Nordstrom Rack, Sephora to open at revamped Shops at SunVet mall in Holbrook

Nordstrom Rack, Sephora and Mogu Modern Chinese Kitchen are among the additional new tenants that will open in the revamped former Sun Vet Mall in Holbrook, the developer said this week.

Located at 5801 Sunrise Hwy., the retail property, which was renamed The Shops at SunVet last year, is undergoing an $87 million redevelopment to convert the struggling mall to an open-air shopping center with a more upscale mix of tenants.

The property’s redevelopment, along with the incoming Whole Foods Market, is drawing strong interest from potential retail tenants, said Rebecca Wing, vice president of investments at Regency Centers Corp., a Jacksonville, Florida-based real estate investment trust that is the lead partner in the project.

“I think also it’s been helpful that people are familiar with our Gallery at Westbury [Plaza] development … so we do have some of the same names [signed up as tenants] here that we have at that center,” she said, referring to Regency's shopping center on Old Country Road in Uniondale.

The Shops at SunVet is now about 60% leased, and most of the major construction will be done by late 2025, Wing said.

Nordstrom Rack is expected to open at the property by spring 2026, she said. The off-price department store will be an anchor, at 26,780 square feet, in the shopping center.

“We look forward to being a part of the Holbrook community and serving our customers with an amazing offering of great brands at great prices. We’re excited to grow our footprint in the New York market and introduce new customers to the Nordstrom experience,” Gemma Lionello, president of Nordstrom Rack, said in a statement.

Seattle-based Nordstrom Inc. did not respond to an inquiry about how many people the Nordstrom Rack will employ or why Holbrook was chosen for an expansion.

There are three Nordstrom Racks on Long Island — at The Gallery at Westbury Plaza, Manhasset Center and one that opened at Gardiner Manor Mall in Bay Shore in June.

Newcomers lining up

The Nordstrom Rack at SunVet will be next to the 40,000-square-foot Whole Foods, which is expected to open by spring 2026, in the shopping center’s main building.

The main building, which is a total of 115,900 square feet and was formerly the right side of the mall, also will include cosmetics store Sephora, Nava Health and Teachers Federal Credit Union, all of which will open by spring 2026, Wing said.

Mogu Modern Chinese Kitchen, a fast-casual eatery, and Hand & Stone Massage have signed leases for space in the 28,850-square-foot row of shops that will be to the left of the main building. They are expected to open in spring 2026, Wing said.

Already announced incoming tenants at SunVet are Starbucks, Aspen Dental and Citibank, all of which have freestanding buildings under construction and will be the shopping center’s first new tenants when they open by spring 2025, Wing said.

Citibank, which was the only remaining tenant in the mall before the redevelopment started, will relocate to a new 3,800-square-foot, freestanding building.

Also, a freestanding Wells Fargo Bank is expected to open in 2025, Wing said.

Going smaller

Last spring, Regency began new construction work in the project that is reducing the retail square footage of the mall, turning it into a 168,000-square-foot shopping center, including six smaller outparcels that will be constructed around the main building.

Built in 1973, the once-bustling, 282,000-square-foot mall, which sits on 18 acres, lost tenants for years, including two major anchors — an approximately 100,000-square-foot Toys R Us store and a 60,000-square-foot Pathmark supermarket that closed after their parent companies filed for bankruptcy protection in 2017 and 2015, respectively.

Blumenfeld Development Group Ltd., or BDG, in Syosset signed a 99-year ground lease for Sun Vet Mall in summer 2022 with plans to redevelop it.

In 2023, BDG entered into a joint venture with Regency, which holds a majority interest in the deal, to redevelop the mall.

Regency became a partner on the ground lease for the site, and will oversee leasing and operations for the property.

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.