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Retail Rap – Macy’s To Shutter 150 Stores; Popeyes Eyes Shops At Nanuet

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Macy’s To Remain Open In The Palisades Center; Smaller Formats Planned For Future Expansion

UPDATED: March 4, 2024

Macy’s plans to close approximately 150 stores nationwide as part of a reorganization effort geared toward an updated focus on luxury sales and smaller store formats. But for now the Macy’s at the Palisades Center is safe.

According to a spokesperson from Macy’s: “Macy’s Palisades Center will remain open. . .  Our new strategy is designed to return Macy’s, Inc. to profitable growth and enhance the customer experience. We intend to close approximately 150 Macy’s stores over the next three years. This allows us to focus our investments and resources on Macy’s go-forward locations including full line, furniture and current off-mall locations and Bloomie’s, Bloomingdale’s The Outlet and Bluemercury stores.  We look forward to continuing to serve our customers at Macy’s Palisades Center.”

The reorganization plan, implemented between now and year-end 2026, calls for shuttering “unproductive locations,” though the company declined to specify which locations are targeted.

Part of Macy’s forward strategy is toward smaller stores of about 30,000 to 40,000 square feet. Market By Macy’s has yet to reach New York, but is part of the company’s long-term strategy.

The Times Union reported a company spokesperson represented “two Macy’s locations in the Capital Region – at the Colonie Center and Crossgates Mall – will remain open.” Macy’s owns both buildings situated about three miles apart.

Slated for closure is Macy’s flagship store in Union Square in San Francisco.

Locations in White Plains and Nanuet were shuttered in 2021 and 2019, respectively.

The Associated Press reports that after closures, Macy’s will have about 350 stores. It plans to open 15 additional Bloomingdale’s department stores, and 30 BlueMercury cosmetic locations.

Macy’s is the only remaining department store anchor at The Palisades Center in West Nyack. Both JC Penney and Lord & Taylor remain vacant shells. Lord & Taylor went dark in January of 2020.

The Macy’s store occupies 201,000 square feet, and according to records reviewed by RCBJ had sales in 2023 of about $40 million or about $200 per square foot. Macy’s pays about $1.6 million dollars per year in gross rent, or about $8 per square foot, which includes property taxes and common area expenses. It recently exercised a five-year renewal option.

According to Statista – a data tracking website, average sales per square foot across the chain in 2021 was $218.

The Palisades Center store will survive this round for store closures, but the trend toward smaller and more specialized retail locations doesn’t bode well for either the Palisades location or the long-term viability of the Palisades Center location if the store is shuttered.


Popeyes Eyes At Home Parking Lot For Drive-Thru Fast Food

An application before the Clarkstown Planning Board for the construction of a 2,536 square foot, single-story, free-standing fast-food restaurant with two drive-thru lanes was heard last Wednesday evening.

The restaurant would sit in the parking lot at the Shops At Nanuet, near the At Home home furnishing store. The address would be 200 Nanuet Mall South.

Engineers for the site, Colliers Engineering and Design, appeared two times before the Town’s Technical Advisory Committee before presenting its plans at the Planning Board.

The use, fast-food, is permitted as-of-right in the Town’s MRS Regional Shopping District. No zoning variances are needed.

The applicant is New York City-based AGMRA Nanuet LLC, an affiliate of Joseph Farkas’s Metropolitan Realty Associates.

The application received both a negative SEQRA (State Environmental Quality Review Act) declaration, meaning the development would not have a significant impact on the existing environment, and preliminary approval. The next stop for the application is the Town Architectural and Historic Review Board.

Other Popeyes locations are in the Palisades Center and Spring Valley. A Popeyes location is also planned for 246 Route 9W in the Village of Haverstraw on an outparcel adjacent to the Bricktowne Square Shopping Center.