New Tenant Moving Into Empty Hudson Valley Toys R Us Store

An abandoned Hudson Valley Toys R Us store will not be empty for much longer.

There are already plans in the works for a complete remodeling of the old Toys R Us building on Route 9 in Poughkeepsie. The store closed down last year and ever since there have been rumors about who would be taking over the store. One rumor, which turned out not to be true, was that Trader Joe's would be opening their first Hudson Valley location.

There have also been rumblings about Toys R Us somehow returning to the area. An announcement that the company abruptly canceled the sale of it's brand name and other properties made people wonder if the toy store would be reopening their closed Hudson Valley locations. That scenario seems even more unlikely now that a new tenant is drawing up plans to take over the store.

A. Boris

At this Thursday's Town of Poughkeepsie planning board meeting, contractors will be presenting a plan to remove the former Toys R Us vestibule and construct a new storefront for Burlington Coat Factory. The clothing store announced at the end of last year that they would be relocating many of their stores across the country to former Toys R Us locations, and apparently Poughkeepsie is one of them.

The plan also calls for a "complete interior remodel" of the store. It's unclear how long the approval process will last, and then how much time construction would take after that. It's also unknown what will happen to the current Burlington store currently located in the Shoppes at South Hills. The one thing we do know is that the planning stage of the new Burlington Coat Factory is certainly underway.

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The Poughkeepsie Plaza, adjacent to Toys R Us, is also currently under major construction as the mall prepares for TJ Maxx and Homegoods to move from their current location across Route 9 into the strip mall. Now with the addition of Burlington, the line of retail stores stretching from Modell's to Barnes & Noble will likely become much busier by the end of 2019.

What do you think about Burlington's plan to move to the former Toys R Us location in Poughkeepsie? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or on our Facebook page.

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