Mandee won’t be needing any rescue.
While its popular jingle goes “Mandee to the rescue,” the Throggs Neck one-stop store for women’s clothing and just about everything else won’t be going away any time soon.
The anchor store has been at 3860 E. Tremont Avenue at the Cross Bronx Expressway for nearly three decades.
But in November 2011, it seemed the store would close shortly.
Employees reported they were served notice by management that the location would remain open only on an interim basis – as Big M, the company that owns Mandee, faced bankruptcy.
But the parent company now has new financing, and the building – with peeling gray paint – will be getting a makeover, said Councilman Jimmy Vacca, after contacting building owner Jeff Resnick.
“I have been in contact with the owner for months, but this latest news is especially encouraging,” Vacca said. “It is my understanding that they are going to remain open. I think that their investment shows that Mandee is planning to remain in the Throggs Neck community.”
People in the Throggs Neck community shop at the store, and according to his conversations with Resnick, Vacca said it seems likely that the building will not only be receiving a new paint job, but also new display windows and a host of other improvements.
Vacca called the decision to stay and the renovations a great win for the community.
Resnick confirmed, in an e-mail, that Mandee will be remaining at the location.
“Both I the landlord and the CEO of Mandee, Alan Mandelbaum, have entered into an agreement that they will renovate and repair the facade of the building and parking lot,” Resnick stated. “After a 28-year relationship with the Throggs Neck community they are happy and delighted to be able to continue serving their loyal and local clientele, and promise a beautiful new atmosphere to compliment the Throggs Neck community, while continuing their fashionable contemporary image. Plans include among, other elements, a new window facade on East Tremont Avenue, to be able to display the latest in fashion on a continuing and changing basis.”
Mandee is one of the few chain stores on E. Tremont Avenue in or near Throggs Neck.
“We are very excited to be staying at the location,” said Mandee spokeswoman Jan Harvey. “We are working on an exciting project with students in the community when school returns.”
The disappearance of the chain store at a crucial intersection serving as something of a gateway to the community would have been devastating, said Steve Kaufman, president of the Throggs Neck Merchants Association, saying the last thing that the shopping strip needs would be a large vacant store,
“The fact that it would be cleaned up is an added plus,” Kaufman said. “Patricia’s is across the street. You have two anchors right over the highway looking nice, and it is a big a plus. I have seen buses coming in from Connecticut with ladies eating lunch at Patricia’s, and now they will be able to shop at Mandee.”
