Retail Roundup: Carle Place getting new spot for bargain-hunters
A HomeSense store will open next year in part of a former Toys R Us space in Carle Place Commons. Credit: Chris Ware
Shoppers like the chase when it comes to bargains, which is why yet another off-price store is headed to Long Island.
Off-price home décor chain HomeSense, which entered the Long Island market with two stores in 2018, will open its fourth local location in part of a former Toys R Us at 117 Old Country Road in Carle Place Commons next year.
“We hope that they will open in late spring,” said Marc Kemp, a principal at Woodmere-based real estate development company Basser-Kaufman, which owns Carle Place Commons.
The TJX Companies Inc., based in Framingham, Massachusetts, is the parent company of HomeSense and other off-price chains, including Marshalls, TJ Maxx and HomeGoods.
TJX is not confirming its local plans yet, saying Tuesday that it had “not announced a new store” for Carle Place.
HomeSense will take about 25,000 square feet of the 43,000-square-foot space that Toys R Us had occupied in the shopping center, Kemp said.
Basser-Kaufman is in the process of leasing the rest of the space, said Kemp, who declined to name the other incoming tenant.
The Toys R Us store had been in Carle Place Commons since the shopping center was developed in 1977, Kemp said.
It closed in June 2017 before Wayne, New Jersey-based Toys R Us Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, in September 2017, and closed more than 800 stores.
Other tenants in Carle Place Commons include Panera Bread, Vincent’s Clam Bar, Bob’s Discount Furniture and jewelry store Jared.
HomeSense will be a complement to the existing tenants, Kemp said.
“I think there will be some synergy between HomeSense and Bob’s Discount Furniture,” he said.
While traditional department stores struggle, off-price merchants are leading the growth in the retail industry.
The discount format "continues to provide the customer with a desired ‘treasure hunt’ experience that delivers value and convenience through its primarily off-mall locations, which support further store development,” according to a retail outlook published in October by Moody’s Corp., a Manhattan-based financial services company.
As of Nov. 2, TJX had 3,281 TJ Maxx, HomeSense, Marshalls and other stores, which is 147 more, or a 4.7 percent increase, compared to the number a year earlier.
The company opened a TJ Maxx in Port Washington in May and a HomeSense in Stony Brook in June.
Last year, TJX opened four other local stores: Marshalls and HomeGoods in a Riverhead shopping center that has a HomeSense; a TJ Maxx in Medford; and a HomeGoods in Melville.
A Marshalls is planned for Bridgehampton Commons shopping center in 2020.
Retail Roundup is a column about major retail news on Long Island — store openings, closings, expansions, acquisitions, etc. — that is published online and in the Monday paper. To read more of these columns, click here. If you have news to share, please send an email to Newsday reporter Tory N. Parrish at tory.parrish@newsday.com.
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.
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