Willow Park Center

Willow Park Center is an 117,000sf retail center in Farmingdale, NY. In 1984 G&S Investors purchased the site, which was an old, dilapidated industrial park located on the Route 110 corridor. Although during the 1980’s the site’s use as an industrial park would sway most developers from pursuing a redevelopment, G&S Investors viewed the Property’s location on Route 110, which is one of the more heavily trafficked corridors in the region and an area of heavy traditional retail consumer traffic, as an ideal location for a retail center. Successfully negotiating through the redevelopment process, including a rezoning from industrial to retail use, G&S Investors completed an 117,000sf center in December 1990. The center at that time included a 9,000sf Houlihans restaurant, which was a volume leading chain in the restaurant/bar industry at the time, a 6,000sf Maces Close-out City and a 102,000 Home Depot, Long Island’s first Home Depot.

All stores in the center became an instant success, especially the Home Depot. Home Depot’s first year sales topped $50.0 million nearly doubling their first year sales projection of $26.0 million. Within a few years Home Depot’s sales exceeded $61.0 million annually making the store one of the highest grossing stores in the company at that time. With business far exceeding any of Home Depot’s wildest projections, Home Depot relocated the store to a larger facility in the same vicinity on the Route 110 corridor.

The relocation of Home Depot led to another redevelopment of the site, this time to its current use as a Target anchored shopping center. In order to achieve this most recent redevelopment G&S Investors not only reconfigured the old Home Depot into a Target, but also purchased additional adjacent properties to expand the Target store into a larger store. Since the summer of 2001, when the Target store opened, the center has remained successful and nearly fully occupied.

Location
Farmingdale, NY

Project Size
117,000sf

Date Opened
Winter 1990

Major Tenants
Target