Retail Roundup: 2 of Charlotte Russe's 100 new stores to be on LI
Charlotte Russe's new owner says it plans to open 100 stores, including two on Long Island. The former owner of the chain closed all of its locations earlier this year. Seen here in 2017, a Charlotte Russe in West Palm Beach, Fla. Credit: Bloomberg/Saul Martinez
Charlotte Russe is heading back to the Island.
The trendy women’s clothing chain closed its more than 500 stores earlier this year, including the eight on Long Island, after its parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February.
But the chain’s new owner, Toronto-based YM Inc., plans to open 100 stores, according to a June 5 statement from the company. The Charlotte Russe website says two of the new shops will be on Long Island — in Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove and Roosevelt Field mall in Garden City.
Smith Haven Mall and Roosevelt Field were among the eight Long Island locations that had Charlotte Russe stores before the chain’s demise.
The Roosevelt Field store will open June 19, on the upper level next to JCPenney, in a 6,745-square-foot space, the mall said.
“The store is opening in the exact location it closed when [its former parent company] filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year,” according to a mall representative.
The store in Smith Haven Mall will open "soon" on the main level, in the Sears wing next to Pacsun, according to the mall’s website.
Other details on Charlotte Russe’s planned Smith Haven Mall store were not immediately available.
Smith Haven Mall and Roosevelt Field are both owned by Simon Property Group Inc. in Indianapolis.
On March 29, San Francisco-based Charlotte Russe Holdings Corp. announced that it had sold the Charlotte Russe brand and related intellectual property to YM. The Canadian company operates 560 clothing stores under several different chains in North America.
“We are thrilled to be bringing Charlotte Russe retail outlets back for customers who love the brand’s affordable on-trend fashions,” Eric Grundy, chief executive officer of YM, said in a statement on June 5. “We are excited to be back and hiring.”
The online stores relaunched June 3.
Under its previous ownership, Charlotte Russe had struggled with online competition and high debt in recent years.
In February, Charlotte Russe Holdings said it would close 94 stores. It announced on March 7 that its remaining 416 stores would close by the end of April.
Aside from the two stores that were in Smith Haven Mall and Roosevelt Field, Charlotte Russe used to have shops in Westfield Sunrise Mall in Massapequa, Westfield South Shore mall in Bay Shore, Tanger Outlets Deer Park, Tanger Outlets Riverhead, Broadway Commons in Hicksville and Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream.
YM did not respond to requests for comment.
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.