Urban Planet, Canadian fast-fashion retailer, plans Green Acres Mall store

A Canadian fast-fashion retailer’s U.S. expansion will include its entrance into Long Island.

Urban Planet by Charlotte Russe will bring its first Long Island store to Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, with a tentatively scheduled opening in late 2026 or early 2027, said Andrea Kovacs, director of construction and special projects at YM Inc., the retailer’s Toronto-based parent company.

Urban Planet has more than a 100 stores in Canada and 32 in the United States. Of those U.S. stores, 19 opened last year across the country, including locations in Brooklyn and Middletown, New York; Holyoke, Massachusetts; and Lancaster, Pennsylvania

The chain has opened four stores in 2026 and will open 30 more by the end of this year, including a second location on Staten Island in June, Kovacs said.

Urban Planet, whose target demographic is male and female consumers 16 to 24 years old, is a sister retailer to several clothing sellers, including Charlotte Russe, Rue21 and e-commerce site Forever 21.

The Urban Planet in Green Acres Mall will occupy an 8,727-square-foot space beside an existing Charlotte Russe store, and the two stores will share an entryway between them, said Lee Ra Johnson, assistant vice president of leasing for The Macerich Co., the Santa Monica, California-based real estate investment trust that owns the mall.

Both Urban Planet and Charlotte Russe sell fast fashion, which is trendy, low-priced clothing produced quickly, but the chains differ in several ways.

"Urban Planet is a lot bigger in square footage and we can carry a much more diverse inventory range," said Kovacs, adding that some Urban Planet stores also carry a small collection of kids’ clothing.

Also, Urban Planet’s prices in general are lower than Charlotte Russe’s, she said.

Urban Planet’s is "very commodity-based. Our whole motto is, ‘You get fast-fashion at affordable pricing,’" she said.

The 70-year-old Green Acres Mall is undergoing a partial redevelopment, estimated to cost between $130 million and $150 million, that is designed to take the property in a more upscale direction. The project will add several new restaurants with sidewalk entrances to areas that previously had only interior mall entrances, as well as new entertainment venues and a ShopRite supermarket.

But Urban Planet will not be located in the revamped portion of the mall.

Urban Planet will be taking the second floor of a two-level, 30,665-square-foot space in the mall that has been occupied since August 2022 by Kid City, a discount children’s clothing store that will close, Johnson said. Kid City has 13 stores in New York State, New Jersey and Philadelphia, according to its website.

The retailer did not respond to Newsday’s request for comment.

The Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency approved a sublease for Urban Planet’s planned Green Acres store Tuesday.

The IDA holds title to the mall and an adjacent shopping center, called Green Acres Commons, because the properties operate under payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements, or PILOTs, that the agency initially approved in 2014 and 2015, respectively.

Macerich is considered to be leasing the properties and must get the IDA’s approval for all tenants’ subleases until the tax-break deal ends.

Urban Planet’s Green Acres store will employ 20 to 22 people, according to sublease information on the IDA’s website.

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.