The I-80 location will give the property the benefit of daily traffic counts that are said to be in excess of 130,000 cars, according to company spokesperson Lisa Agresta. Rockaway Center is also expected to benefit from its location adjacent to one of North Jersey's powerhouse regional shopping centers, Rockaway Townsquare Mall. The estimated residential population within a 12-mile radius of the Rockaway Center site is in the 450,000 range.

If construction does begin as scheduled this summer, Rockaway Center should be open for business in the summer of 2004, according to Agresta. The project's announced anchor tenants include Wal-Mart, which will operate a 153,000-sf store, along with Bed Bath & Beyond (30,000 sf) and Modell's Sporting Goods (18,000 sf).

Construction work is being overseen by Regional Construction Corp., a subsidiary and the exclusive general contractor for National Realty & Development. Also involved in the project are Birdsall Engineering Inc., WSJS Architecture and traffic engineers Schoor DePalma.

Rockaway Center is one of a dozen retail-related development and redevelopment projects that NRDC has planned for 2003-2004. Over the 24-month period, the various projects will add more than 2.8 million sf to the company's retail portfolio, bringing its holdings to somewhere above the 16 million-sf range. The company currently owns and manages a total of 14 million sf of office, industrial and retail properties in 14 states. Besides Rockaway Center, pending projects in the Garden State include a 110,000-sf redevelopment of the Laneco site in Phillipsburg (Warren County) and the 242,000-sf Hadley Center II project in South Plainfield (Middlesex County).

No cost figures for the Rockaway Center project have been released.