$18M renovation starts at Peekskill retail center

An $18 million renovation highlighted by a new supermarket and a rebuilt chain pharmacy are in store for the Beach Shopping Center in Peekskill as the retail complex tries to regain the shoppers it lost in recent years to other shopping places along Route 6.

Beach owner-manager DLC Management

The new CVS will replace a 9,600-square-foot store the chain now operates at Beach. Stop & Shop replaces a Grand Union store that closed with the rest of that supermarket chain in March 2001. Stop & Shop never occupied that space, opting instead to seek approvals for a new store.

Adam Ifshin, president of DLC, said Stop & Shop and CVS are both set to open next year. Those stores may soon be joined by other retailers now in talks for three retail spaces at Beach. The largest of these is the 30,000-square-foot comer space that has been vacant since Dills Best closed its Peekskill store. The regional home improvement retailer pulled out a few years back just as The Home Depot opened 2 miles east at Cortlandt Town Center.

"We're bringing all of our talents as redevelopers to bear to make Beach Shopping Center an outstanding place for residents of Peekskill and the surrounding areas to shop," Ifshin said.

A GOOD FUTURE

Beach has lost shoppers in recent years to Cortlandt Town Center and other retail centers on Route 6 - including the Jefferson Valley Mall and several smaller, newer shopping plazas in Yorktown. Yet Beach is still a valuable location, one retail real estate professional said.

"Beach will have a good future as a neighborhood shopping center. It will always have a marketplace among potential tenants. You can't replicate that shopping center today under existing zoning conditions," said Marty Deitch, a partner with the Hartsdale retail real estate brokerage Aries Deitch & Endelson Inc.

That's because Peekskill won't allow additional retail centers on Route 6, as neighboring towns Cortlandt and Yorktown have done over the past decade. Plans for a furniture store on the busy thoroughfare were shot down two years ago following quality-of-life objections from nearby residents.

Cortlandt approved the transformation of the old Westchester mall into the regional Cortlandt Town Center, co-anchored by Westchester's only Wal-Mart store. Yorktown approved several smaller neighborhood retail centers, notably the 50,000-square-foot Route 6 Plaza, whose anchors include a CVS Pharmacy and a Charlie Brown's steak restaurant.

To stay competitive with shopping meccas in Cortlandt and Yorktown, Deitch said, Beach needs the new supermarket to draw shoppers back as well as the renovation, which is intended to improve the center's tired appearance.

A new facade will grace the center's remaining retail space, and a new entrance will be built. New landscaping will be visible in the spring.

To make room for Stop & Shop, DLC will raze 52,000 square feet of existing retail space - the former Grand Union store as well as the current CVS and six smaller shops. DLC has told the city its project will create 200 construction jobs and 400 permanent jobs.

ROOM FOR LOCAL SHOPS

When work is completed, Ifshin said, Beach will have expanded to 209,000 square feet, not counting a 24,000-square-foot commercial building on Dayton Lane also owned by DLC. The renovated shopping center will still have a place for neighborhood shops even as it embraces more of the regional and national chains that comprise a growing portion of potential tenant retailers.

"Will there be a more national flavor when the project is done? Yes. There's no local player I'm aware of for 30,000 square feet. But we are not looking to kick the local guys out. If they have a lease I have a place for them at the center," Ifshin said.

Beach has mixed national chains with local stores since developer Louis McFadden completed the shopping center in 1957. McFadden's children sold Beach to DLC in 2000. DLC needed about a year to win approvals from Peekskill officials.

Peekskill Mayor John G. Testa said he's looking forward to the renovated Beach center because of Stop & Shop. He said the new supermarket should satisfy residents who have spent months complaining to him and other city officials about the inconvenience of shopping farther from their homes for groceries.

"It's been a long time coming, but I'm happy everything is now moving ahead," Testa said. "This is a very important project for the city."