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Finally, it's finished.
The renovation and expansion of Walt Whitman Mall, first proposed nearly 10 years ago, is largely completed with today's opening of Saks Fifth Avenue.
The specialty department store, known for selling pricey designer clothing and shoes, is the last of three new anchors to debut in an $80-million face-lift aimed at helping the 37-year-old South Huntington mall to better compete with larger rivals.
Saks, along with specialty stores such as Williams-Sonoma gourmet kitchenware, Sephora luxury cosmetics, L'Occitane bath products and the yet-to-open Brooks Brothers clothiers, gives the mall a more upscale appeal than Rite-Aid drugstore, discounter McCrory's and other bygone tenants.
"They are going to end up being the most upscale shopping place on Long Island," said Richard Rauch, a retailing expert and professor at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. He also said regional malls, faced with increased competition from factory outlets and big-box retailers in strip plazas, are...