Retail Roundup: What's open and coming to a new plaza in Centereach
An Arby's, a nail salon and an AT&T store are among the recent openings at the redeveloped New Village Plaza on Nov. 6. Credit: Barry Sloan
New Village Plaza has turned a corner — a dilapidated corner that was an eyesore, officials said.
The Centereach shopping center, which is being redeveloped on the former site of a blighted retail center, has four new tenants and five others coming by the first quarter of 2020, making it 100 percent leased in its two existing buildings, said Daniel Glazer, a vice president in the Jericho office of Ripco Real Estate Corp.
Manhattan-headquartered Ripco is overseeing leasing on behalf of the shopping center’s owner, MVC Properties LLC in Bayside.
A Cajun-style seafood restaurant, California-Mexican-inspired eatery, and medical office have signed leases for spots in the shopping center, which is under development in the 1700 block of Middle Country Road.
Also, in previous columns, I wrote that Brownstones Coffee, Wingstop, Arby’s and an AT&T store were scheduled for openings in spring or summer this year in New Village Plaza.
Building permit and construction delays pushed those openings back, said Jason Sobel, an agent at Ripco Real Estate Corp., but three of those businesses recently opened. A nail salon also recently moved in.
So, here is a rundown of the planned and new tenants in New Village Plaza — and one business that won’t be calling the shopping center home as planned:
- Arby’s A 2,500-square-foot Arby’s with a drive-thru opened Nov. 16. A Roslyn Heights-based franchisee, Long Island Roast Beef Group LLC, is operating the restaurant known for its roast beef sandwiches.
- AT&T store The store opened in New Village Plaza on Oct. 25 and it is being operated by an authorized retailer, Fusion Wireless, according to Dallas-based AT&T Inc. The 1,400-square-foot store sells cellphones and service, wireless tablets, accessories, DirecTV and other products.
- Brownstones Coffee This shop is in construction and is expected to open in a 3,000-square-foot unit in New Village Plaza on Nov. 29, Sobel said. The chain’s first location opened in Amityville in 2002 and it now has three other locations, in Islip, East Northport, and East Hanover, New Jersey. Brownstones sells breakfast, lunch and specialty coffees, and closes in the afternoons. The business did not respond to a request for comment.
- Cabo Fresh
“A fast-casual, California-inspired Mexican grill” with three other Long Island locations, Cabo Fresh will open in a 2,150-square-foot unit in New Village Plaza around February, said Jim DiVilio Sr., who co-owns the business with his family.
Cabo Fresh’s menu includes burritos, Baja bowls, quesadillas and tacos.
The chain started with a location on Nesconset Highway in Stony Brook in 2010, DiVilio said.
“We are most known for our fresh spin on California-Mexican cuisine. … It’s a very clean, fresh-tasting food,” he said.
He has owned or co-owned several restaurants over the past 30 years that he sold, including El Dorado American Grille in Port Jefferson Station, El Dorado Southern Barbeque in Centereach, two Baja Grill eateries in East Northport and Smithtown, and pizza restaurant Chefs of New York in East Northport, he said.
“But Cabo Fresh is by far the most successful and our favorite concept out of all of them,” said DiVilio, who said he expects to begin the process of selling franchises next year. - Middle Country Wines & Liquors The business had been awaiting a liquor license from the New York State Liquor Authority to open a store in the shopping center, but the license was denied in January, according to state records. The state agency denied the application because there are at least 10 liquor and wine stores within 2.5 miles of the address proposed for Middle Country Wines & Liquors.
- Pacfe Nails & Spa opened in 3,300 square feet of space in the shopping center around October, Sobel said. The shop declined to comment.
- ProHealth Care is expected to open in the first quarter of 2020, in a 6,450-square-foot unit, Sobel said. The facility will provide adult primary care and have X-ray capabilities, a spokeswoman said. ProHealth has 325 locations.
- Swolehouse This meal prep and delivery business also recently opened in New Village Plaza.
- Voodoo Crab will open in 2,994 square feet in New Village Plaza in the first quarter of 2020, Sobel said. The restaurant, which has two other locations, in Massapequa and Rockville Centre, describes itself as a Cajun boil and seafood restaurant on its website. The chain did not return a call for comment.
- Wingstop The fast-casual chicken wing restaurant is now set to open in December in New Village Plaza, and it will be the chain’s third eatery on Long Island, said Sunsha Parker, spokeswoman for Dallas-based Wingstop Inc. The 1,500-square-foot restaurant will be operated by franchisee Chicken Masters LLC, she said.
Founded in 1994, Wingstop is a fast-growing chain that operates and franchises more than 1,300 locations around the world, but it just entered the Long Island market in December, when Chicken Masters opened a location in North Babylon.
Another franchisee, Shake That Wing Inc., opened a location in Freeport in April, Parker said.
The nine tenants that are open or planned for the shopping center will be split between an approximately 7,500-square-foot, newly constructed building and a 17,500-square-foot building that was recently renovated, Sobel said.
Construction on a third and final building, proposed for 45,461 square feet, has not begun but the town has granted site plan approval.
New Village Plaza is a redevelopment that is replacing “an old shopping center with illegal cars stored on the back of the property,” Brookhaven Town spokesman Kevin Molloy told me last year.
MVC Properties bought the site in 2007.
Brookhaven worked with the property owner for about six years to get through various issues, such as planning board approvals, to get the site redeveloped, said town Councilman Kevin LaValle, whose District 3 includes Centereach.
“It’s actually a good thing for the Centereach community to take a blighted property like this and be able to build something brand new with the brand names that are there,” he 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.
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