Simon Property Group, the Indianapolis-based owner of the 1.2 million- square-foot mall in the village of Garden City, N.Y., said it would appeal the decision. The developer had planned to add a 150,000-square- foot Saks anchor, along with more specialty stores and a third tier of parking space. Saks, which would leave its 110,000-square-foot freestanding location in Garden City, was scheduled to open in spring of 2000.
Simon spokeswoman Billie Scott told SCT Newswire that the expansion has been delayed pending appeal. She said on Tuesday that she did not know how soon the company would file an appeal.
A spokesperson for Saks said the department store chain would close its freestanding Garden City location "concurrent with the opening of the Roosevelt Field store." She declined to comment on what Saks would do with its current location if the mall expansion is not approved.
In its decision, the board cited the town’s floor area ratio, which says a building cannot occupy more than 40% of the total land area on which it sits. The rule was enacted in 1989 to curb growth in industrial areas.
However, the town can grant exceptions — and in fact did for Roosevelt Field in 1995, allowing the mall’s Nordstrom anchor to expand. Simon’s plan to add 200,000 square feet of space would increase the mall’s floor ratio from 69% to 72%, reports said.
According to Newsday, a Long Island newspaper, Garden City school officials testified at a hearing in early March that traffic near the mall is already so congested that an elementary school near the mall is offering students living across the street transportation to school. The center is located off Old Country Road, one of the major east/west thoroughfares on Long Island. Garden City leaders also opposed the plan, the newspaper said.
But a lawyer for Simon, Herbert Balin, told the newspaper that the city “did not really look at the law. We will appeal … in the State Supreme Court.”
“The ruling did not reflect the merit of our application,” Simon President Richard Sokolov said in a statement. “We have an avenue through the legal system to pursue a remedy, and we intend to exercise that right.”
Saks said it would allow Simon to handle the appeal.
Roosevelt Field, which opened in 1956 at the site of a former airfield, was the crown jewel in Simon’s $5.8 billion purchase of the Corporate Property Investors portfolio in 1998. The mall averages sales per- square-foot of around $600.