The Century 21 department store in Westbury will be redeveloped for industrial use after the retailer leaves next spring.

Jericho-based Sanders Equities, which owns the property, has announced its plans to convert the 192,000-square-foot retail building at 1085 Old Country Road into a 153,000-square-foot industrial building with high-ceiling clearance and multiple loading docks.

As LIBN first reported in July 2019, Century 21 will be downsizing and relocating at the Roosevelt Field mall in Garden City. The discount apparel retailer will be building a 68,000-square-foot store in the space occupied by Bloomingdale’s Furniture and expects to open in the spring of 2021.

Meanwhile, the Westbury property is coming full circle. Several industrial buildings had to be demolished on the 7-acre Old Country Road site in the 1990s to make room for Century 21’s first Long Island location.

“Back then, an off-price retailer could not locate near other retail locations, but things have changed in the 20 years since we redeveloped this property, including the amount of space retailers require for their operations,” Arthur Sanders, chairman of Sanders Equities, said in a written statement. “Today, with the retail industry stressed and industrial space in Nassau County boasting historically low vacancy rates, we decided to turn the clock back to the future to achieve this location’s highest and best use.”

The repositioning of the Westbury property will include removing the building’s partial second floor and increasing ceiling heights to as much as 32 feet. The site is already zoned for industrial use.

“Our company’s redevelopment of this major property in central Nassau County mirrors our firm’s philosophy of developing new and repositioning older properties to feature amenities necessary for today’s industrial tenants’ operational needs,” Jordan Sanders, Sanders Equities president, said in the statement.

Paul Leone and Margaret Tutone of CBRE’s Melville office have been retained as exclusive leasing agents for the re-imagined Westbury property.

“With the demand for distribution and last-mile spaces skyrocketing in today’s market, Sanders’ redevelopment of 1085 Old Country Road comes at an opportune time for tenants seeking warehouse and distribution centers that accommodate their contemporary operational needs,” Leone said. “We are thrilled to be selected as the exclusive agency for 1085 Old Country Road and made it a point to brainstorm with ownership on how to cultivate a unique strategy for its reuse to satisfy the market’s appetite for last-mile spaces.”