Burlington to take Marshalls' former spot in Huntington shopping center

Off-price retailer Burlington plans to open a store in a Huntington shopping center undergoing a $31.2 million renovation.

The retailer, which sells clothes, accessories and housewares, will open its 10th Long Island store this fall in Huntington Commons, said Charise Lewis, spokeswoman for Burlington Stores Inc., which is based in Burlington, New Jersey.

“In addition to great merchandise values, the store will also bring approximately 65-75 new jobs to area residents,” she said.

The retailer's ninth Long Island store will open in Freeport on April 21.

Burlington will occupy a 25,442-square-foot space in Huntington that was vacated by off-price retailer Marshalls, which relocated in the shopping center to a 27,357-square-foot space in October.  Marshalls is now beside a ShopRite supermarket that opened in December.

Built in 1962, Huntington Commons is a 215,565-square-foot shopping center that is owned by Urban Edge Properties, a Manhattan-based real estate investment trust.

Located on New York Avenue north of the Huntington LIRR station, the center, formerly called the Big H, had been contending with a high vacancy rate for years.

To improve the shopping center’s performance, Urban Edge is revamping the property with new building facades, upgraded landscaping and a repaved parking lot.

It also changed the tenant mix to attract more tenants and shoppers.

“With essential grocery alongside compelling value retail as well as new fitness and wellness options, there is even more reason for shoppers in the surrounding community to visit the property more often,” Leigh Lyons, senior vice president at Urban Edge, said in a statement Tuesday.

Prime Urgent Care has a lease for 3,112 square feet and is expected to open at the end of this year, Urban Edge said in the statement.

Leases also have been signed with CycleBar, an indoor cycling studio; Golftec, which offers golf lessons and club fittings; iStretchPlus, a stretching studio; New Chapter Apparel; and Phenix Salons, according to the landlord, which said the shopping center is now 92% leased.

The lease rate was 43.8% in the summer of 2019, after the closing of a Kmart in the shopping center in February that year, according to an Urban Edge disclosure document. 

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.