TJ Maxx taking Bed Bath & Beyond's place in Plainview; Aldi eyes spot, landlord says
This TJ Maxx store will be relocating from a shopping center in Plainview — its home since 1997 — to a shopping center across the street. Credit: Megan Miller
Some stores in the town of Oyster Bay are playing musical chairs — or addresses.
A Bed Bath & Beyond store in Woodbury Plaza, at 401 S. Oyster Bay Road in Plainview, will be closing this month, as Newsday recently reported.
A TJ Maxx now across the street in Woodbury Shopping Center, at 410 S. Oyster Bay Road in Hicksville, will be moving into the space that Bed Bath & Beyond is vacating, according to Michael Levin, president of Josam Associates LLC, a Smithtown-based entity that owns Woodbury Shopping Center.
Also, discount grocer Aldi is in talks with Josam Associates to open a store in part of TJ Maxx’s space after the off-price retailer relocates across the street, Levin said.
TJ Maxx has been in Woodbury Shopping Center since 1997 and is a busy store, he said.
The store occupies 30,000 square feet, while the Bed Bath & Beyond is in about 24,000 square feet in an end unit in Woodbury Plaza, where the home decor store is the largest tenant.
"I know [TJ Maxx is] moving for three reasons: because they’ll have a brand new built-out store … they like the end-cap visibility . And they’re going to have a better loading dock," Levin said.
TJ Maxx will leave in October or November, he said.
Aldi is in talks with Josam Associates to take two-thirds of the space that TJ Maxx will vacate in Woodbury Shopping Center, he said.
Built in 1955, the shopping center hasn’t had a grocery store since a ShopRite left in 1988, Levin said.
The TJX Companies Inc., the Framingham, Massachusetts company that owns TJ Maxx, would not comment beyond telling Newsday that it has "not announced any store changes in Hicksville at this time."
Woodbury Plaza, the shopping center with the Bed Bath & Beyond, is co-owned by Breslin Realty Development Corp., a Garden City company.
Breslin declined Newsday’s request for comment.
But building plans have been submitted to the town of Oyster Bay related to the store moves.
On Dec. 28, an architect with Rosenbaum Design Group Architecture submitted to the town a building permit application for interior alterations and some exterior work related to renovating the Bed Bath & Beyond space, said Brian Nevin, spokesman for Oyster Bay.
Building plans indicate the renovations are for the TJ Maxx tenancy, he said.
Aldi did not comment specifically on plans for a Hicksville store.
"We are always considering new locations in Long Island and … plan on continuing to expand in new markets," Chris Daniels, vice president of Aldi South Windsor Division, said in a statement.
A Germany-based grocer, Aldi has nine stores on Long Island and has signed leases to open at least two more local stores — in Carle Place and Bohemia. The Bohemia store will open this year, Daniels said.
The Bed Bath & Beyond in Plainview is among 37 stores that the home decor retailer recently announced would close, most by the end of February, as part of its 2020 initiative to shutter approximately 200 stores, accounting for about 21% of its total number of Bed Bath & Beyond stores, over two years.
The initiative is part of a "store network optimization project" to right-size its real estate portfolio and focus on cost-cutting, according to Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., which is based in Union, New Jersey.
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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