Smith Haven Mall to get multimillion-dollar revamp

Smith Haven Mall is slated to get a multimillion-dollar makeover, as the owner of the Lake Grove property focuses on sprucing up its second-tier malls.

The redevelopment will add new stores, dining destinations, an outdoor plaza and amenities, said the mall’s owner, Simon Property Group Inc. The Indianapolis-based real estate investment trust also owns two other Long Island malls — Roosevelt Field in Uniondale and Walt Whitman Shops in Huntington Station.

The Smith Haven project “is a complete revitalization of the entire mall," Mark Silvestri, president of development at Simon, told Newsday in an interview Monday.

The "entire interior of the mall is going to be redone. Food court’s going to be refurbished, all the common areas, the seating landscaping, the outdoor plazas will all be refurbished," Silvestri said. 

The redevelopment will begin this summer and is expected to be completed in 2026, according to Simon.

For years, Simon was investing in its top-performing retail properties, like Roosevelt Field. But now the company is focusing on its second-tier, or class B, malls, and bringing in better tenant mixes, Simon CEO David Simon told analysts during an earnings call last week.

“We still think we have an opportunity because, frankly, we've been organizationally very focused on ... the A's. We do think there is real effort, focus [and] growth for us in the B's where we're investing our dollars. So, that's a big program for us in '25 and '26,” he said.

The B malls are important assets in communities, he said.

“It's a combination of ... updating the look, feel of the place, restaurants, tenants; everyone changes a little bit differently,” said Simon, citing Smith Haven Mall as an example.

Zara, Golf Lounge among planned tenants

Incoming tenants at the mall include women’s clothing retailer Zara, which will open in a “massive” space in 2026; Golf Lounge 18, which will open in March; and cookware store Sur la Table, which will open in the fall, Simon said in a statement Monday.

Car-themed burger eatery Ford’s Garage opened its first New York restaurant in November at the mall.

In 2023, Stony Brook Medicine took over the space that Sears vacated in 2020. Clothing store Primark opened a 32,700-square-foot store in 2023 in part of the first-floor space that JCPenney vacated in 2019.

Silvestri declined to disclose the specific amount that Simon will spend on Smith Haven Mall’s revamp. But the company plans to spend $535 million redeveloping a group of malls in 2025 and 2026, according to a supplemental earnings report released last week. 

Focus on revamping class B malls

Mall owners nationwide are putting more focus in sprucing up their class B malls, particularly as the cost of construction has skyrocketed in the past few years, and residents may push back against new developments in their communities, said Alexander Goldfarb, managing director and senior research analyst in the Greenwich, Connecticut office of Piper Sandler & Co., a Minneapolis-based investment bank.

“A mall like Smith Haven that is well located ... now can get a new lease on life,” he said.

Built in 1969, the 1.2 million-square-foot Smith Haven Mall has 130 stores and straddles Lake Grove and Smithtown. Simon bought the mall in 1995 and completed a $75 million renovation in 2007 that involved demolishing the former Stern's building and replacing it with an open-air “lifestyle center” that included The Cheesecake Factory, Barnes & Noble and Dick's Sporting Goods.

Smith Haven Mall had a high occupancy rate, 97.7%, as of Dec. 31, 2023, according to Simon’s latest annual report, released in March.

Simon owns or has an interest in 229 properties in North America, Asia and Europe. The largest mall operator in the United States, the company owns about one-third of the top 300 malls in the nation, said Kevin Brown, senior equity analyst at Morningstar Research Services LLC, a financial services firm in Chicago.

Group: Class B malls see declining vacancy rates

A class A mall has a mix of high-end and national tenants, moderate tenant demand for space, above-average sales from tenants and minimal vacancies for the anchor spaces, while class B malls are solid properties with average sales productivity, declining vacancy rates and often one or more anchor vacancies, according to Green Street Advisors, a Newport Beach, California, real estate information provider.

It’s easier to make a B mall stronger than it is to turn it into an A mall, Brown said.

“It’s more about finding ways to sustain and reinvigorate the life of the B mall. Because if you kind of allow a B mall to ... flounder a bit and just assume, ‘Oh, we'll just continue it as a mall as is, it will slowly go the route of C malls,” he said.

Class C malls have insignificant sales productivity, low occupancy and weak foot traffic.

In the past three years, redevelopment plans have been announced to transform three Long Island malls completely or partially into open-air shopping centers: Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, The Shops on Broadway (formerly called Broadway Commons) in Hicksville, and The Shops at SunVet (formerly called Sun Vet Mall) in Holbrook.

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.