Mayfair Shopping Center Expecting Planet Fitness, Lidl, and New Restaurants
The large sign along Jericho Turnpike in Commack at the main entrance to the Mayfair Shopping Center has stood unchanged for decades. The sign shouts 1960’s. The center is a frequent topic of conversation — often
illustrated with old photos — on a Facebook page titled “Commack in the 60s and 70s.” But the shopping center itself, sporting a façade facelift of more recent vintage, is now undergoing a resurgence and a shift from a significant number of clothing stores to a more modern supermarket and trendy eateries. Several prominent vacancies are about to be filled after Lidl bought out Best Markets, and Stein Mart closed, subtracting a 31,000-square-foot department store that closed due to a pandemic-related bankruptcy last year. That large free-standing building has held a number of recognizable firms, including Gimbel’s, and decades ago was a meeting
place for the fledgling Roman Catholic parish of Christ the King.
Other vacancies were also casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sources said rents were an issue for some struggling businesses.
The pandemic significantly affected “a lot of our properties that are great, welllocated, long-term highly occupied shopping centers,” Matthew K. Harding, CEO of Levin Management Corp., told reporters. Levin’s company, based in Plainfield, New Jersey, manages Mayfair Shopping Center.
A second sign, at Mayfair’s westerly entrance already boasts logos of two major incoming tenants: Planet Fitness, part of a huge gym chain, and Lidl, the German discount grocery chain. Lidl was originally expected to
occupy the closed Best Market space, but now will take over the former Stein Mart building. Both operations are expected to open their new Mayfair locations by early next year, company sources noted. Similar upcoming openings are planned for three new eateries. By the end of September, Bagel Toastery will replace the former Mayfair Bagel that
closed in November 2018. The owners of Bagelicious Café in Port Jefferson Station will be operating Bagel Toastery. Both Meet Izakaya Ramen Bar and JBBQ & Shabu Shabu are due to open by the end of this year. The Ramen Bar will occupy space vacated in 2019 by Famous Toastery, and serve serve ramen, along with Japanese-style tapas and skewers. JBBQ & Shabu Shabu will replace a once popular Good Taste Buffet, a Chinese food buffet operation which left in August 2018. The new pan-Asian eatery is a new entry from the owners of Kashi, a Japanese restaurant chain with four other locations on Long Island. Planet Fitness will use some 19,000-square-feet in space formerly occupied by clothing stores from the Gap, New York & Co., and Justice chains, said a representative of Planet
Fitness Planet Fitness operates 19 gyms across Long Island. The Mayfair location plans to offer state-of-the art cardio and strength equipment, free fitness training, and a Black Card Spa with special amenities such as massage beds, massage chairs, and tanning booths. Once an anchor space to the shopping center, the last supermarket, Best Market, will see a possible division into space for two tenants yet to be named.
