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BUSINESS JOURNAL
YOUR only SOURCE FOR regional BUSINESS NEWS | westfaironline.com
September 10, 2012 | VOL. 48, No. 37
Back-to-school sales get high marks
Retailers encouraged by consumer demand BY PATRICK GALLAGHER pgallagher@westfairinc.com
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s some of the country’s largest retail chains rode the back-toschool rush to strong August gains, several area businesses also reported double-digit sales increases going into Labor Day weekend. The encouraging August retail sales data, which were released by more than a dozen national chains Aug. 30, followed a report by the U.S. Commerce Department that consumer spending rose 0.4 percent in July, representing the first monthly increase since April.
Steve Rotker, owner of Family Discount Center & Ace Hardware at the Rye Ridge Shopping Center in Rye Brook, said consumers have shown a willingness to open their wallets and pocketbooks for additional items they may not have bought in the past two years. “We had an extremely strong August,” said Rotker, adding that back-to-school sales – for which he said his store competes with the likes of Staples and Target – are up “a good couple of handfuls.” “I think people are back in the mode of spending,” he said. “They’re spending maybe where they hadn’t in the past couple of years.” Rotker attributed some of his store’s sucBack-to-school sales, page 6
Cortlandt deal could have Walmart link
‘Sleeping giant’ stirs • 2 A Main Street pharmacy in Peekskill shows a renovated facade funded by state grants.
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BY JOHN GOLDEN jgolden@westfairinc.com
A shopping center owner and redeveloper in White Plains has acquired a property eyed as the potential site of a Walmart Supercenter in the town of Cortlandt at a price more than double that paid by its previous owner four years ago. Acadia Realty Trust last month closed on its $11 million purchase of 3144 E. Main St., a 36-acre property across state Route 6 from Acadia’s Cortlandt Town Center shopping mall. Walmart leases a 144,000-square-foot
pearl river prepares • 17
store in the 750,000-square-foot mall. The seller, Westrock Development L.L.C. in Yonkers, in 2008 paid $5.4 million for the East Main Street property, where it planned to build Cortlandt Crossing, a mixed-use development with 90,000 square feet of retail and bank space and a 10-lot housing subdivision. The project did not progress in the economic downturn that halted development plans throughout the county. In March, Westrock and Walmart representatives reportedly surprised Cortlandt town officials when they informally revealed Cortlandt deal, page 6
good things happening • 32