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Plans for a sprawling shopping mall in the northeast Bronx have collapsed despite strong interest from national chains and local retailers.
The $130 million, glass-enclosed Mall at Bay Plaza project fizzled because the site's owner, Prestige Properties & Development Co., could not come up with either the financing or a more experienced shopping mall builder as a partner. Prestige had been seeking an equity or joint venture partner to build the proposed 1.1 million-square-foot mall that would have included anchor tenants Sears, Roebuck & Co. and J.C. Penney & Co.
Instead, Prestige is now negotiating with Kmart Corp. to put up a free-standing 130,000-square-foot discount store on part of the 34-acre site near Co-op City. If a deal is concluded, it would be Kmart's first store in the Bronx and fourth in the city.
Prestige officials confirmed that the mall has died and that they are now talking to Kmart. But they say financing remains a problem.
"It's the atmosphere today," says Sam Shalem, a Prestige partner. "No bank wants to take construction."
Kmart, the Troy, Mich.-based retailer that is opening a store in Fresh Meadows, Queens, later this month, has made it clear that it is hunting for more sites in the five boroughs, including the Bronx.
"I imagine it'd make a lot of sense to them...