Construction on New Town Center Anchor Store to Begin

Construction on a new anchor store at the Wayne Town Center is expected to begin soon, town officials said.

Work is scheduled to begin in the next week, said town planner John Szabo. Cleanup crews will be working to remove debris and weeds from the site before construction begins. Large piles of dirt have already been removed the site.

Szabo said officials have met with project representatives recently in an attempt to "move the project along," Szabo said.

A representative from Wayne Town Center Associates and Jerome Vogel, the attorney representing WTCA, could not be reached for comment.

A large portion of the 49-acre site, where the Wayne Town Center used to be located, remains undeveloped. Several restaurants, including a TGI Friday’s, which used to be located in the main building, a Bahama Breeze, and a DSW Shoes have been constructed on the periphery of the site along Route 23.

Piles of dirt and debris have already been removed from the portion of the site next to JC Penny where the main building used to be located. It was knocked down in 2009.

JC Penny is the center’s last remaining anchor store. Other tenants, including Old Navy and now-defunct Borders Books and Music, pulled out of the site one by one since 2008. The vacant former Fortunoff building remains on the site.

WTCA had applied to redevelop the property last year but withdrew the application “without prejudice” while it evaluated other options.  

The application called for 750,000 square feet of building space to be added to the once-thriving property next to the Willowbrook Mall.

The Fortunoff building was to be knocked down and a new two-story building with multiple high-end stores and a fitness center was supposed to be constructed.

A redevelopment plan from 2006 was scheduled to move forward some years ago but it stalled in 2009 when Fortunoff went bankrupt.

Vornado Realty Trust bought a leasehold interest in the site for $12.5 million from Wells Fargo & Co. in late 2010.

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