Former East Northport Sears Location Eyed For Movie Theater, Fitness Center
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The former Sears location at 4000 Jericho Turnpike in East Northport has been vacant since the department store closed its doors in September. Long Islander News photo/Connor Beach
By Connor Beach
cbeach@longislandergroup.com
The building that once housed Sears in the Huntington Square Mall in East Northport may not be empty for long.
Plans submitted to the Huntington Planning Department earlier this year show that a small addition and repurposed exterior are in the mix for the 4000 Jericho Turnpike building, which will be reworked for a new mix of tenants, including a movie theater.
The former Sears location stands at two stories and spans a total of 181,369 square feet. It has been empty since September, when Sears closed.
The building is owned by Illinois-based Seritage SRC Finance, which began working on plans for the structure in March, after it learned Sears would be closing.
Huntington-based attorney Michael McCarthy, who is representing Seritage, said the plans include only the Sears space and its parking lot, and not the adjacent one-story structure that houses other mall stores and businesses.
“This application entails the old Sears building and the parking around it, repurposing it, and contemplating a movie theater, a fitness center and a retail store of some kind,” McCarthy said Wednesday.
The planned movie theater would span 2,081 square feet on the first floor and continue across 52,118 square feet of the second floor with 987 seats.
The fitness center and retail store would also span both floors, according to plans, with the fitness center accounting for a total of 39,384 square feet, spread almost evenly, and the retail store taking up 856 square feet on the first floor and 11,132 square feet on the second.
A rendering depicts plans for a new storefront, including a movie theater, fitness center and retail tenant, at what used to be Sears at 4000 Jericho Turnpike in East Northport. Rendering Courtesy of Seritage Growth Properties
McCarthy said that, if the plans are approved, the outcome could be “something unique and something really exciting for East Northport.”
The proposal is slated to go before the Huntington Zoning Board of Appeals during a public hearing at its Dec. 7 meeting, which will begin at 6 p.m. at town hall.
Seritage is seeking ZBA relief for a deficiency of 228 parking stalls, along with increased signage. There are currently 12,000 parking spaces spread across the entire Huntington Square Mall property.
McCarthy said the parking is more than adequate for the proposed uses. “In proportion to how much parking is there, it’s a relatively minor relief,” he added.
