Sweetgreen will open a new eatery — its fourth on Long Island — in a redeveloped building in Manhasset next week, even as investors sour on the salad chain’s performance.
The new Sweetgreen will open its doors at 1593 Northern Blvd. at 10 a.m. Tuesday, according to a news release from the company. The fast-casual restaurant is the first of a handful of new tenants opening at the redeveloped Manhasset retail stretch, according to the property’s landlord, even as the chain struggles with a slump in revenue as diners tighten their belts.
“We’re thrilled to open our doors here,” Christopher Tarrant, chief development officer at Sweetgreen, said in an emailed statement to Newsday. “We can’t wait to serve our neighbors and bring our made-from-scratch food to the community.”
A new Sweetgreen salad chain store will be open in Manhasset Tuesday. Credit: Bloomberg/David Paul Morris
Sweetgreen’s new building was years in the making, said Adam Mann, principal of Jericho-based real estate firm AJM RE, one of the property’s developers, alongside Roslyn’s G4 Development Group and Manhattan-based Cosmo Real Estate Partners.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUNDSweetgreen will open a new eatery in a redeveloped building in Manhasset Tuesday at 10 a.m.The fast-casual restaurant is the first of a handful of new tenants moving into the redeveloped Manhasset retail stretch.The opening comes as Sweetgreen struggles with a slight drop in revenue in the third quarter, according to the company’s earnings report.
Before the redevelopment, the stretch of buildings from 1577 to 1595 Northern Blvd. was connected, with the clothing store Mystique Boutique standing at the center of the retail row, according to Google Maps images of the site from 2022. But Mann said the property had limited parking for customers, which he and his partners set out to fix.
In 2023, the Town of North Hempstead approved the developer’s plans to demolish part of the central portion of the 53,526-square-foot retail property to create an additional driveway and more parking, according to the minutes of the May 2, 2023, town board meeting. The developers were already in talks with potential tenants, including Sweetgreen, according to the minutes.
The team rebuilt the buildings, outfitted with a brick-and-glass facade, according to images of the site. The developers also brought in a handful of new tenants set to open in the coming months, including a Joe & the Juice, a LaserAway and a Visual Comfort lighting store, Mann said.
“We reduced building area, we increased parking, we improved access, and we turned it into a beautiful and functional shopping center that we think is now going to thrive,” Mann said on Wednesday. “And we were able to secure some really wonderful tenants to fill the space.”
Today, the retail stretch is fully leased, said Jason Sobel, vice president at brokerage RIPCO Real Estate, who brokered the deal for the landlord alongside RIPCO colleague Brian Schuster.
“Welcoming Sweetgreen is a testament to the strength of this corridor,” Sobel said in an email to Newsday. “They’re an ideal addition to the property — a high-quality, health-focused brand with strong customer demand and a proven track record in top-tier markets.”
But the grand opening might be bittersweet for Sweetgreen, which has struggled with a drop in revenue this year.
The company pulled in $172.4 million in total revenue in the third quarter, a 0.6% decline from the same period last year, and same-store sales dropped 9.5%, according to the company’s third-quarter earnings report. Lower spending among younger guests, between the ages of 25 and 35, helped push sales down, company co-founder and CEO Jonathan Neman said at the Nov. 6 investor call.
Sweetgreen — which has additional Long Island outposts in Huntington Station, Woodbury and Garden City — saw its sales soften particularly in the Northeast and Los Angeles, Neman said on Nov. 6, calling New York the company’s “most challenged market.”
Sweetgreen isn’t the only fast-casual chain facing turbulence this year. Cava, Chipotle and other fast-casual restaurants have seen their stocks decline as investors worry about slower consumer spending. And small Long Island eateries have felt a similar crunch as consumers eat out less often, Newsday reported.