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LAWYER GIVES RUN-DOWN N.Y. CENTER A MAKEOVER

BY PETER MALBIN

Not long ago the Great Lincoln Shopping Center, in Oceanside, N.Y., on Long Island’s South Shore, was just the sort of place its affluent neighbors probably preferred to avoid: a 1950s-era collection of mom-and-pop stores, many of them months behind on their rent.

But the center’s owner, Great Lincoln LLC, has just spent more than $1 million spicing up the 63,000-square-foot open-air center’s appeal, renovating the buildings and getting rid of the old tenants. Maro Goldstone, managing director of Great Lincoln LLC, is bringing in higher-end retailers and restaurants of the type likely to draw residents. The population of 160,000 within a three-mile radius reports median household income in excess of $90,000 a year.

“It needed a face-lift,” said Goldstone in something of an understatement; the renovation has taken 18 months.

The turnaround is all the more dramatic given that shopping center management is not Goldstone’s first calling. She is a real estate lawyer by profession. Goldstone took over management of the center from her father, the late Tigran Arrathoon, when he suffered a stroke in June 1997.

“It was a natural progression when my father needed help managing the shopping center, that my background as a real estate lawyer would be helpful to him,” Goldstone said.

To accommodate a more upscale tenant base, she renovated in a light-beige color scheme, with copper roofs and bronze metal framing for its store windows. She replaced sidewalks with inset brick pavers and planted new trees and flowers.

She and her father decided on the renovation several years ago, she says, but arranging the financing and evicting delinquent tenants took time.

A 15,000-square-foot, 24-hour CVS still anchors the center. This is not just any CVS, though, she says: “It is one of the most profitable CVS stores in New York state.” Several new tenants have signed on, including Baja Fresh, a Tex-Mex restaurant; Beautiful Girl, an apparel store; Maggie Moos, a fresh-mixed ice-cream parlor; and Vision Decision, an optician.

“We are working closely on a selection of future upscale stores,” said Kenneth A. Breslin, president of Breslin Realty Development Corp., Garden City, N.Y., which is handling the center’s leasing. “Our tag line is, ‘An Oasis of Luxury Shopping on Long Island’s South Shore.’ ”

Within a year the center will be fully leased, Goldstone asserts. “Many of the retailers wanted to see what the shopping center would look like before committing themselves. It is gorgeous.”

When fully leased, Great Lincoln will have between 15 and 20 tenants, with the average space ranging from 2,000 to 4,000 square feet. Rent will be “in the mid-$30-a-square-foot range,” Goldstone said.

Goldstone and her colleagues are nothing if not ambitious. Great Lincoln will be a boon for residents living in nearby communities, says Breslin. “They won’t have to drive across the island to the Americana [Manhasset] shopping center on the North Shore,” he said, referring to the famous luxury North Shore center that boasts sales per square feet in excess of $1,000.