Retail Roundup: Trampoline park could bounce into vacant Pathmark space in Dix Hills
A 30,396-square-foot Urban Air Adventure Park is planned for a combined space vacated by Pathmark and a Chinese restaurant in Dix Hills Plaza. Credit: Barry Sloan
An indoor trampoline park for kids might jump into part of a former Pathmark supermarket space in Dix Hills.
(You're welcome for that pun.)
A 30,396-square-foot Urban Air Adventure Park is planned for a combined space vacated by Pathmark and a Chinese restaurant in Dix Hills Plaza, said attorney Bram Weber, who represents the shopping center’s owner, Lerner Properties in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
Urban Air would take about 60% of the former Pathmark’s 49,146-square-foot space at 683 Old Country Rd., and all the former restaurant’s 1,400 square feet beside it, he said.
Urban Air’s application for a special-use permit is set to be voted on at the town of Huntington’s Zoning Board of Appeals meeting Dec. 17, town spokeswoman Lauren Lembo said.
If the permit is approved, then Urban Air's site plan would go to the town planning board for a vote.
Pathmark was the anchor in Dix Hills Plaza, where the supermarket occupied 60% of the shopping center's space before closing in 2015, Weber said.
Staff members help guests checkin at Urban Air Adventure Park in Lake Grove, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019. Credit: Jeff Bachner
Pathmark was one of 51 Long Island grocery stores, some of which were Waldbaum’s, that closed after their parent company, Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. in New Jersey, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2015.
The closing was a big loss for Dix Hills Plaza, since the grocery store’s exit hurt the viability of the smaller businesses in the shopping center, which attracts fewer customers and has several tenant vacancies now, Weber said.
"Without the Pathmark, it has really been struggling," he said.
Because it is geared toward families, Urban Air would help revitalize the shopping center, he said.
Already, town actions have been taken to help get the trampoline park into the shopping center.
On July 21, the Huntington town board approved amending the town code to allow "commercial places of amusement" as approved uses in commercial zoning, as long as the businesses acquire special-use permits.
"Coming into this administration, Supervisor [Chad A.] Lupinacci was looking for ways to improve our local economy. The purpose of the amendment was to fill existing, vacant commercial space — specifically, the abandoned supermarket at Jericho Turnpike and Old Country Road, where an indoor trampoline park had been interested in occupying the space, which has been vacant for five years," Lembo said.
Urban Air facilities include rope courses, climbing walls, dodge ball, a zip-line-styled contraption called Sky Rider, and other activities.
Most of the 267 Urban Air locations open or under development across the country are franchises, said a spokeswoman for Urban Air’s corporate office, which is based in Dallas.
The only other Urban Air in New York State is a franchise that opened on Long Island, in Lake Grove, in November 2019.
The facility planned for Dix Hills would be operated by a franchisee and open in late 2021, the Urban Air spokeswoman said.
The franchisee could not be reached for comment.
Keep in mind that the Dix Hills facility is being planned despite indoor trampoline parks, along with amusement parks, carnivals and arcades, having been closed in the state since March by government mandates to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has given no indication of when these facilities will be allowed to reopen but that isn’t stopping plans for Urban Air in Dix Hills.
"The Urban Air team is working closely with New York state to follow COVID-19 guidelines and will adjust opening plans as needed to ensure the park is in accordance with state and government regulations," the Urban Air spokeswoman said.
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.
Updated now Newsday travel writer Scott Vogel took the ferry over to Block Island for a weekend of fun.
