ShopRite to take over part of Huntington space Kmart vacated

The year 2021 will bring a Huntington shopping center its first grocery store in 25 years. 

A ShopRite supermarket will be taking over part of a space that Kmart vacated last year at Huntington Commons, formerly called Big H Shopping Center.

The center, on New York Avenue north of the Huntington LIRR station,  hasn’t had a grocery store since a Pathmark closed there in 1996.

The ShopRite is expected to open in fall 2021, Seth Greenfield said in a statement. Greenfield and his family own and operate five of the 16 grocery stores under the ShopRite name on Long Island. 

“Long Island is our home, and as a family-run business we look forward to bringing our new, state-of-the-art supermarket to the Huntington community. The construction of our new store will be accompanied by renovations to upgrade and update the shopping center,” Greenfield said in the statement.

Greenfield could not be reached for further comment.

The ShopRite name is a registered trademark of Wakefern Food Corp., a retailer-owned cooperative based in Keasbey, New Jersey, that provides groceries and support to nearly 280 ShopRite stores in six East Coast states. Wakefern is  made up of 50 member family-owned companies, including the Greenfields' Food Parade Inc., that individually operate ShopRite stores.

Kmart was in the shopping center, at 805 New York Ave., from 1998 to January 2019.

The discounter was among 40 stores, including some Sears locations, that former parent company Sears Holdings Corp. closed in early 2019. Sears Holdings Corp., based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 2018.

Huntington Commons is owned by Urban Edge Properties, a Manhattan-based real estate investment trust.

“ShopRite has been a great partner of ours across our portfolio and we look forward to continuing that partnership by bringing a new quality grocery option to Huntington Commons. We will share more details as we finalize the plans,” Chris Weilminster, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Urban Edge Properties, said in a statement Wednesday.

Urban Edge declined to comment beyond the statement.

When Kmart was a tenant in the shopping center, Urban Edge’s website showed that the store occupied 102,949 square feet.

Urban Edge’s website now says ShopRite will occupy 65,040 square feet in the shopping center.  It's unclear what will happen to the rest of the space. 

Built in 1962, the 208,331-square-foot shopping center's tenants include Burger King, Home Depot, Sally Beauty Supply and Marshalls. Urban Edge does not own the building that Home Depot occupies.

Urban Edge is planning a redevelopment of the center next year that will include “the renovation of the building facades, parking lots and landscaping,” according to the company’s website.

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.