Kennedy: Floor & Decor coming to Colonie Center
By Marlene Kennedy/For The Leader-Herald
Fencing is up to demarcate the building zone for Flooring & Decor, the specialty retailer “coming soon” to Colonie Center, as a indication on the obstacles proclaims.
The Atlanta-based mostly organization, with additional than 190 outlets in 36 states, options to acquire some 55,000 sq. feet at the shopping mall next to Total Meals, ingesting up one more big chunk of what made use of to be the to start with ground of Sears, a long-time tenant that still left in 2017.
The former two-tale Sears, its onetime automobile middle outparcel, and a sea of floor parking — encompassing 20 acres in all — is owned separately from the bulk of Colonie Centre by Seritage Progress Homes, which has been functioning nationwide to improve its return on true estate at the time occupied by Sears and Kmart.
Floor & Decor, which carries tough-surface flooring, is still wending its way by way of the city of Colonie arranging system, successful “concept” acceptance last week for its ideas at the shopping mall. While preparing board members haven’t thoroughly signed off on the challenge, no sizeable roadblocks seem in the way.
The organization has stores on Prolonged Island and is setting up its initially just one upstate around Buffalo. Materials presented to nearby planners places the design timeline at about 5 months.
In the meantime, Sierra, an outdoor apparel and equipment retail outlet owned by TJX Cos., father or mother of the T.J. Maxx and Marshalls chains, is shown in an up-to-date site system on Seritage’s website as getting 19,000 sq. ft of 1st-floor Sears area, on the other aspect of Entire Food items from Floor & Decor.
Colonie organizing officers say they have noticed no application from TJX or Sierra. Regarded as Sierra Trading Post right before TJX’s acquisition, Sierra would be new to the space, much too, while a TJX advertising and marketing expert indicated by electronic mail that “Sierra has not announced a new retail outlet for Albany at this time.”
Seritage has been fast paced considering the fact that the slide marketing off previous Sears and Kmart web sites, with an eye towards reducing a $1.6 billion loan because of before long to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. It introduced results in February in slicing that financial debt in half, as a result earning a two-yr extension on compensation.
Like all of Seritage’s holdings, the property in Colonie could be marketed if an fascinated purchaser were discovered. The redeveloped vehicle heart has 1 vacant storefront, but Sears’ former mall anchor house has been tougher to fill. Ground & Decor is the to start with sure guess in extra than five a long time.
Considering the fact that 2020, Seritage has winnowed its 158 wholly owned qualities to 92. The Colonie website is between just a couple of remaining in New York.
Occupancy there is listed in a filing with regulators at just about 25{a57a8b399caa4911091be19c47013a92763fdea5dcb0fe03ef6810df8f2f239d}, but that was just before Flooring & Decor’s dedication.
The second flooring of the previous Sears retailer — extra than 94,000 sq. feet — remains empty, while.
A Seritage representative said the company would have no comment on prospective clients for the 2nd-floor place or a initial-flooring tenancy by Sierra.
Marlene Kennedy is a freelance columnist. Opinions expressed in her column are her very own and not automatically the newspaper’s. Get to her at [email protected]