Spirit Halloween opening record number of shops as landlords court more pop-ups

Spirit Halloween is opening a record number of seasonal stores this year as retail vacancies of large spaces create opportunities for more pop-up shops.

On Long Island, 13 stores will be among the Halloween retailer’s more than 1,500 seasonal shops this year — about 1,420 in the  United States and 80 in Canada, said spokeswoman Maria Storaci, who added that the retailer will hire approximately 40,000 temporary workers, also a record high for the seller of costumes and accessories.

Spirit Halloween, which is owned by Spencer’s Gifts LLC, opened 1,457 pop-up stores and hired 35,000 seasonal workers last year, she said. 

Headquartered in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, Spirit Halloween is attributing the growth to consumers’ changing attitudes about the October holiday.

“The excitement and demand for Halloween continues to grow, with celebrations no longer limited to one day or one weekend, but really becoming a year-round lifestyle. We are meeting that fan demand … and continuing to offer customers the best assortment of costumes, accessories, décor and animatronics and a top-notch in-store experience to match,” Storaci said.

Retail space availability also  plays a role, real estate experts said.

New construction of retail spaces has been muted at neighborhood and community shopping centers, due in part to retailers closing stores because of e-commerce competition, said David Caputo, a data scientist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania. So there has been more emphasis on existing spaces, he said.

“Property owners report high interest in empty spaces from vacated tenants such as Bed Bath & Beyond,” he said.

Comparing the second quarters of 2019 and 2023, the retail vacancy rates at neighborhood and community shopping centers rose from 5.2% to 5.9% in Nassau County and from 9.1% to 10.2% in Suffolk County, according to Moody’s. Nationwide, the rate was 10.2% in both quarters.

Taking big spaces

On Long Island, 13 Spirit Halloween stores, the same number as in 2022, opened in August or will open this month.

One is in a 17,000-square-foot space in Bay Shore that was vacated by Modell’s Sporting Goods in 2020 after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and another is in a 9,200-square-foot former Steinway Piano Gallery in Melville that closed in December for a relocation, said Daniel Glazer, vice president in Ripco Real Estate LLC’s Woodbury office,  who oversees leasing for the properties.

The Halloween retailer is in another former Modell’s space, a 17,000-square-foot unit in East Meadow, said broker Kenneth Breslin of Sabre Real Estate Advisors in Garden City.

In Bohemia, a Spirit Halloween is in a 42,000-square-foot space in Sayville Plaza that Bed Bath & Beyond vacated before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April. 

Also, a Halloween store will open Sept. 19 in Massapequa in a 6,300-square-foot space vacated this year by Harmon Face Values, a defunct health and beauty chain that was owned by Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. 

At Broadway Commons in Hicksville, the Halloween store is occupying an approximately 17,000-square-foot space that Old Navy left in June, said Josh McCord, general manager of the mall.

Better deals

Another reason for the growth in pop-up stores like Spirit Halloween is that retail landlords, especially shopping mall operators, are offering more-favorable leases to temporary tenants than in the past, real estate experts said. 

Landlords used to view temporary tenants as a nuisance because of the licensing agreement costs, low rent, sometimes being stuck with unpaid electricity bills, among other reasons, said Robert Delavale, vice president and director of leasing at Breslin Realty Development Corp., the Garden City-based real estate firm that owns part of Sayville Plaza through an affiliate.

“In days past, the juice wasn’t necessarily worth the squeeze … Landlords in general have realized that all of a sudden these seasonal tenants are paying more reasonable rent for the space,” he said.

Spirit Halloween also is streamlined and able to get in and out of spaces efficiently, Breslin said.

The Halloween retailer declined to comment on its rents and other internal operations.

“While we cannot reveal our operational secrets, we have built great relationships with landlords over the years. It is a win-win for all parties involved, as we breathe fresh life into an otherwise unused space as Spirit Halloween stores start opening each year,” Storaci said.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.com@ToryParrish1

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.