The Clarkstown Planning Board unanimously gave final approval to the Palisades Center at Wednesday’s meeting to provide street level access to a Dick’s Sporting Goods set to open on the second and third floors of the mall.
A group from the mall went to the Planning Board on June 6 to receive and met with Architectural & Landscape Commission June 11th and were approved there.
The new store will be sandwiched on the mall’s middle floors above Bed, Bath & Beyond and below Barnes & Noble. The plan calls for a 1,817-square-foot first floor vestibule and a 2,579-square-foot second floor vestibule to provide street level access.
One issue the board had with the initial plan was the location of two transformers, which were to be located underneath escalators. Members of the board questioned the safety of the position.
In the revised plan, the transformers will be located within four-hour fire and glass enclosures designed specifically for housing transformers indoors. This type of enclosure exceeds requirements of national standards.
Dick’s will take over empty stores no longer in business as well as some overflow parking area that Darrin Houseman, general manager of the Palisades Center, said doesn’t get used.
Houseman added that construction on the store’s interior has already begun. Now they’re just waiting for the chair of the planning board to sign off on the approval and they can officially start with construction on the exterior.
Houseman said that while he doesn’t know when the store will open, he expects it to open this year.
