Amazon Transforms Sunrise Mall into Distribution Hub

Prime Highlights

Amazon is repurposing Sunrise Mall in Massapequa to a massive distribution center.
Project is a realignment to redevelopment as a logistic center rather than conventional retailing.

Key Facts

Sunrise Mall site location is 77 acres in size and has over 1.2 million square feet of space.
Urban Edge Properties is leading the redevelopment and Amazon is also actively involved.

Key Background

Sunrise Mall in Massapequa, NY, opened in 1973 and flourished for decades as a hub mall shopping center for Long Island shoppers. But like all of the malls across the US, it also suffered the destruction in large scale with issues once e-commerce began and shopping patterns shifted. Traffic declined, anchor stores shut down, vacancies rose, and the sustainability of the mall came under the scanner.

Urban Edge Properties bought the building in 2020 for $29.7 million to intend to redevelop the underperforming property. In the subsequent couple of years, the company progressively shut down retail businesses by not extending leases on tenants, which meant moving on to redevelop the mall to other use. The action would re-allocate space to what is appropriate to capture prevailing economic trends, i.e., logistics infrastructure demand.

Flash forward to 2025, and a major news story broke—Amazon signed a deal to redevelop part of the site as a fulfillment center. Details of the deal and scope of Amazon’s presence were not disclosed, but the development is a positive move toward activating space and producing local economic activity. The center will generate jobs and facilitate delivery logistics to the region.

This redevelopment also points to a wider commercial property trend, where aging malls are redeveloped into industrial and fulfillment purposes. It is an indication of physical space use changing in line with consumer behavior tending towards online consumption. With Urban Edge spearheading the vision for the Sunrise Mall property as a whole, Amazon’s entry gives credibility and vibrancy to the redevelopment, toward a post-less-retail age.