What Burlington, Cava and Zumiez Told Hempstead They Will Pay at Green Acres

When Burlington asked the Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency to approve its new lease at Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, the request came with a pay sheet. A store manager at $129,800 a year. An assistant store manager at $39.40 an hour. A supervisor at $19.47, a lead at $18.08, and an associate at $17.05. The Long Island minimum wage this year is $17.00.

That five cent gap is the most useful number to come out of the mall's redevelopment so far, and it is sitting in a public board packet.

Why a mall lease shows its payroll

Green Acres runs under two lease agreements with the Hempstead IDA dated May 1, 2015, one for the main mall at 2034 Green Acres Road South and one for the adjacent retail at 750 Sunrise Highway. Section 9.3 of those agreements requires the agency to approve every tenant sublease. So each time the owner, Macerich, signs a store, a letter goes to the IDA listing the space, the expected headcount and the expected pay, and the board votes on it at a public meeting.

Between May and August the board took up eleven of those letters. Read together, they are a rare look at what national chains are actually offering to staff stores in southwest Nassau, filed in advance and on the record.

What the tenants filed

At its May 19 meeting the board approved four. Zumiez listed 2,646 square feet with two full time and eight part time workers and an estimated annual payroll of $180,000 for the store. Claire's listed three full time and three part time jobs, with a full time store manager at $25.50 an hour, a full time sales associate at $17.00 and part time staff at $18.00. FourLeaf Federal Credit Union listed 1,997 square feet, three employees and average salaries of $98,000. Escapology, the escape room operator, listed 4,463 square feet at the adjacent Sunrise Highway building, 16 employees and average salaries of $120,000 to $125,000, a figure the letter does not break down by role.

On June 23 the board took up Fabulous Optical, with 1,810 square feet, five employees and an average wage of $48.08 an hour; Mavis Discount Tire, with 10,500 square feet at 690 Sunrise Highway and 10 to 12 full time equivalents on an estimated $820,000 payroll; and Clique, with 4,562 square feet, five employees and a $360,000 payroll.

On July 21 it approved Burlington, the largest of the group: 92,929 square feet at 1098 Green Acres Road South, with 10 full time staff, 55 part time and 62 seasonal. The mall's own redevelopment page lists two Burlington locations.

The August 18 agenda carried three more. Cava listed 2,100 square feet and 35 full time equivalents at an average of $18.50 an hour. Miniso listed 7,250 square feet on Sunrise Highway with two full time and 12 part time workers at an average of $18 an hour. Perfumes 4 U listed 1,080 square feet, three full time staff and a $160,000 payroll. Minutes for that meeting have not yet been posted.

Added together, the eleven filings describe more than 230 positions, and 62 of them are Burlington seasonals.

What the numbers say

The pattern is plain once the letters sit side by side. The specialty and service tenants, the optician, the tire shop, the credit union, report pay well above the floor. The high volume retailers and the fast casual restaurant, which account for most of the headcount, cluster between $17.00 and $18.50 for the jobs that actually staff the floor. Burlington's associate rate is a nickel above the legal minimum. Claire's full time sales associate sits exactly on it.

That band is not unusual for national retail. What makes it matter locally is timing and scale. Green Acres is a 400,000 square foot redevelopment, according to Macerich, and a large share of the hiring it describes lands in the same few months before the holidays, drawing on the same part time labor pool that every independent shop, restaurant and service business within a short drive of Sunrise Highway already relies on.

There is also a date built into those rates. From January 1, 2027, the Long Island minimum wage is adjusted each year by formula, and the Department of Labor publishes the new figure by October 1. A pay scale filed at $17.05 in July falls below the legal floor in January if that adjustment is more than five cents, so the entry level rates in these letters are likely to move again within weeks of the holiday rush ending.

What it means for members

If you run a store, a restaurant or a service business in Valley Stream, Elmont, Lynbrook or the Five Towns, you now know what the largest new employer next door says it will pay: $17.05 to $18.50 for entry level work, with 62 seasonal slots at Burlington alone. Set your fourth quarter part time rate against that band before your staff get the offer, not after. And when the 2027 minimum is published in the first days of October, check it against those mall rates, expect the ones filed near $17 to rise with it, and budget for the people you pay just above the floor, because they are the ones a new store down the road can hire away for a dollar.