Staten Island's New Outlet Mall Still Has Dozens Of Storefronts To Fill

Photo credit: Courtesy of BFC Partners
A Visualization Of The Empire Outlets Mall In Staten Island.

Staten Island's newest shopping center, the Empire Outlets mall, has been officially open for three months, but most of the center is closed.

Out of the 75 storefronts available, just 26 have been filled, The City reports. The fourth floor and some parts of the building are not yet open or are still being built.

The mall, developed by BFC Partners, spans 340K SF at the St. George Terminal and was slated to feature around 100 shops and restaurants. Tenants include Nordstom Rack, H&M, the Nike Factory Store, Old Navy and Shake Shack. Earlier this week, Footwear retailer Johnston & Murphy said it would open an outlet in a 2,500 SF space, Commercial Observer reported. The project cost $350M, with $47M in state government subsidies, per Politico.

“We want to see more than retail outlets for our waterfronts,” Kelly Vilar, the founder and CEO of the local development group Staten Island Urban Center, told The City. “We don’t know if retail will be around in the years to come.”

A spokesperson for Empire Outlets, however, said that the “vast majority” of the space has been leased, and that the fourth floor will be open in the fall. Though malls have suffered across the country, they have been springing up in New York City.

In March, The Shops and Restaurants at Hudson Yards opened — a 1M SF enclosed retail complex in the $18B mixed-use development. In 2016, Westfield opened its subterranean mall in the World Trade Center complex. That shopping center connects to Brookfield Place, which opened a year earlier following a $300M renovation.

“I never thought of Empire Outlets as a shopping mall,” BFC Partners principal Joseph Ferrara told Bisnow in May. “We feel very different from your typical outlet racetrack center that would be located on the side of a highway in the middle of a state ... We’re very New York.”

Continue reading this story with a free account

Log in or register
Sign up for more articles like this
Subscribe to Bisnow's New York Newsletters
Related Stories

Food And Beverage Increasingly Becoming Anchor In Mixed-Use Projects

Bally's Debt Obligations Raise Doubts Over Casino Operator's Future

Ken Griffin Strikes $86M Palm Beach Real Estate Deal With Blackstone

Tax Break Fight Threatens Development In Housing-Starved Long Island

Fabletics To Add 25 New U.S. Storefronts

Vornado, Related's Google-Anchored Office Building Faces 'Imminent Default'

Flex Retail Is 'Hottest Asset' In Triangle Region, Developers Say

Simon Property Group To More Than Double $18M In Lost Saks Global Rents With New Leases

Pied-À-Terre Tax Won't Deter Buyers Long Term, Developers Say

Long Island City Lab Sells At A Loss: The N.Y. Deal Sheet

Ari Emanuel Invests In Broadway's Next Act With $6B Theater Buy

Yardi-Backed Flex Office Marketplace Launches In U.S. As Companies Plan To Up Attendance