Tucker Plans 200,000-SF Retail Center

NEWARK-The Chicago-based Tucker Development Corp. has acquired the 11-acre tract at the northeast corner of Springfield Ave. and Jones St. in this city’s Central Ward, and is set to develop a 200,000-square-foot retail center on the urban in-fill site. Tucker will team with the locally based WKA Development Corp., headed by Will Allen, to do the project, which has been named Springfield Avenue Marketplace.

“Newark has significant demand for new retail centers, as evidenced by the fact that 38% of retail purchases by residents and workers are made outside of the city,” says the firm’s president, Richard Tucker. “That’s a loss of $575 million in sales to the city every year. This development will help recapture the enormous leakage of retail spending. It will also provide a necessary resource for neighborhood residents, create employment opportunities and help increase the city’s tax revenue base.”

What Tucker has planned is a layout with two anchor tenants of approximately 90,000 and 65,000 square feet respectively, with the rest of the space accounted for by a combination of national and regional in-line stores. No tenant announcements have been made yet. Plans also call for a two-story parking deck and store-front parking, which combined will add up to 825 parking spaces.