Prestige Properties Gives Us One More Reason to Visit New York City

New York City is undoubtedly one of America’s top destinations for shopping and on August 14 there will be one more incentive for Americans to spend their money. For the first time in 40 years, New York City will open an enclosed mall at 200 Baychester Ave, Bronx, NY 10475. Going along with America’s motto of bigger is better, The Mall at Bay Plaza is 780,000 square feet and boasts of having more than 100 stores and restaurants, a movie theatre, food court, health club, and over 2,400 indoor parking spots. The new three-story mall will have typical stores such as Forever 21, Ulta, Macy’s, Gap, and Old Navy and restaurants such as Red Robin, Olive Garden, and Cinnabon.

Its anchors, Macy’s and JCPenney, will be located on either side of the mall and their stake in the project is why the developers are confident that this mall will be successful. JCPenney’s existing 166,000 square foot site at Bay Plaza Shopping Center will be attached to the mall. Macy’s participation in the mall will be the first new Bronx location since 1941, and the first new New York City location since 1995. It will have a large portion of the mall, occupying 160,000 square feet of real estate. Macy’s regional director Randy Scalise stated that Macy’s has been interested in the site for several years and has decided to invest in the project now that the economy is finally starting to stabilize. This will be other retailers such as H&M, Victoria’s Secret, and Kay Jewelers first time in the Bronx.  Up until now, residents of the Bronx have had to travel to Midtown or other boroughs to shop at their favorite stores, and now they are immediately accessible.

In the past, other mall outlets like Pier 17 and Albee Square Mall haven’t had successful results, but CEO and Chairman at Prestige Properties, Sam Shalem, has an optimistic attitude on the future success of this mall. Let’s hope for the sake of the $300 million it cost to develop and the 1,700 permanent jobs it has created that he is right. The mall is located in a seemingly perfect location; it is in between two major highways, will have around 230 busses making stops daily, has very little competition in the immediate surrounding area, and there are approximately 1.4 million people within a 10-mile radius. Jerry Welkis and Allen Cooperman from Welco Realty have been put in charge of leasing at the Mall at Bay Plaza and have been asking $100- $200 a square foot.  On opening day around 70 percent of the mall will be occupied and the owners hope that by 2015 the mall will be full.

The ribbon cutting ceremony and celebration will take place on Thursday, August 14 at 9:30 a.m. and will have many fun events for shoppers to enjoy. The mall’s Facebook and Twitter pages post new events every day and have confirmed that DJ Alex Sensation will be playing from 6-8pm and many stores such as H&M and Macy’s are having giveaways.  It is definitely an exciting project to occur in the Bronx and is expected to have many economic benefits.