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If Manhattanites really want to complain about the "mall-ification" of the city, they only need to look north. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that there are at least five large mall projects in the works in the Bronx, which will add 1.4 million square feet of retail space.
Although the county is one of the nation's poorest, the paper reports, it's also the third-most dense, so developers see an opportunity for customers to make a lot of lower-priced purchases that still add up to big bucks. And, of course, retail rents are much lower than other parts of the city.
At the Broadway Plaza shopping center in Riverdale, developer Equity One is adding a TJ Maxx, a supermarket chain, and five to seven other smaller retail spaces that should all be completed by 2015.
Cross-county, the Mall at Bay Plaza, the city's first enclosed shopping mall to be built in almost 40 years, will house the Bronx's first H&M, and is slated to open in August. It's an extension of the currently-existing Bay Plaza Shopping Center.
Other projects that are underway include the Riverdale Plaza, Longwood's Crossing at Southern, slated for fall 2015, and a Paragon Outlets scheduled to open in 2016.
· Bronx Emerges as a Retail Oasis [WSJ]
· H&M Is Opening Its First Store in the Bronx This Year [Racked NY]
· Target Will Open Its Third Bronx Store This Spring [Racked NY]