Vornado Wants to Expand Rego Center by Joe Anuto - YourNabe.com

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The developers who built the Rego Park Center are proposing to build another shopping center across the street that would include housing and a school. Photo by Christina Santucci

The developer of a large Rego Park shopping center is planning to expand its footprint in the neighborhood.

Vornado Realty Trust has proposed to build a multiuse facility across the street from its previous addition to the area, Rego Center, on the corner of Horace Harding and Junction boulevards, according to members of Community Board 6.

But Frank Gulluscio, the CB 6 district manager, said the discussions with the developer did not get specific.

“Their discussion with us was preliminary,” said Gulluscio. “They didn’t present plans.”

The site is currently a vacant lot, which many large trucks use for parking. But those days — or rather years — are numbered.

The company is not planning on breaking ground for at least four to five years, Gulluscio added. In the meantime, it will work with the board and local officials to assess potential problems like traffic and parking.

“The bottom line is how is this going to affect the quality of life of people who work and travel around there,” Gulluscio said.

The new facility will include three floors of retail stores, residential housing and even a public school.

“The borough president wanted them to put in a school,” he added.

But before the school could be built, the city Department of Education would have to work with the developers to ensure the facility fits within certain parameters set by the city School Construction Authority.


The school would also need to be included in the department’s five-year capital plan, a document that outlines where education funds will be distributed.

The proposed school is not included in the current plan, which expires in 2014.

The plan also calls for residential areas, but Vornado never built the apartment complexes that were planned for its other shopping mecca, Rego Center.

Gulluscio said that the lack of housing was due to the recession.

“The footprint is still there. If the economy turns around tomorrow, then they’re going to build that complex,” he said.

Vornado already owns the vacant lot where the structure is proposed and does not need the board’s blessing to begin breaking ground.

When the Rego Center was completed earlier this year, members of the community took two disparate positions: Many were happy to have more jobs in the area, but others criticized the center for bringing traffic as well.

Gulluscio said that both consequences were important to consider.

“I’m always excited about jobs and expanding,” Gulluscio said. “But traffic patterns and bus routes between Queens Center Mall and Rego Park have to be done correctly.”

Rego Park Journal - Outpost of Economic Cheer in Recession-Weary Queens by Joseph Berger - NYTimes.com

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Shoppers have flocked to the new Rego Center II in Queens, which features three midrange clothing and housewares stores. Yana Paskova for The New York Times

Worlie Steven Moore spent much of his working life selling stylish men’s suits in luxury stores like Saks Fifth Avenue. But in February 2009 he was laid off and spent nearly a year out of work, mostly catching up on reading because looking for employment in his field during a recession seemed futile.

“I thought I’d never get another job,” said Mr. Moore, a tall, genial man of 56 with a shaved Yul Brynner dome. “I thought I’d have to go to another industry.”

But he did get another job in his field. He is now selling Hugo Boss suits and other designer labels for Century 21 — if at a steeper discount than he was accustomed to — just a few blocks from his home in Lefrak City.

Mr. Moore is one of more than 1,000 people who have landed or will soon land jobs at a new six-acre mall in Rego Park, Queens. Where a parking lot once stretched, there now stands a streamlined shopping plaza, Rego Center II, shaded by a parachutelike canopy featuring three midrange clothing and housewares stores — Kohl’s, T. J. Maxx and Century 21 — and with a Costco on the way.

The mall, with its jobs for salespeople, cashiers, security officers, cleaning workers and managers, is a bright outpost of economic cheer in the gray sea of the recession. It is also a robust shot in the arm for a city that, according to Barbara Byrne Denham, chief economist of Eastern Consolidated, a Manhattan real estate investment services firm, has lost 167,500 jobs since the recession began. In Queens alone, 30,000 residents lost their jobs just in the 12 months ending February.

Shoppers, scouting out the wares in these fresh temples of merchandise near the Long Island Expressway, are excited, too. On a recent rainy Tuesday, Julia Spears, 29, who immigrated from Dublin eight years ago and lives nearby, in Middle Village, was searching for some outfits at Century 21 for her job as a commercial real estate manager. She said the new mall heightened her optimism.

“If the major conglomerates think they can do well in this type of environment,” Ms. Spears said, “you have to hope that’s the case.”

She offered one skeptical note about the mall, however. With unemployment still high, she asked: “Can the community support it? Is it sustainable?”

But to the scores of shoppers in the new stores in the mall on this routine workday, such questions were not uppermost.

“I love this place — I’m going to die here,” said Yanick Lochard, 60, a retired legal secretary who lives in the neighborhood and was visiting the mall for the second time. “It’s convenient. Everything is right here. You don’t have to go far. Everybody’s complaining that the economy is so bad, but I don’t understand. So many people are shopping.”

Rego Park, a patchwork of handsome apartment houses and single-family homes known for its Bukharian immigrants and the restaurants that sprout up around them, is part of a bustling shopping mecca. Together with the Queens Center nearby in Elmhurst and the original Rego Center, the neighborhood now has at least three malls with national chains like Macy’s, Sears, Marshalls and Old Navy, as well as dozens of smaller chain boutiques.

“Anybody who’s traveling from this end of Queens doesn’t have to go to Nassau County and Roosevelt Field,” said Frank Gulluscio, district manager of local Community Board 6. “Everything’s right there — parking, food and great retail. We’re not sending those jobs out to Nassau. We’re keeping them right here in New York City.”

When Kohl’s opened on March 3 and offered one-day sales, lines of shoppers snaked in front, waiting to enter. James Avellino, the store’s manager, who described its niche as “value oriented” and “family focused,” said that customers were drawn by the convenient store hours, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. For its part, Century 21 is offering the deep discounts on designer labels that shoppers would otherwise have to go to its Lower Manhattan store to get at that price.

Relief seems to be the predominant emotion among the workers within the new stores. Almost every one of them approached had spent considerable time unemployed.

Lindora Holmes, 57, another Century 21 salesperson, said she was jobless for more than two years, after she was laid off by an auto parts manufacturer in Long Island City.

“It’s good to be back,” she said.

Sales jobs at the malls generally pay $8 an hour — not much above the $7.25 minimum wage. But, Ms. Holmes said, “It’s better than not having anything at all,” adding, “If your manager sees how you work, it’s an opportunity for you to move up to the next level.”

Ana Vigniero, 37, a spirited saleswoman at Kohl’s, said she had been out of work for a year after losing her job as a restaurant supervisor.

“I was going to two or three interviews a day,” said Ms. Vigniero, a single mother of two. “Now, I’m very happy.”

Her colleague Jonathan Giraldo, 24, was without work for close to seven months after losing a construction job.

“It felt terrible,” he said. “The bills don’t wait.”

The older workers seem to be the most delighted at their good fortune. Some had despaired of ever getting hired again.

“I heard about the Great Depression,” said Mr. Moore, the suit salesman. “Now I know what it’s like to live through the great recession.”

Rego Center Debut Delayed Until February by Anna Gustafson - YourNabe.com

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Rego Center is slated to open in February after being in the works for years, but some Community Board 6 members are worried the mall that will house such anchor stores as Costco, T.J. Maxx and Kohl’s will create heavy traffic congestion in the area, CB 6 District Manager Frank Gulluscio and CB 6 President Joseph Hennessy said this week.

“The opening has been pushed back after the holidays to February,” Gulluscio said. “People are still concerned about the traffic patterns.”

Vornado Realty Trust in 2005 announced plans to develop a 6.6-acre site located directly behind the Rego Park Mall, which includes an Old Navy, a Sears and a Bed Bath & Beyond. The site is managed by Vornado but owned by Alexander’s Inc.

Rego Center comprises the entire block bounded by the Horace Harding service road, 97th Street, 62nd Drive and Junction Boulevard.

Initial groundbreaking on the site began in October 2006 and actual construction began in May 2007.

According to a Nov. 2 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the development will be a 600,000-square-foot shopping center on four levels and will include a parking deck with about 1,400 spaces. As of October, there had been 138,000 square feet leased to Costco, 134,000 square feet leased to Century 21 and 132,000 square feet leased to Kohl’s.

Gulluscio and Hennessy said Vornado officials told them T.J. Maxx had also signed a lease.

“We’re very concerned about the traffic situation,” Hennessy said. “We don’t feel it’s been addressed properly. There’s no entrance to the center at the 62nd Drive subway stop and the traffic is going to be emptying into 62nd Drive.”

Hennessy said board leaders are hoping to meet with Vornado officials as well as the city Department of Transportation to discuss ideas to mitigate the impact of traffic on the neighborhood.

The CB 6 chairman added that while board members believe Century 21, Kohl’s and Costco will be good stores, he is concerned Costco will “bring a different type of shopper than Home Depot would’ve brought.”

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Vornado had originally planned for The Home Depot to occupy the area now leased by Costco, but the construction supply store pulled out of the development earlier this year, Hennessy said.

“With Costco, you’ll get more traffic,” Hennessy said. “Home Depot gets traffic early in the morning with the construction people and lighter traffic in the afternoon. I’ve seen the Costco in Long Island City and it gets crowded and people are inside longer because they’re buying things in bulk. They’re not in and out in 15 minutes.”

Rego Center Still Looking for Retailers by Lisa L. Colangelo - NY Dailt News

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The long-awaited expansion of the Rego Center is expected to open as early as February, but it might take some more time for it to fill up with retailers.

Costco and T.J. Maxx are the latest stores to sign on with the expanded mall. But the only other tenants currently booked for the massive red building off Junction Blvd. and the Long Island Expressway are two department stores - Century 21 and Kohl's - along with a Subway sandwich shop, an official from mall developer Vornado Realty Trust said last week.

While those stores fill the cellar and upper floors of the mall, the first floor is virtually empty except for the Subway shop.

"As there is a lot more activity in the center, we expect there to be more interest," James Bry, Vornado's senior vice president of development, told the members of Community Board 6 on Thursday night.

Costco will replace the Home Depot that was originally planned for that spot. Several months ago, Home Depot officials decided to pull out of the mall.

An existing Home Depot is located just a few miles away on Woodhaven Blvd.

"We tried really hard to make sure we got something in there that is a good fit with the center," Bry said. "This [Costco] may even be a better fit."

Construction started on the site, a parking lot for the former Alexander's department store, more than two years ago. The existing mall adjacent to the site features a Sears, Bed Bath & Beyond and Old Navy. That replaced Alexander's, whose red facade was a landmark of sorts on Queens Blvd.

Early versions of the plan, which has been amended, included two residential towers. Bry said the company still has permission to build one of the towers and hopes to do so if the housing market improves.

Costco is not expected to open until August 2010. In the meantime, the developers hope to close deals with other retailers and restaurants for the street-level space. Negotiations are ongoing, Bry said.

He also said a supermarket isn't out of the question. Resident have said a large food store is sorely needed in the area.

Community Board 6 Chairman Joseph Hennessy said he and other members were concerned about the traffic patterns around the new mall. He called for a meeting with Vornado and city Transportation Department officials.

"You have Junction Blvd. and Horace Harding [Expressway] there," Hennessy said. "It's going to be a mess, a mess."

lcolangelo@nydailynews.com