By Helen Klein
After years of anticipation, the new mall at the Junction should be open for business – at least in part – by this spring. The mall’s anchor store, Target, will have a “soft opening” on March 4, according to Elysa Goldman, a representative of Whitestone, N.Y.-based Triangle Equities, the mall’s developer. Goldman spoke about the mall – which is going up on the former municipal parking lot bounded by Flatbush Avenue, Avenue H, Nostrand Avenue and the Long Island Railroad tracks — during the January meeting of Community Board 14’s Transportation Committee, which was held at the board office, 810 East 16th Street. While the Target will be open this spring, however, the other retail outlets slated for the structure’s ground floor will probably not be open till summertime, Goldman said. Target will occupy the second and third floors of the structure. These include The Children’s Place, Circuit City, David’s Bridal and Payless Shoe Source, as well as two other tenants – one a sit-down restaurant at Avenue H and Nostrand Avenue, and the other a “soft-goods” retailer. Goldman would not reveal the names of the final two because leases have not yet been signed with them. “We are in the 11th hour of lease negotiations,” she told the group. According to Goldman, leased spaces will be turned over to the first-floor tenants of the mall in March, for them to do their fit-outs. “We have a little more work to do, but it’s progressing very quickly,” she explained. The three-story, 300,000-square-foot mall has been in the works for several years. As far back as 2000, Triangle had expressed interest in the site, which was offered for sale by the city in 1997, when former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani first announced that the administration was looking to sell off underutilized city-owned property. Triangle bought the property in 2004 from New York City for $2.15 million, after it answered a request for proposal put together by the city’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC). The purchase occurred after Triangle’s proposal had successfully gone through the extended city land use review process known as ULURP (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure). The original anchor tenant was K-Mart, which subsequently declared bankruptcy. When it opens, the 220,000-square-foot Target will be the third store that the nationwide chain has opened in the borough. There will be parking for 500 cars on five levels. Target has hired Central Parking to oversee the garage, according to Goldman.
