Sunrise Mall Was Emptied on Schedule, and Most of the Land Still Has No Announced Plan

"Clears one of the final hurdles needed to advance the project." That was how Jeffrey S. Mooallem, chief operating officer of Urban Edge Properties, described the closing of Dick's Sporting Goods, the last store at Sunrise Mall. He said it to analysts on an earnings call in February, and Newsday reported it this spring.

From Sunrise Highway, the mall looks like a building that slowly lost its tenants. The owner stopped renewing leases in 2022, and its executives have described each closing since then as a step in a redevelopment plan. The building was cleared on purpose and on a schedule. That schedule is now at the step where the town reviews the plan, and the Amazon facility everyone talks about covers only about a third of the land. Nobody has publicly said what happens on the rest.

From the 2020 Purchase to an Empty Building

Sunrise Mall opened in 1973. It had 1.2 million square feet of retail on 77 acres. Like a lot of enclosed malls, it lost tenants over the past decade to online shopping, and the 2020 pandemic made that worse. What happened after the 2020 sale was something else.

The 2022 decision to stop renewing leases is the key one. From then on, every store that left reflected a choice the owner had already made. When Urban Edge bought in, it said the mall "provides tremendous redevelopment opportunities given its unique scale and in-place zoning which provides for industrial and other uses," as CoStar reported. The plan was industrial use from the start.

The county's subdivision approval in May 2025 was a paperwork step. According to the Nassau County Planning Commission hearing transcript, it did not authorize construction or immediate demolition of the mall. What it did was split the land into four lots so that one of them could be sold.

The Math Behind the Timing

Here's why the owner is pushing to move. Urban Edge's group paid $29.7 million for the whole 77 acres in 2020. As of the first quarter of 2026, Urban Edge reported it was under contract to sell one parcel of the mall for $79.5 million. Its filing didn't name the buyer, but the company had earlier said a sale to Amazon was pending. If that sale closes, one piece of the property will have sold for more than twice what the owners paid for all of it. The owners would also keep roughly two-thirds of the acreage.

Waiting costs money too. In its second-quarter 2026 results, Urban Edge reported a net operating loss at Sunrise Mall of $45,000 for the quarter and $524,000 for the first half of 2026. An empty mall with no rent coming in loses money every quarter it stays empty. That explains why each step has been described as clearing the way for the next one.

What the Amazon Filing Actually Describes

The application calls the project "Project Alba." Newsday's January report on the town filing lays out what's planned for the 26.7-acre parcel:

• A 150,348-square-foot warehouse and delivery station, with Amazon.com Services LLC named as the tenant
• A separate building for servicing the vehicle fleet and another for automated vehicle inspections
• Operations 24 hours a day, seven days a week
• Up to 305 drivers on site during a shift, all third-party business owners and companies, plus 75 to 100 warehouse employees
• About 13 months of construction, according to an environmental form filed with the application

The plans also call for tearing down parts of the mall. A town spokesman said he couldn't immediately say how much of the building would come down. The filing is the most detailed public description of what would be built, and it covers only Amazon's parcel.

The Two-Thirds Without a Name

On Urban Edge's first-quarter call on April 29, 2026, CEO Jeffrey Olson gave the clearest public description of the full site. "The entitlement process is advancing on schedule," he said, according to CoStar's coverage. "We had disclosed previously that Amazon is going to occupy about one-third of the property ... and we're finalizing our plans to develop the remaining land for retail and other uses."

On the same call, Mooallem said Dick's would be "giving the keys back" that week and that the closure "will allow us to advance our plans rapidly into later this year." In February, he had told analysts the company was talking with other possible users for the rest of the site. "And we hope to have more to announce later this year," he said, according to Newsday's mall status roundup.

"Retail and other uses" is the full public description of roughly 50 acres along Sunrise Highway. No tenant, store, or opening date has been announced for that land. At the May 2025 county hearing, the central parcel was described as set aside for future commercial development, and the owner said it had no redevelopment plans at that point. Long Island Business News reported in April 2025 that housing had been ruled out under the property's light-industrial zoning.

The Amazon parcel already has a filing, a tenant, and a construction estimate. The larger share of the property has none of these. Whatever goes on that land will shape this stretch of Sunrise Highway more than the warehouse will, simply because it covers twice as much ground.

Where the Process Stands Now

The Amazon piece still has several public steps ahead:

1. The Planning Advisory Board hearing. A town spokesman told Newsday that Project Alba needs a site plan hearing before the Town of Oyster Bay's Planning Advisory Board. The board reviews site plans and recommends approval or disapproval to the Town Board. Its meeting dates are on the town's Planning Advisory Board calendar, which listed an October 15 meeting and three cancelled summer sessions.
2. The land sale. According to Newsday, Nassau County Clerk records showed the 26.7 acres had not been sold as of early January 2026. The owner wouldn't say whether the sale depends on town approval. CoStar's May report still described it as under contract.
3. Demolition and construction. Taking down part of the mall is in the plan. Once construction starts, the filing estimates 13 months to finish.
4. Urban Edge's quarterly reports. The company set its third-quarter 2026 release and call for October 28. Its earnings calls are where Sunrise Mall news has come out first, including the Dick's timing and the "retail and other uses" description. A plan for the remaining land would likely come out the same way.

Newsday's April 30 status update listed the mall as "defunct" with a target completion date of "unknown." Amazon said in May 2025 that it was "exploring options" at the site "with the intent of opening an operations facility in the future." Dick's also pointed shoppers to the company's other locations around Long Island, eight in all.

The next update on Sunrise Mall will most likely come through two channels: an agenda posted on the town's Planning Advisory Board calendar, or a line in an Urban Edge earnings report.

If you own a home near Sunrise Highway and want to talk through how this corridor is changing, The Evangelista Team follows these Town of Oyster Bay and Nassau County filings as they move forward. We're glad to share what we're seeing locally and put together a free home valuation based on current Massapequa sales.