Hannoushes see new Clifton Park location as a gem

PHOTOGRAPHER: Bethany Bump

A new shopping plaza is coming to Clifton Park, courtesy of David and Albert Hannoush, owners of two Hannoush Jewelers stores in the Capital Region.

The brothers are planning a 12,500-square-foot retail development on 2 1⁄2 acres of land next to Tractor Supply on Route 9 by the Northway. Hannoush Jewelers will relocate from its current Clifton Park location in Village Plaza to a 4,000-square-foot anchor space in the new plaza. Four remaining spaces will be marketed to a variety of potential retail tenants, David Hannoush said.

“We’re reaching out to some possible national tenants to see of their interest,” he said. “We’ve already been contacted by a few who have expressed interest. We would be interested in an eatery, a coffee shop, a bank possibly, anything that’s going to drive traffic and complement our store.”

The jeweler’s flagship store on Wolf Road in Albany occupies about 6,000 square feet and has always done well, he said. In the past year, the Clifton Park store has surpassed expectations. But at 1,900 square feet, there hasn’t been much room to grow, he said.

“So we started looking for a piece of property to expand and we found it last year,” Hannoush said.

The existing store will close once the larger one opens. Construction should begin in a month or two, and the new space should be up and running by spring 2015.

“I think there’s a lot of untapped potential there,” he said. “It’s a real estate investment and something for us to really anchor our feet in the Clifton Park community. There is so much potential for our industry there. It’s going to be a beautiful store. It should really pop as you drive on Route 9.”

The first Hannoush Jewelers store opened in Massachusetts in 1980. Today, the large, extended Hannoush family owns and operates more than 50 stores across the country.

Albert and David have also purchased property in Latham, where they hope to open a mixed-use site with nothing to do with the jewelry business.

“It’s in kind of an up-and-coming area of Latham, and so we’re kind of positioning ourselves for the long term. We’ve always thought of ourselves as more than just jewelry store owners.”