National Realty Adds Tenants

Best Buy signed a lease for 54,000 sf and construction is already under way on the store that is scheduled to open in November. Best Buy and the new freestanding Target store will occupy the upper level of the center. The Best Buy here is the Minneapolis-based retailer's first in National Realty's retail portfolio, which totals 80 shopping centers nationwide.

Joyce Leslie will open a 9,000-sf store on the lower level of the plaza by February 2006. The company currently has 45 stores in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Hawley Lane is Joyce Leslie's second store in Connecticut. The first opened in October 2004 at National Realty's North Haven Pavilion property. In addition to the recently opened Target store and the work to be performed on the Best Buy and Joyce Leslie locations, National Realty has undertaken renovations that have included a new escalator and elevator, new carpeting and lighting fixtures and exterior façade improvements.

A spokesperson says the company has no comment on information it has posted on its own website concerning a new development in Rockland County, NY called Monsey Plaza. The project, according to the posting, involves a 215,000-sf Wal-Mart Supercenter to be built on vacant land at the intersection of Route 59 and Robert Pitt Drive. Although it is not believed any plans have been submitted as yet for the project, the company states on its website that construction could commence by the spring of 2006.

Wal-Mart currently operates a much smaller store on Route 59 in Airmont. Wal-Mart officials could not be reached for comment at deadline regarding the Monsey Plaza development.

National officials say that it currently has 16 development and redevelopment projects planned over the next two years that will add close to three million sf to its existing 14 million-sf portfolio. Some of its new projects include the construction of a 243,000-sf Target-anchored Hadley Shopping Center II in South Plainfield, NJ, a 212,000-sf Pohatcong Plaza II in Phillipsburg, NJ and a 425,000-sf Wal-Mart Plaza in Plainfield, PA.