Roosevelt Field Reps Delve Into Redevelopment Plans

New restaurants, renovated and redesigned space, and a Neiman Marcus store will be coming soon to Roosevelt Field Mall.

Roosevelt Field General Manager Nadine Nakamura was on hand at the Council of East Meadow Community Organizations’ (CEMCO) meeting last week to give an overview of the project and answer questions pertaining to the redevelopment.

Roosevelt Field was built in 1956, and underwent renovations in 1993 and 1998, according to Nakamura.

“We are sorely due for an upgrade,” she added.

The new Neiman Marcus will be added to the mall near Macy’s. Seasons 52, a restaurant, is now open, with The Capital Grille and Havana Central slated to open by the year’s end. There are plans to renovate the AMC movie theater at the property to a “premium movie theater,” Nakumura said.

“It’s definitely going to be a much more upscale theater in keeping with all of the amenities of that area,” she said.

Additional pedestrian areas near the restaurants are going to be constructed to beautify the location.

“Between the Macy’s and the grand entry of the property, you can’t walk between them,” Nakamura said. “We want to be able to have an area that is comfortable for customers to traverse. We will be having more greenery in the area, possibly being able to turn this into something that could be an events space as well.”

Nakamura said space for small shops is going to increase by about 7,000 square feet, with Neiman Marcus accounting for an additional 100,000 square feet.

She added that the food court will also be relocated to the area by Dick’s Sporting Goods in the “north court” on the second level. It will go from its current approximate 1,000 square feet to 1,200 square feet. The former food court will be converted into small stores.

Nakamura said that they are hoping to begin work on the food hall, which is the first part of the construction, in early 2013. Neiman Marcus is scheduled to be completed by 2015. The redevelopment, which is privately funded, will cost Simon Properties, the owners of Roosevelt Field, approximately $250 million.

“This will be a phase project and we will be moving in different sections and trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. A lot of the work will occur at night,” she said, noting that they want to minimize the impact of construction for everyone in the surrounding area.

Richard Bivone, who is consulting on community outreach efforts for the project, said that the application for building is currently filed with the Town of Hempstead as an “as of right.” He said that this means “the submission, if everything is engineered, will be approved as of right, which means they get a permit.”

“The other thing that I think is very important, especially for this particular project, is what it brings to Nassau County as far as jobs are concerned,” said Nakamura, adding that the project should provide about 2,800 construction jobs and 300 to 400 long-term retail jobs.

Jaime Sumersille contributed to this article.