News story made available courtesy of Poughkeepsie Journal

Home Depot is a lure for mall

Wednesday, March 8, 2006

By Craig Wolf
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com

FISHKILL — There's more activity at the Dutchess Mall these days than there has been in a decade.

Construction of the Home Depot's 132,874-square-foot home improvement store has progressed to the point where the shell is up and steel for outlying portions is rising.

Plenty of interest is being shown by small merchants who want to get into the mall, said David Livshin, president of Dagar Group, Fishkill, the leasing agent for Hudson Properties LLC, which owns the mall, located south of the Route 9-Interstate 84 intersection.

"Since construction started, we average 30 to 40 calls a week from people looking for small-store space," Livshin said.

Plans to accommodate such interest aren't final. First, talks must continue with several "big box" retailers who seek space ranging from 20,000 to 50,000 square feet, Livshin said.

Because no deals are signed, no names are being mentioned, he said.

"We're just trying to work out the mix," Livshin said.

Troubled past
Only a handful of merchants remain at the mall, opened in 1974 as Dutchess County's first enclosed shopping center but later diminished by competition to the north and the individual struggles of the companies that had anchor stores there.

There is one other sign of progress, said Chris Colsey, director of municipal development for the Town of Fishkill. That's a plan, now before the planning board, from McDonald's to spruce up the site and renovate the restaurant.

An opening date for Home Depot has not been announced, and messages left for spokesmen were not returned Tuesday. But the company's list of grand openings, posted through the end of June, did not show Fishkill. Livshin's best guess is sometime in spring.

Colsey said the general contractor, March Associates, Wayne, N.J., appears to be making good progress.

Ann Meagher remembers the mall's opening.

"You're talking to a kid who grew up as a mall rat," she said, recalling her excitement seeing the escalator in the J.W. Mays store and recalling she had her first job working at a store there.

She is now president of the Greater Southern Dutchess Chamber of Commerce and believes more stores will be announced following Home Depot's lead.

"That's going to be a nice shot in the arm for that mall, that location," she said.