Arborland's Old Navy downsizes, creating room for new retailer in shopping center

A 6,000-square-foot listing went up with Arborland listing broker Michael Lippitt of Landmark Commercial Services for a portion of the space, which is located on the western edge of the shopping center.

The reason: Old Navy reduced its store size after parent company Gap Inc. announced its plans to remove 1 million square feet from U.S. Old Navy stores in October 2011.

At the same time, Gap Inc. also announced its plans to reduce the number of Gap stores in the United States to 700 by 2013, creating a “smaller, healthier specialty store fleet,” the company said in a statement last year.

A portion of the Old Navy space in Arborland has been on and off the market since 2009, when Gerdom Realty & Investment had a listing for 3,920 to 8,748 square feet of the store to be subleased. But the listing was taken off the market in 2010.

The store also underwent renovations late last year, which included painting, installing new fixtures and a new rectangular-shaped checkout line constructed to replace the previous setup, which featured individual checkout lanes.

The asking price for the 6,000-square-foot space is $19 per-square-foot, according to marketing materials.

Lippitt said Arborland owner AmCap Inc. would prefer a retail user for the space.

“We’re looking for a soft goods company, and we’ve got some interest on it,” he said. “We want something that will complement the Old Navy and all the other retailers we have there.”

Lippitt announced last week that two retail tenants signed deals to split the former Borders store in the center: Five Below, a discount retailer that targets teen and pre-teen customers, and beauty superstore Ulta.

The stores are expected to open sometime this fall.