MAJOR RETAILER TO OPEN IN GREENPORT COMMONS
Mike McCagg
ccSCOOP News
05-27-10 - 3:30 p.m. - Construction has begun on a store for a new national retailer at the Greenport Commons—one that did not need a tax incentive to open up shop in the county.
Contractors are busy constructing a T.J. Maxx store in the middle of the shopping center and just behind the currently vacant retail center that will soon be home to a Verizon shop.
The store is slated to open this fall, said Tracy Lauer, a representative of Greenport Commons owner Widewaters Development. She said a lease was recently signed between the retailer and Widewaters, but no such agreement has yet been reached with another major retailer which had set its sights on Greenport Commons—Kohl’s. That retailer, working through Widewaters, had twice sought a payment in lieu of taxes agreement with the county and was twice rejected by the the Columbia County Industrial Development Agency despite support from the Columbia County Board of Supervisors. |
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Widewaters officials have said publicly that Kohl’s would not locate in Greenport without the tax break; however the retailer has sought and paid $10,000 for building permit to construct a store next to the Lowe’s store.
Kohl’s spokeswoman Elizabeth DeLuca told ccSCOOP on Thursday that “we’ve not announced any plans to open a new store in your community. Kohl’s has an ongoing real estate assessment process. At any given time, Kohl’s is reviewing sites in communities nationwide.”
Several officials, though, have said negotiations beween Widewaters and Kohl’s remain ongoing. Widewater’s developer Marco Marzocchi confimed this at the Greenport Planning Board meeting, adding that a new real estate representative for Kohl’s is reviewing the proposal.
Meanwhile, T.J. Maxx, which is owned by The TJX Companies, which also owns Marshalls and A.J. Wright, is described as a major American apparel retailer with 890 locations across the country.
The Greenport Commons location will be 26,010 square feet, Widewater’s developer Marco Marzocchi told the Planning Board. Other retail space originally planned for the same building will not be constructed at this time. The plan for the store was revised at last month’s Planning Board meeting, said Planning Board Secretary Beth MaxGiffert, to include a loading dock and move the location slightly farther south in the development.
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