Ocean State Job Lot buys former ShopRite of Newburgh Plaza; plans to open this fall
TOWN OF NEWBURGH − When the ShopRite of Newburgh vacated its 88 North Plank Road location this past October, it left a noticeable hole in the community, said Scott Manley, the town’s deputy supervisor.
“It definitely impacted my residents who loved shopping at ShopRite, but unfortunately, if you look at new supermarkets, they're twice the size of this one,” Manley said. “I've spoken to people at ShopRite, and they said it was just too small and they were actually losing money and needed a bigger store.”
The loss was disappointing, he said, but the 41,676-square- foot storefront won’t be vacant for long.
Ocean State Job Lot − a Rhode Island-based discount retailer which sells a wide variety of merchandise including household goods, clothing, pet supplies, food and seasonal products − plans to move into the former ShopRite location this fall and hopes to breathe new life into the entire plaza, according to Paul Cox, the company's director of operations.
It will be the chain’s first store in Orange County, Cox said.
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“I think it'll help fill the rest of the (vacant storefronts) in that location,” Cox said. “I think that something we do very, very well is bring centers like that back to life.”
Cox said the company purchased the entire 55,296-square-foot shopping center − which includes a Subway, a Domino’s and the Chinese restaurant Green Garden − and hopes to make physical improvements to the plaza which will both help the current businesses there and attract new ones to the shopping center.
According to Cox, a Tarrytown native, he and others at Ocean State Job Lot have been interested in opening a location in Orange County for quite some time.
“Newburgh and that region is a very sought-after area. I mean, the views, those little villages and all of that − it is just beautiful,” he said. “Plus, we have a store across the river in Fishkill, and that has been nothing but great for us… We thought maybe there's a part of the population on the Newburgh side of the river that wasn't traveling across the bridge. I really think Newburgh is going to be the perfect community for us and I think we are going to do great there.”
The new store plans to hire approximately 50 employees, Cox said, the majority of whom will be local. Candidates can apply at www.oceanstatejoblot.com/careers.
Cox said Ocean State Job Lot hopes to open its Newburgh location in late October, but there is no confirmed grand opening date. Ideally, the retailer hopes to open its doors before Thanksgiving and in time for the holiday season, he said.
"Part of it is that immediate gratification of sales, but you also let people get to know you during a period where there's a lot of people shopping," Cox said. "So a lot of it is a kind of investment in the years to come so that people get to know us a little earlier than they might if we were to wait until March or something like that to open."
Both Cox and Manley, Newburgh's deputy supervisor, said the town and retailer worked well together, and plans came together quickly.
The town, Manley said, is very excited to fill the vacancy left by ShopRite and to have a little more traffic going through the shopping plaza.
"It's so much better than having another empty storefront, that's for sure," he said. "Right now it's very hard to get retail in a lot of areas. This should be very good for our residents."
Erin Nolan is an investigative reporter for the Times Herald-Record and USA Today Network. Reach her at enolan@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Ocean State Job Lot to move into former ShopRite in town of Newburgh
