Target Stores Forges Ahead with Aggressive NY Expansion Plan

By: Ilana Siyance

Amid all the store closures, bankruptcies, and woeful financial dismay plaguing retailers across the country, Target is becoming an exception. The discount chain is ‘on target’ to implement its aspiring metro-area expansion.

As reported by the NY Post, Target has signed a lease for a massive 130,000 square feet space at Cross County Center in Yonkers, where it will take on most of the 200,000 square foot space that Sears vacated last year after filing for bankruptcy.

Target will enter a 40-year lease, bringing the occupancy rate of the open-air shopping complex to 97 percent, when it opens the store in 2021. The 15-building 1.15 million-square-foot Cross County features retailers including Zara, Ulta, Blink Fitness, Macys, Foot Locker, Zales, and H&M, which just signed a 10-year renewal.

Target Corp, which is the 8th-largest retailer in the United States, and is traded as a component of the S&P 500 Index, is also planning to expand its presence in the city. It is planning new stores at 150 East 86th St, with a 20-year 55,600 square feet lease; at 795 Columbus Ave. with a 15-year lease for a 24,000 square foot space; and at 121 W. 125th St in Harlem with a 44,000 square-foot space. Neither of the stores will be close to as large as the colossal Cross County store.

The Cross County Center is being leased and managed by Marx Realty, which also owns Cross County in partnership with Benenson Capital Partners for 65 years. The terms of Target’s lease have not been released. Rents at the Yonkers center range from $45 per square foot to $250, based on the location and size. Marx and Target started negotiations regarding the space just days after Sears’ closing in September 2019, but it was kept quiet, as per the Post.

Marx CEO Craig Deitelzweig said Cross County welcomes 11 million visitors annually, 30 percent of which come from the city, while most of the rest coming from Westchester and Connecticut. He said the complex has seen “extraordinary foot traffic” since the pandemic has loosened its grip over the area. “We expect this Target store to be among its most successful locations,” Deitelzweig said.

As of 2019, Target operated 1,844 stores across the country. The company is ranked number 37 on 2020 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. The company’s stock price has been steadily on the rise since July.