Interior renovations have begun at the forthcoming Bridgehampton Commons Target store, which is taking over the space occupied by Kmart for 25 years. Last week, construction workers could be seen through glass front doors, digging rectangular pits into the ground, illuminated by work lights mounted to the metal framework lining the ceiling. The store is expected to open next fall.
Target signed a lease for the space a year ago and submitted an initial site plan to the Southampton Town Planning Board in December. After months of negotiations and amendments, hashed out at a planning board meeting in March, the town finally issued a building permit on July 30, covering both interior and exterior renovations. The new store will include a Starbucks and a CVS as “accessory tenants.”
The compromises ultimately reached paint a picture of an uncharacteristically de-Targeted Target, which is usually associated with its bright-red visual accents. Target was represented at the March meeting by the attorney Brian W. Kennedy, a partner at the Uniondale firm Forchelli Deegan Terrana L.L.P.
It had already been decided that the store’s sign would feature white letters and a logo against a gray background, and that it could not be internally illuminated, in keeping with the strict signage regulations of Bridgehampton Commons. The precise background color was still pending approval at the time, and the exact size will have to fit a predetermined ratio with the height of the facade.
A pervading concern for planning board members was the proposed installation of the company’s signature bollards, the bright red concrete spheres typically positioned between the entrance and the parking lot to keep cars out of the walkway. “The issue that I see is, it’s somewhere between an architectural element and a safety issue and signage — it is a marketing element, because it represents your brand,” one member of the board opined. She suggested Target seek out a “formal interpretation” of how the bollards should be classified, so as not to “open up a can of worms.”
Ken McQuade, an in-house architect for Target, offered that the company would be open to painting them a different color if that would move things along, but winced when a board member suggested white as an alternative. “Respectfully, white shows every scuff and every mark,” he said, suggesting instead a “more neutral gray,” which another board member noted would match the sign. (The “formal interpretation” of the bollards came in the form of an email from a town building inspector, Marjorie Reilly, later in March, who concluded that “the bollards painted red would be considered a sign — however, painted gray would not be considered a sign.”)
Another point of contention was the proposed reconfiguration of the parking lot, which included adding 10 drive-up stalls for picking up orders, resulting in a loss of six parking spaces. He knew this was “a big concern for Madame Chair,” Mr. Kennedy said, addressing the board’s chairwoman, Jacqui Lofaro. He called a representative from Kimco to affirm that there were “no parking issues” at the site.
Ms. Lofaro was unconvinced, concerned about the precedent it could set for future tenants.
These negotiations are the latest in a long line of big-box stores moving into and out of the space, to varied levels of controversy. The building was constructed in 1972 as part of the Plaza East Shopping Center. A group of residents of Bridgehampton and neighboring towns (among them the writer Peter Matthiessen and the artist Saul Steinberg) drew up a petition, which they had printed in The Star, after plans for Plaza East were announced, calling themselves “Citizens Against the Shopping Center” and warning that it would cause traffic congestion, unfair competition for established merchants, and “irreparably alter the visual quality of our countryside.”
The plans went forward, and the store opened as a W.T. Grant, then a nationwide chain of discount stores, in October 1972. Grant went bankrupt in 1976, and was replaced by Woolco, a discount chain owned by the Woolworth Company, a few months later. The Star’s coverage of the opening described the interior as “completely redesigned and refurbished,” and quoted a Woolco executive as saying that their selection of merchandise “differed from that of its ill-fated predecessor in several respects . . . most importantly” because they carried “name-brand appliances.”
The store closed in 1983, along with all remaining Woolco locations in the country (though the company continued to operate in Canada into the ‘90s), and another discount chain, Caldor, moved in. Kimco had since bought Plaza East, and the corporation applied to the town board in 1983 to expand the shopping center onto the adjacent property formerly occupied by a drive-in movie theater. This inspired more protests and legal action, but eventually resulted in the Bridgehampton Commons we know today.
Caldor also went bankrupt, and closed in May 1999. Kmart, which took up occupancy later that year, held the distinction of being the last “full-sized” Kmart store in the mainland United States when it closed for good in October (a small store is still open in Miami, along with a few surviving locations in Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands).
A spokesperson for Target wrote in an email last week that the company was not yet able to provide a specific opening date, but that it is “excited to bring an easy, affordable and convenient shopping experience to new guests in the Bridgehampton community.” More specific details, “including how the shopping experience will be tailored to serve local guests,” will be forthcoming as the opening nears.