Mount Sinai Shopping Center sold; Whole Foods planned as part of property's revamp

A revamp of Mount Sinai Shopping Center designed to revitalize the site and change the merchandise mix will bring a Whole Foods Market, the property’s new owner said.

Regency Centers Corp., a Jacksonville, Florida-based real estate investment trust, closed on its purchase of the 131,779-square-foot shopping center Wednesday, spokesman Eric Davidson said in an email.

Regency has renamed the property Crystal Brook Corner, which is located at 5499 Nesconset Hwy., part of the state Route 347/25A corridor.

The west side of the shopping center runs alongside Crystal Brook Hollow Road.

"The acquisition of this center allows us to apply Regency’s long-term ownership and operating expertise to a property with exceptional fundamentals," Becca Wing, vice president of investments at Regency, said in a statement. "Its proximity to healthcare institutions, established neighborhoods, and major regional roadways creates a compelling opportunity to reposition the center in a way that delivers lasting value for both the community and our retail partners."

Regency declined to disclose the sale price of the shopping center, which was purchased from United Properties Corp. of East Meadow.

Most tenants in the shopping center are small businesses, including The Wine Authority, Rocco's Pizzeria & Ristorante, Mt. Sinai Bagel & Deli, Taco Island Mexican Cantina and Tapestry Salon & Spa.

The incoming tenancy of multinational, specialty grocer Whole Foods is part of a "broader remerchandising strategy" for the shopping center and will reflect the property’s "position within one of Long Island’s most affluent trade areas," Regency said.  

Regency plans to change the shopping center's tenant lineup to a mix of national, regional and local retailers and other types of businesses, including boutique fitness studios, restaurants, and personal and pet services.

Whole Foods will occupy an approximately 35,500-square-foot space that a 30-year-old King Kullen supermarket vacated in 2019, Regency said.

On Thursday morning, Whole Foods' parent company, Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc., confirmed that the natural and organic foods grocer will open a store at the Mount Sinai property but it declined to disclose more information, including the number of people who will work at the store.  

Grocers a 'critical component' of leasing strategy

In December, the Town of Brookhaven’s planning board, whose members also make up the town board, approved a site plan for the proposed revamp of the shopping center.

The renovation will include new facades for the buildings and the construction of a freestanding, 5,080-square-foot building for two quick-service restaurants, Christopher Robinson, the president of Huntington-based R&M Engineering, said during the planning board's public hearing. His company has been hired to work on the shopping center project.

A two-story building on the property has office tenants on the second floor, but its first floor was recently vacated by a Rite Aid drugstore, Robinson said. The former Rite Aid space will be renovated for new retail use and a quick-service restaurant, he said.

The shopping center sits on a 14.57-acre site and was built in the late 1980s, Don Hohn, Brookhaven’s director of planning, said during the public hearing.

The shopping center is overdue for a refresh because it has mostly been unchanged since it was built, Regency representatives said during the hearing.

The renovation's cost is estimated at $15 million, according to the land use application Regency submitted to the town in July.

Site work at the shopping center will start in March, followed by work on the facade and the construction of the new outparcel building beginning in April and May, Regency said Thursday.

The exterior construction will be finished in December, while interior work is ongoing, the company said.

New stores will open in 2027 through spring 2028, Regency said.

Regency owns or operates 485 shopping centers, including 12 on Long Island, and more than 85% of those properties are anchored by grocery stores, according to its website.

"Our grocery anchors are a critical component of our leasing strategy focusing on necessity, service, convenience and value retailers serving the essential needs of our communities," Regency said in a December investor presentation on its website.

Six of Regency’s top 10 tenants are high-performing grocers, including Publix, Albertsons and Whole Foods, the report said.

Whole Foods’ eighth Long Island store will open this year at The Shops at SunVet in Holbrook. Regency is the lead developer in the $93 million redevelopment to transform the Holbrook property from an enclosed mall to an open-air shopping center.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

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.