A sweeping redevelopment plan for the southern portion of Colonie Center at 1425 Central Avenue now includes a Starbucks with a drive-thru, a 5,500-square-foot Chick-fil-A restaurant that the chain is actively pursuing, and a 12,000-square-foot multi-tenant retail building. The Colonie Planning Board reviewed the proposal Tuesday night and gave it conceptual acceptance, a procedural green light that falls well short of final approval.
The project is being pushed forward by Heidenberg Properties Group, the New Jersey-based retail developer that acquired the redevelopment portion of the Colonie Center property, according to WNYT. Heidenberg purchased the 243,000-square-foot former Sears portion of the mall for $28 million in April 2024 from Seritage Growth Properties, which was formed in 2015 to unlock the underlying value of Sears real estate and decided in 2022 to liquidate its holdings, as reported by The Real Deal.
Beyond the restaurant additions, the plan calls for reconfigured internal roadways, improved pedestrian connections, increased green space, and more direct walkways linking the new businesses to one another, the station's report notes. The 20.6-acre parcel already houses Whole Foods Market, Floor & Decor, Sierra, Ethan Allen, Cycle Gear, Sleep Number and BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse, part of a tenant mix detailed by Heidenberg Properties Group.
Traffic Study Flags One Troublesome Exit
A traffic study presented to the board found that most intersections around the property should continue operating close to current conditions, per the same account. But the mall exit onto Central Avenue, situated across from Northway Mall, was identified as an area of concern, with right-turning traffic potentially seeing a drop in efficiency.
Westbound traffic on Central Avenue can back up into that intersection, and the proposed coffee shop drive-thru raises additional concerns about potential backups, the outlet reported. Complicating matters further, three lanes of traffic come off the Northway at that same stretch of roadway. Heidenberg's own materials put the scale of the corridor in context: the intersection bounding the site handles 33,490 average annual daily trips on Central Avenue and 26,018 on Wolf Road, according to Heidenberg Properties Group — among the busiest retail corridors in upstate New York.
The Town of Colonie Planning Board has wrestled with Chick-fil-A traffic patterns before. In April 2025, the board approved a 5,000-square-foot Chick-fil-A on Troy-Schenectady Road in Latham only after nearly four years of site plan modifications, including the addition of a traffic roundabout and designated access routes, according to Magic 100.5. If built, the Colonie Center location would become Chick-fil-A's fifth standalone restaurant in the Capital Region, joining locations in Albany, Clifton Park, Latham and North Greenbush, per WGNA.
A Multi-Phase Push to Fill Empty Parking Lots
A Multi-Phase Push to Fill Empty Parking Lots The Chick-fil-A and Starbucks proposal is not Heidenberg's first move to convert underused asphalt into pad sites. The developer's plans include a 5,213-square-foot Bank of America pad for future development, which Bank of America would lease. The parcel contains roughly 1,500 parking spaces that sit largely empty outside peak shopping periods.
Heidenberg has also been repurposing the former Sears building itself. The developer leased 52,000 square feet on the second floor to Fun City Adventure Park, an indoor entertainment venue featuring trampolines and bumper cars, and has proposed a separate 12,000-square-foot building expected to house an emergency veterinary clinic, according to WGNA.
One Mall, Three Owners, Separate Timelines
Colonie Center's complicated ownership structure helps explain why this southern parcel is moving on its own track. Heidenberg owns the 243,000-square-foot former Sears portion, Macy's independently owns its own department store building, and California-based Pacific Retail Capital Partners controls the remaining 754,000 square feet of the 1.3 million-square-foot enclosed mall, according to Heidenberg Properties Group.
Pacific Retail's section has faced its own financial turbulence. The company was hit with an Albany County Supreme Court foreclosure filing in January 2025 over a defaulted $110 million mortgage, before modifying its loan agreement in 2026 to halt the foreclosure proceedings, per Heidenberg's own account of the property.
Colonie Center opened in 1966, and Sears fully closed there in 2017. That closure eventually opened the door for Whole Foods and the wave of pad-site redevelopment now reaching the Chick-fil-A and Starbucks stage.
What Comes Next
Tuesday's conceptual acceptance is not a final sign-off. The redevelopment proposal still requires additional completeness and compliance review, and it will return to the Colonie Planning Board for further scrutiny of site plans, phasing details and building renderings, WNYT reported. The Colonie Center overhaul is one of several active commercial projects along the Central Avenue corridor.
