Dewitt Town Center

Project Description

Project involved the acquisition, complete renovation and lease up of a 190,000 square foot shopping center on 22 acres in 2014-2015. The center is located on a main retail corridor at 3179 Erie Boulevard East in the heart of Dewitt, NY.  This project is a prime example of Icon Companies full service ability and capability to execute a development plan. Our firm evaluated the investment, created a vision and plan for re-branding, and began executing a marketing and leasing strategy. Icon’s brokerage team handled the lease up.  

The center suffered 90% vacancy for nearly a decade as it was held and neglected by out of state owners. For the better part of 10 years, the property was an eyesore and written off by the public, town, and potential tenants. It was known as Hechinger Plaza, despite Hechinger’s going bankrupt and vacating in 1999. It was optioned by several developers, and listed for lease with many brokerages over many years. In all cases the result was the same, failure and no progress.

The property had numerous challenges aside from physical condition. The access and traffic flow were poorly designed. The parking spaces were not in convenient proximity to the storefronts. There was a 60,000 sq ft former grocery store box on one side of the center, and on the opposite side was a big box of 70,000 sq ft with a lumber yard (former Hechinger space).

After careful evaluation and a development plan in mind, the property was purchased in January, 2014 for $5,800,000 under the name Dewitt Town Center, Inc.

Our team worked closely with the Town of Dewitt to plan this full scale redevelopment. Our mission was to create a visually pleasing center that the community could be proud of, while at the same time addressing the site issues and parking issues that deterred tenants and consumers alike. A plan was approved, a development team was assembled, financing was arranged, and a full scale renovation commenced as we unleashed our brokerage team to begin executing the marketing and leasing plan.

Innovation and creative thinking were crucial in attracting tenants and creating a dynamic tenant mix. Two empty big boxes (60,000 & 70,000 sq ft) would be difficult to fill with single retail tenants. Opposed to a straight retail center, we explored a less traditional tenant mix and approached office tenants as well as recreational end users.  

The former grocery story was pitched to Time Warner Cable to use as their Business Services Center, which required parking and office space for up to 400 employees. TWC saw our vision and we negotiated a long term lease for 60,000 sq ft of modern office space. The other big box was demised and now houses multiple tenants, including Harbor Freight Tools, SkyZone Trampoline Park, Country Max, Par’s Indoor Golf, and 5 Guys Burgers.  

Within 15 months, 11 new tenants signed long term leases totaling 170,000 sq ft. The entire shopping center was revamped (buildings and land), and was 100% leased. We then worked with the Town of Dewitt again to get approval to build a 4,100 sq ft addition from the ground up. The new space leased up before finishing the construction, and the property remains 100% leased and professionally managed in house.  

DEWITT TOWN CENTER

Dewitt Town Center was recognized in 2015 by the Town Of Dewitt with a special award. The award, presented by the Town of Dewitt Planning Board, stated that the project exemplified the quality of design and execution which have DeWitt a town of Choice.