Openings
New Rochelle’s ritzy rental building Stella has a gorgeous new ground-floor tenant: Rhoslyn Florist. The shop at 207 North Avenue opened for business in early February, and founder Fabiola Guerrero and partner Diego Toasa are luring in locals with high-quality fresh flowers, balloons, chocolates, and more. The opening marks the second store in New Ro’s recently created Vanguard District—a hip, happening retail and dining hub around Anderson Plaza. The delivery zone extends beyond New Rochelle and spans Yonkers, Mount Vernon, and the Bronx.
With mall popularity riding a big wave, The Westchester is in full-on renaissance mode. High-end brands including Marc Jacobs, Kendra Scott, Hobbs London, and Anthropologie opened their doors in 2024, and in March of this year, UNIQLO entered the chat. Word is the fun, affordable Japanese clothing brand will soon be joined by three other cool stores currently looking at leases.
In a huge initiative to boost public health and better serve more patients, New York Blood Center Enterprises (NYBCe) recently opened a state-of-the-art, 187,000-square-foot campus at 601 Midland Ave in Rye. The sprawling center houses NYBCe’s tri-state operations, including space for blood collections, processing, cell-therapy manufacturing, and life sciences research. The center’s high-tech science hub, the Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute (LFKRI), is the brain trust behind numerous groundbreaking innovations in clinical care and biotechnology. The potential for scientific discoveries on this campus is exciting for Westchester, and the state of New York as a whole.
Global lifestyle retailer MINISO opened its newest store at Cross County Center in Yonkers this spring. Think eye-catching, colorful, wall-to-wall pop culture, including collaborations with iconic brands like Sanrio, Disney, Pixar, Harry Potter, Peanuts, and more. The store is also well known for its fan-favorite Blind Boxes, a collectibles concept where buyers don’t know what’s inside a box until they purchase it. The Cross County location is the twelfth store in New York, boasting just shy of 4000 square feet of retail space and located directly across from Champs.
With mall popularity riding a big wave, The Westchester is in full-on renaissance mode.
Closings
CH Martin in Yonkers’ Getty Square neighborhood, appreciated for its affordable housewares and clothes, closed in early January. The department store opened in 1978 in the historic W.T. Grant Building and housed an original escalator from the famous Otis Elevator Co. Nearly 11 years ago, the City of Yonkers toyed with the idea of tearing down that building to put in a minor league baseball stadium but struck out. Now that C.H. Martin is gone, might that idea resurface?
The corner of Main Street and Centre Avenue in the heart of New Rochelle has less luster these days—after 98 years in business, Talner Jewelers locked up for the last time after a lengthy going-out-of-business sale. The store was founded by Leonard Talner in 1927 and passed through multiple generations of family members. Co-owners Albert Tarantino and Brian Heaps say it was finally time to retire.
Barnes & Noble’s White Plains location in the City Center closed in late April, citing sustained poor retail performance. The bookseller opened a Mount Kisco store in November 2024 and reopened the Hartsdale store a year prior. The Eastchester location, which also contains a full-service upscale casual American restaurant, has been thriving since its 2016 opening.
Related: BOCES Programs in Westchester Provide Intro to the Fashion Industry
