Staten Island Mall to Expand by 445,000 Sq.Ft.

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

Staten Island Mall indoor

It’s been almost two years since Superstorm Sandy hit New York City and all of its five boroughs are still working hard to recover after the disaster. Staten Island, the most badly damaged of them, is bustling with growth and development projects that are meant to revitalize the area and attract more residents and tourists.

Last fall the New York City Council green lighted what will become the world’s tallest Ferris wheel and a $260 million outlet center that will be built on the severely affected North Shore. The list of commercial revival continues this summer with a proposed expansion project that will enlarge the Staten Island Mall by nearly half a million square feet. Chicago-based real estate trust General Growth Properties—which owns and operates 200 malls nationwide, including the 85-acre Staten Island Mall located at 2655 Richmond Avenue—plans to transform the borough’s largest and only indoor shopping center into a 1.6 million-square-foot megamall.

According to the Commercial Observer, General Growth Properties filed a project notification form with the Department of City Planning. If approved, the mall expansion could begin in 2015 and take two years to complete, with the new space ready for occupancy in 2017. The projected 445,000-square-foot expansion designed by S9 Architecture includes a 75,000-square-foot

Staten Island Mall expansion plan

enlargement of the existing Macy’s department store; the construction of a new department store spanning 40,000 square feet of space, and a three-story garage with 1,500 parking spaces. Additionally, General Growth Properties plans to build a 53,000-square-foot cinema and a 50,000-square-foot supermarket. The expansion plan also calls for more than 30,000 square feet of restaurant space, up to 113,000 square feet of non-department store retail space and a new food court of around 10,000 square feet.

Apart from its existing anchor tenants Macy’s, Sears and JCPenney, the mall also houses several high-end retailers such as Ann Taylor, Apple, Microsoft, L’Occitane en Provence, MAC Cosmetics, Aveda, Soma, Potatopia, LEGO and Häagen-Dazs. However, Staten Island FYI notes that the mall could attract new high-profile tenants starting next spring, when General Growth Properties’ representatives are expected to attend the Global Retail Real Estate Convention in Las Vegas.

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Staten Island expansion plan via NYC Department of City Planning