Redevelopment of Hicksville mall highlighted at brokers group event

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The new owners of the Broadway Commons mall presented their plan to redevelop the shopping complex to more than 150 people in the Long Island real estate brokerage and development community on Tuesday. 

The ownership group, which acquired most of the 68-acre mall property in February for $40 million, plans to invest more than $100 million on a project that aims to transform the property into an open-air lifestyle center, as LIBN was first to report in June. 

Hosted by the Commercial and Industrial Brokers Society (CIBS) and the mall’s new owners, the event, held on the lower level of the Round1 amusement center, featured a video and slideshow with renderings of the reimagined shopping complex led by Ken Schuckman, one of the property’s ownership group principals. 

The plans include demolition of the long-shuttered 300,000-square-foot Macy’s store, consisting of five stories over a lower-level, which is expected to happen in Q3 2025. In addition, about 100,000 square feet of the mall’s interior will be demolished as part of the plan to turn the mall inside out and create the new open-air concept that will be renamed The Shops on Broadway. 

A new 105,000-square-foot big-box store, to be occupied by a BJs Wholesale Club, will also include gasoline service and electric vehicle charging stations. One of the centerpieces of the redevelopment will be 70,000 square feet of restaurant and entertainment tenants to be called The District, which will feature a roof-top event space and a huge LED screen with which guests can watch movies and sporting events. Schuckman said an unnamed national restaurant tenant has signed a letter of intent to lease 30,000 square feet. 

The mall’s current movie theater, Showcase Cinema de Lux will be closing, and Schuckman said a smaller theater tenant may be signed to replace it. He said Round1 may want to expand into part of that space. 

The 240,000-square-foot Ikea store, which Ikea owns, and the 137,000-square-foot Target store, which Target owns, will remain at the new Shops on Broadway. 

The project, which was submitted to the Town of Oyster Bay for site-plan approval on Monday, also includes the addition of two pad sites, two roundabouts and other road improvements to calm traffic, new way-finding signage, increased security with new lighting and cameras, new landscaping and open spaces. 

“Here we have something very special,” said Schuckman, who is also principal of brokerage firm Schuckman Realty, which serves as the exclusive leasing broker for the Hicksville retail complex. “It’s not just designed as a regional asset, but as something for the local community.” 

The ownership group, K/BTF Broadway LLC, includes Rockville Centre-based BTF Capital; the KABR Group, headquartered in Englewood, N.J., and AJM BRE Ventures, a joint venture of Long Island firms AJM Real Estate, headed by Adam Mann, and Burman Real Estate, headed by Scott Burman. 

“Our plan consists of redeveloping the mall into an outdoor shopping experience, with an emphasis on experience,” Burman said. “We want to build a place where people not only come to shop, but also to spend time with friends and family.” 

The project team for the redevelopment includes two Long Island architecture firms, New Hyde Park-based Rosenbaum Design Group and Woodbury-based Spector Companies. Huntington-based R&M Engineering will provide civil engineering services and LaBella Associates is the project’s traffic engineer. Bram Weber, of Melville-based Weber Law Group, is the redevelopment’s zoning and land-use attorney. 

“The site plan has been met with enthusiasm from the community,” Weber told LIBN. “The vision for the redevelopment is going to deliver to the town and the community exactly what people are looking for in the property, retail, dining and entertainment. We look forward to continuing to engage with the community and the town on this exciting proposal.” 

First opened in 1956 as an open-air retail center called Mid Island Shopping Plaza, the center was enclosed in 1968, renamed Broadway Mall in 1989 and completely redeveloped in 1995. Vornado Realty Trust acquired the Hicksville property in 2005 for $153 million and sold it to KKR & Co. for $94 million in 2014. In 2017, the property was renamed Broadway Commons and KKR sold five parcels for over $60 million, according to a source familiar with the transactions. KKR fully exited in 2018 and the mall was operated by Pacific Retail for its previous owner UBS, before the local ownership group took it over earlier this year. 

The “de-malling” of Broadway Commons is part of a national trend to design more walkable, consumer-friendly shopping experiences. Here on Long Island, the former Huntington Square Mall in East Northport was turned inside out 17 years ago and the former SunVet Mall in Holbrook is currently being redeveloped into an open-air shopping center. The Sunrise Mall in Massapequa is also facing an upcoming redevelopment project. 

Tuesday’s project presentation received kudos from the Long Island brokerage community. 

“It’s an interesting project,” said broker Steve Gillman of The Shopping Center Group, a 25-year veteran of the New York-area retail real estate industry. “They have great vision, and it certainly will be a welcome addition to the Long Island retail landscape.” 

If all goes according to plan, the redevelopment is slated to be completed in time for the 2027 holiday shopping season.