AMERICANA MANHASSET HISTORY
The development of Americana Manhasset began in 1956 when the property was purchased by Gerace & Castagna, Inc., a masonry contracting firm founded in 1922.
The 220,000 square foot open-air shopping center began as a neighborhood strip center, located at Northern Boulevard and Searingtown Road on Long Island’s north shore, in Manhasset. At that time, Americana Manhasset stores included a supermarket, drugstore, movie theater, department store and other various small tenants. In 1971, B. Altman became an anchor signalling the beginning of a shift toward fashion and lifestyle.
In the early eighties, owner Frank Castagna (son of original developer Ferdinand Castagna), acknowledging the affluence of the community, decided to offer Long Islanders boutiques that would rival the likes of Paris, Milan and Manhattan. Renowned architect Peter Marino began a redesign of the center and it wasn’t long before a world-class destination was born.
The latter half of the nineties saw an influx of designer tenants including a collection of internationally acclaimed and recognized brands: Prada, Giorgio Armani and Fendi (Italy); Escada (Germany); Hermes, Chanel and Louis Vuitton (France); Burberry (Great Britain); Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan (USA), to name just a few.
In 2003, nine new stores opened, in conjunction with a 40,000 square foot continuation and architectural redesign of the east end of the luxury shopping center. Many of the new luxury boutiques, including Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Dior, are able to offer their entire global collections. Louis Vuitton, St. John, Coach and Brooks Brothers had outgrown smaller spaces at Americana Manhasset moved into larger areas in the new section.
In the Winter of 2003/2004 Americana Manhasset welcomed another new batch of luxury tenants to their collection of fine shops including freestanding Cartier, David Yurman and Van Cleef & Arpels boutiques as well as Michael Kors, Lacoste and Anne Fontaine boutiques the following year. 2005 proved to be another banner year with the opening of Wolford, Leggiadro, Oscar de la Renta and Cipollini Trattoria & Bar.
In 2006 Americana Manhasset celebrated its 50th Anniversary with a series of exciting events and the opening an expanded London Jewelers watch salon and gift gallery and Toku, a restaurant featuring modern Asian cuisine, the following year. Over the next few years Americana continued to welcome new stores including Juicy Couture, Ilori, Hirshleifers ETC, Ermenegildo Zegna and Tory Burch. 2011 will prove to be another exciting year with Hirshleifers celebrating its 100th Anniversary! Americana Manhasset, a Castagna Realty Company property, continues to evolve.
