Six months after it welcomed its first shoppers, the Target anchor store at the Junction has some company.
Circuit City – the first retailer other than Target to open at the Triangle at the Junction Mall – officially opens today, with several other retailers getting ready to debut within the next few months.
Payless Shoe Source and David’s Bridal are expected to open in September, according to information disseminated by the Flatbush Nostrand Junction Business Improvement District, with The Children’s Place following in November and Applebee’s in either November or December. There are still two vacant stores on the ground floor of the complex, where Target occupies the second and third floors.
“We certainly look to come to active areas,” noted Jennifer Sills, a spokesperson for Circuit City who stressed, “We’re very excited about coming to that area of Brooklyn.” The Circuit City at the Junction – which is laid out according to the company’s new city store format — is the chain’s fourth in the borough, joining established venues in Atlantic Center, Gateway Center and on 86th Street in Bay Ridge.
“We’re fired up,” remarked Victoria Stennett, the BID’s chairperson. “As more and more of the stores (in the mall) open, we’re going to find more people coming to the Junction. We’ve been saying to the mom and pop stores, let’s do something quickly so we can get the overflow.”
The arrival of the Target in March, Stennett added, definitely has brought more shoppers into the area. “Across the country, people are not spending as much,” she remarked, “but people are coming out here, and I like to say we’re responding to that.”
While Target declined to provide specific sales figures for its Junction store, Delia McLinden, a company spokesperson did say that the retailer has “done very well in the New York metro region and we continue to remain very interested in the area.
“We seek communities that are vibrant and able to grow with us throughout the years,” McLinden added. “Brooklyn Junction definitely fit into the criteria. We saw the opportunity for additional retail in the area, which made the Brooklyn Junction location appealing.”
The Junction is a blooming retail center, remarked Faith Hope Consolo, chairperson of the retail leasing and sales division of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
“This area is poised for an influx of new retailers that will dramatically change the landscape of this neighborhood,” Consolo opined, stressing, “The Junction is a crossroads of residential, commercial and student consumers just looking for new places to shop.”
The Triangle mall, Consolo added, is likely to be joined by other development within the foreseeable future. “The free standing buildings across the street,” she pointed out, “have been looked at by some of the big home improvement stores as well as fashion ‘cheap chic’ and other shopping ventures.”
Among the chains that have investigated the Junction, said Consolo, are H&M, Mango and Zara, “because of its close proximity to Brooklyn College,” as well as because, “The rents are substantially less than Manhattan but the sales per square foot are high.” Other stores that have looked at the area, she added, include tony food purveyors such as Citarella and Vinegar Factory, the latter an offshoot of the popular gourmet empire founded in Manhattan by Eli Zabar.
