Yale New Haven Health buys former mall anchor store

The Yale New Haven Health System has purchased the space of a former anchor store in the Meriden Mall, according to health system officials.

Terms of the deal were not released, but Yale

New Haven Health said in a release that it would use the 179,285-square-foot, two-story former Macy’s spot for a “comprehensive ambulatory center.”

Opening medical facility space in locations surrounding New Haven is in line with a business model that the health care organization has followed in recent years, according to Cynthia Sparer, Yale New Haven Health’s chief ambulatory officer.

“We are increasingly seeing more patients from central Connecticut travel to Yale New Haven Hospital and are looking forward to bringing our high quality care to these patients in their own community,” Sparer said. “Using the successful blueprint Yale New Haven Heath established with the creation of our Shoreline Medical Center in Guilford, Park Avenue Medical Center in Trumbull and the Devine Street Medical Center in North Haven, we will bring the community advanced treatment options that are easily accessible and offer all of the benefits associated with Yale New Haven Health.”

Joseph Feest, Meriden’s director of economic development, said the new medical facility “will help increase medical access to a growing population and provide more resources to patients in a new and convenient location.”

Redevelopment of the former retail space will begin early next year.

The services planned for the facility will begin opening over a phased time frame over the next 18 to 24 months, with completion of construction expected by the end of 2023 or early 2024.

The first phase of Yale New Haven Health’s plan for the former retail space calls for three major service lines to offer advanced care to patients and families in collaboration with Yale Medicine through the Smilow Cancer Hospital, the Yale New Haven Heart and Vascular Center and the Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital, according to YNHH. The new facility will also offer blood draw services as well as radiology, Sparer said.

The Macy’s in the Meriden Mall closed in 2020. A Long Island, N.Y.based retail center operator, Namdar Realty Group, acquire the mall in June of that year from Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield.

The mall is located at 460 Lewis Ave. in Meriden, across the street from MidState Medical Center, which is part of Yale New Haven’s rival, Hartford Healthcare.

Angela Mattie, a professor of management and medical sciences at Quinnipiac University, said the decision to acquire the former mall anchor store “is a pretty smart move strategically on the part of Yale New Haven Health System.”

“People don’t want to have to travel too far to their health care providers,” Mattie said. “Whenever you increase accessibility to health care, it’s a good thing.”

It’s a move that is also beneficial for Namdar, according to Burt Flickinger, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, a New York-based retail consultant.

“It can really save a retail center that is down on its luck,” Flickinger said. “It brings the health care consumer, which raises customer counts and foot traffic to a level much higher than what a struggling mall would normally see. It also brings the opportunity to lease space to related business and services.”