Sean Sampson, REI regional director, said in a statement.
Founded in 2006, Just Salad is headquartered in Manhattan and has more than 60 eateries in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Dubai.
The chain plans to enter the Long Island market next year, with shops planned for Huntington Shopping Center, Westbury and Commack in the first quarter of 2023, followed by an Oceanside store in the second quarter, spokeswoman Nicole Natoli said. (The Oceanside store was supposed to open in the third quarter of this year, but the chain won’t say what is causing the delay.)
Just Salad sells salads, wraps, warm bowls and other items at its eateries with a focus on sustainability. With its slogan “Eat with Purpose,” the chain has waste reduction initiatives, including a reusable bowl program and bagless pickup and checkout, and a lower-carbon menu category.
The redevelopment of Huntington Shopping Center, a 21-acre property, will include updated facades, reconstructed parking lots, and new landscaping, walkways and outdoor seating areas at the center, which sits along Huntington’s main retail corridor, according to Federal Realty.
There are currently six tenants in the shopping center: Michaels and Visionworks, which relocated in the shopping center, as well as Verizon, clothing store Tillys, cosmetics store Ulta and PetSmart.
The largest building in the shopping center will be demolished and replaced by a building that is pushed back closer to New York Avenue to allow for more parking, Fleming said.
Two 8,000-square-foot outparcels also will be built for smaller retailers and restaurants, including Just Salad, he said.
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.
