Old Navy is moving into the old Bed Bath & Beyond at Killingly Commons. When will it open?

KILLINGLY - Construction workers were busy remodeling a Killingly Commons storefront Wednesday ahead of an Old Navy clothing store’s anticipated move into the long-vacant space.

The fashion outlet, owned by Gap, Inc., is expected to open its doors to customers sometime this year, likely in time for the holiday shopping season, Town Manager Mary Calorio said. The store will operate out of the former Bed Bath & Beyond tenant space inside the Dayville shopping center.

Calorio said the property, owned by leaser Property Development, LLC Dayville, requires some upgrades and refurbishments before it can be formally rechristened as an Old Navy store.

“It’s basically a matter of changing the interior layout, with some minor exterior work – like storefront signage – but the size of the space isn’t changing,” she said. “I think the same supply chain issues that have been affecting everyone have played a part in the remodeling process, but I expect they’ll open before Christmas.”

The company paid $7,235 in building permitting and sprinkler review fees to the town in June and its refurbishment plans were approved by the Planning & Zoning Commission. The storefront is located on a side strip of the plaza anchored by Target and T.J. Maxx stores.

Building schematics calls for an 11,974-square-foot sales area, along with fitting rooms and stock and sales areas. Improvement costs to the space are pegged at $435,000, according to a building permit renovation/addition document issued on June 9.

Empty storefronts remain at Dressbarn, Olympia Sports

The plaza still has two major vacancies left after the Dressbarn and Olympia Sports stores recently shuttered. Dressbarn began shuttering all its stores, including a Norwich outlet, in 2019 and moved to online-only sales. The Olympia Sports company also began closing its stores in 2019 after being bought out by another sporting goods retailer.

Calorio said Old Navy’s imminent move into town means more tax revenue for the town.

“The personal property taxes will increase and we’ll see a slight increase in real estate taxes,” she said.

Old Navy recently moved out of its Lisbon Landing location, though Calorio said such a move isn’t a cause for concern.

“A company like this isn’t going to go to this level of investment in a brick-and-mortar store in Killingly if they didn’t do the market research and believed they had customer support here,” she said.

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Economic Development Director Jill St. Clair said the relatively long time it took to get a new tenant into the storefront shouldn’t be mistaken for a lack of interest in the site.

“Many of the stores in a plaza like Killingly’s have no-compete clauses, in which an existing business doesn’t want another store selling similar products moving near them and competing for that same market share,” she said. “For example, I’d love to have a Best Buy move in, but would that be an issue with Staples?”

St. Claire said many companies have recently relaxed such oppositions - especially in a post-pandemic retail world in which supply-chain and other issues have hurt sales.

“It’s less about turf and more about growing that retail pie,” she said.

John Penney can be reached at jpenney@norwichbulletin.com or at (860) 857-6965