Throggs Neck merchants are keeping a wary eye on a planned mall anchored by a Target coming nearby.
The plans call for a new shopping center anchored by a Target at a development called the Throggs Neck Shopping Center in Ferry Point, at Brush and Lafayette avenues.
Scheduled for completion in summer 2013, the mall will be minutes by car from the central Throggs Neck shopping strip on East Tremont Avenue.
With 285,000 square-feet of shopping space, it also will have 650 street-level parking spaces, as opposed to the East Tremont stretch of mostly metered parking.
“One of the reasons we are forming a Business Improvement District is to uplift our chances of surviving – so that people will come to us instead of the malls that are opening all around us,” said Throggs Neck Merchants Association president Steven Kaufman.
Other malls planned
Besides the Target mall, plans are on the drawing board for an outlet-style mall at the current location of the Whitestone Cinemas, and a new indoor mall anchored by Macys at Bay Plaza next to Co-op City.
All would offer potential competition for the mom and pop store merchants on the strip.
Kaufman said most affected locally would be hardware stores, merchants that sell items for house and home, as well as clothing retailers.
Community Board 10 is making sure that truck traffic during construction at the Target mall has a limited affect on the Ferry Point and Throggs Neck communities, said district manager Kenneth Kearns.
Among the board’s suggestions were that no garbage from the construction site be directed near Wenner Place in Ferry Point, said Kearns.
“We also suggested that they hose down the trucks at the construction site before they leave so they aren’t dragging dirt through the neighborhood,” he said, as well as making sure each truck have a tarp covering any contents its hauling.
According to the developers, the Target will take up more than 169,000 square feet of space, with additional stores – including TJ Maxx – taking up the remaining 130,000 square feet of space.
Patrick Rocchio can be reach via e-mail at procchio@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 742-3393
