New Target store to be larger than initially planned in New Hyde Park

Target plans to go bigger in New Hyde Park.

The retailer initially had planned to open an approximately 70,000-square-foot store on two levels — the basement and first floor — of the former Sears space at 1400 Union Tpke.

Now Target plans to take all three levels of the former Sears to open an approximately 115,000-square-foot store in the Lake Success Shopping Center, a Target spokeswoman said Friday.

The new store will be closer in size to Target’s typical stores, which average 130,000 square feet.

The Target spokeswoman declined to say when the store will open, what features it will have or how many people it will employ.

"As we get closer to opening the store, we’ll have more specific details to share – including how the shopping experience will be tailored to serve local guests," she said.

Because of the construction timeline and permits required from the Town of North Hempstead, the store won’t open this year, said Brian Schuster, vice chairman of Ripco Real Estate LLC, the Jericho-based real estate firm representing the Lake Success Shopping Center’s owner in leasing.

"It definitely will not open in 2021, but we’re hopeful it could open in late 2022," he said.

In February 2020, Target received a conditional use permit from North Hempstead’s Board of Zoning Appeals to add grocery shelves and a Starbucks inside the store. The store also will include a CVS pharmacy, according to plans submitted to the town.

Target modified the planned size of its New Hyde Park store to better meet local needs, the company's spokeswoman said.

But the retailer has been adding more small-format stores to gain access to customers in urban areas and dense suburban communities, and near college campuses, where it would be more difficult to open full-size stores, Target said.

A small-format Target store is, on average, about one-third the size of a full-size store — about 40,000 square feet compared with 130,000 square feet.

Headquartered in Minneapolis, Target Corp. introduced its current concept of a small-format store at the University of Minnesota in 2014.

The retailer now has 1,914 stores across the country, including more than 150 small-format stores.

Of the 19 Targets on Long Island, five are small-format stores, the newest of which is a 43,000-square-foot location that opened in Lawrence in March.

The Sears that was in New Hyde Park was among 46 stores across the country, including some Kmarts, that their struggling former parent company, Sears Holdings Corp., closed in November 2018.

Tenants in the Lake Success Shopping Center include Bed Bath & Beyond, Shake Shack, Sephora, Victoria’s Secret and Iavarone Bros. Italian market.

Ripco is in lease negotiations with a few other potential tenants, said Schuster, who declined to name them because the contracts had not been finalized.

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.