CLIFTON, NJ, March, 1999 -- Botany Plaza shopping center has signed a long term lease with Charming Shoppes Inc. for a new Fashion Bug women’s specialty store. The 7,900 square foot store will be built alongside the new Big Kmart department store currently under construction at the south end of the center. Located on the Clifton/Passaic city line, both the Fashion Bug and Kmart stores fall within a New Jersey "Urban Enterprise Zone," offering shoppers the benefit of reduced sales taxes.

Charming Shoppes operate 1,200 Fashion Bug and Fashion Bug Plus stores specializing in moderately priced juniors, misses, sportswear, coats, lingerie and accessories. The company has announced plans to reposition themselves as "the fashion specialty retailer of the strip (shopping center)." Charming Shoppes’ president, Dorritt Bern recently indicated that women are busier than ever, and parking and doing laps around a mall are a luxury of time and effort women of the next millennium can not afford.

Botany Plaza Leasing Manager Dennis Cieri commented that "We are pleased to be included in Charming Shoppes’ strategy to move more of their store locations out of enclosed malls to take advantage of the added shopper convenience offered by centers like Botany Plaza. This now brings Botany Plaza’s occupancy close to 100% with only space available for 1,800 or 4,500 contiguous square foot stores."


Botany Plaza is located at the intersection of Randolph and Ackerman Avenues, adjacent to the Botany Village section of Clifton. The center is anchored by a Pathmark Super
Center that opened in March, 1997 and the new Big Kmart. Other stores include a TrustCompany Bank branch, GNC General Nutrition Center, Mail Boxes Etc., Discount Liquors, Dollar Mania, and Clifton Buffet. Additional new stores which will open later this year include Re/Max Realtors and The Laundry Factory.

Botany Plaza is managed by Winbrook Realty Group, Inc. of New York City, which manages a number of other Mid Atlantic retail and mixed use properties including the 600,000 square foot Cedarbrook Plaza shopping center in suburban Philadelphia, PA.