Burlington opening 13th Long Island store this spring, in Selden, as discounter moves into smaller spaces

Burlington will open its 13th Long Island store soon, after opening three other local stores in the past four months, as the off-price retailer pushes fast growth in smaller spaces.

A Selden store will open this spring at 71 Middle Country Rd., in the College Plaza shopping center, the Burlington, New Jersey-based retailer said.

“The new store brings the total number of stores in the state to 66 … Burlington is proud to offer customers amazing deals on quality top brands and the chance to find something new every time they shop,” the retailer said in a statement Monday.

Burlington did not provide a specific date for the opening but its website says the Selden store will open April 12.

The store will occupy a 20,660-square-foot space that was formerly split among a Bob’s Stores, a dry cleaner and a mobile phone store, said Kristen Moore, a spokeswoman for Brixmor Property Group, the Manhattan-based real estate firm that owns the Selden shopping center.

The Burlington in Selden will employ  65 to 75 people, the retailer said.

Nationwide, Burlington Stores Inc. has more than 1,000 stores that sell clothes, shoes, accessories and home goods at discounted prices.

For the past few years, the retailer has  worked to improve sales and cut operating costs by opening smaller stores. In 2020, when the chain had 761 stores, Burlington announced a plan to grow to 2,000, and having a smaller-store prototype is part of the equation.

The average size of the company’s new stores shrank from 45,000 square feet in 2017 to 28,000 square feet in 2022, the retailer said in an annual report released last March.

Burlington plans to open 100 net new stores this year and 500 net new stores by the end of 2028, and most will be the retailer's 25,000-square-foot prototype in busy strip malls, Burlington chief executive  Michael O'Sullivan told analysts during an earnings call in November.

“We feel very good about the economics of these stores. We also plan to relocate or downsize a substantial number of our older, less productive and oversized locations. We anticipate two to three dozen of these store relocations and downsizes each year,” he said.

Burlington’s 12 Long Island stores include a location that opened in Huntington in November and two others that opened in New Hyde Park and West Babylon in December.

The retailer also plans to open Long Island stores in Oceanside, at 3640 Long Beach Rd., and in Riverhead, at 1440 Old Country Rd.

Burlington did not immediately respond to Newsday’s inquiries about when those stores will open, but the retailer's website says the Oceanside store will open July 5.

The Oceanside, Riverhead and West Babylon spaces are former Bed Bath & Beyond stores whose leases Burlington acquired in the home goods retailer’s bankruptcy last summer.

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.