What's Taking So Long at the Old Lord & Taylor on White Plains Road?

If CAVA and Tatte Bakery were announced for the old Lord & Taylor/Vernon Hills shopping center more than a year ago, why can you still drive past 750 White Plains Road and find no grain bowls and no pastry case? I get asked this a lot, usually by neighbors who remember the 2025 headlines. The answer is in the Town of Eastchester's own filings. The restaurants had their local approvals by fall 2025. The delay came from the ownership chain above the building, and that chain changed in April 2026.

The restaurants and Williams Sonoma were approved by September 2025

The building sits on the east side of White Plains Road, at the southeast corner of New Wilmot Road. It covers about 11 acres in what the town calls the Designated Shopping Center District. The new owner's attorneys laid out its history with the Eastchester Planning Board in a May 5, 2026 letter filed with the town, and the steps line up like this:

1. July 20, 2021. The Planning Board granted the first site plan and architectural approval to reuse the building with several tenants, including White Plains Hospital and Saks OFF 5TH.
2. June 26, 2025. The board approved façade and entryway changes for CAVA, Tatte Bakery, Equinox and two more retail tenants. The same night, it granted CAVA and Tatte special use permits as food service establishments.
3. September 25, 2025. Williams Sonoma received an amended site plan approval plus a special permit for a cooking hood, so it can hold cooking demonstrations inside its store.
4. January 22, 2026. The board amended the Equinox special use permit.

Westfair Online reported the CAVA, Tatte and Equinox plans in June 2025. That's when most of us first heard the names. In approving each permit, the board found that the restaurants would fit into an existing building with minor exterior changes, that their hours suited the commercial strip, and that the existing parking lot and utilities could serve them. On the town's side, the work was done.

Three things happened above the building

According to the owner's letter, the approvals expected substantial construction within a year of the permits being issued. Then the building's corporate owners went through a rough stretch.

The prior owner was LT Eastchester LLC, an affiliate of Saks Global. Patch reported in early February 2026 that a closing sale had begun at the Saks OFF 5TH store at 750 White Plains Road. The same story covered Saks Global's Chapter 11 filing and its plan to refocus on luxury, full-price retail. Patch's post was dated Monday, February 2, which puts the start of the sale on Saturday, January 31.

A sale of the whole property came next. The new owner's letter to the Planning Board links all three events in one sentence:

"The buildout for Cava, Tatte Bakery, and Williams Sonoma was delayed by the bankruptcy of the prior owner's parent company, the closure of Saks Off Fifth, and the sale of the Property."

That letter explains the empty storefronts. Tenants with valid permits were waiting on a landlord whose parent company was in bankruptcy. Then the landlord sold.

Who owns the old Lord & Taylor now

The buyer is 750 White Plains Owner LLC, a related entity of Sagehall, which describes itself in the filing as a private real estate investment management firm focused on the tri-state area. It bought the property from LT Eastchester LLC in April 2026. Yonkers Times reported the sale on April 29, 2026 and noted that published reports put the price at $80 million.

The same Yonkers Times article described the building as 64% leased at the time of sale. It listed White Plains Hospital, Equinox, CAVA, Tatte Bakery, Pottery Barn Kids and Williams Sonoma as tenants. That's a leasing roster, and most names on it signed leases without opening yet. The two sources also differ on size. The sale announcement says 200,473 square feet, and the owner's Planning Board letter says about 215,000.

So roughly a third of the building had no tenant, even counting every name on the list. Signed leases are a big part of what makes a building like this worth buying, so the new owner has a clear reason to get those restaurants and shops open.

The part of the building that's already open

The medical side moved ahead while the retail side stalled. According to White Plains Hospital's Health Matters blog, the first White Plains Hospital Physician Associates practices to open at the site were OB/GYN and Orthopedics. The post said more practices would open in phases, with the facility expected to be fully running by October 2025. The same post said Burke Rehabilitation had opened an outpatient practice there by April 2025.

That's why the parking lot has had cars in it all along. The empty spaces are the retail and restaurant units along the façade that the Planning Board approved for changes in June 2025.

The paperwork restarted within weeks of the sale

Sagehall's affiliate didn't wait long. Its May 5 letter asked the Planning Board to reissue the CAVA, Tatte and Williams Sonoma permits on the same terms as before, with no changes to layout, design or use. It added, "The Applicant expects the fit out to be completed within the next 12 months." All three applications appeared on the May 28, 2026 Planning Board agenda. A later Tatte filing refers to a Planning Board resolution dated May 28, 2026 that includes a special use permit for Tatte Bakery & Cafe "along with other tenant(s)."

Tatte came back in September with a design change. Its application dated September 9, 2026 asked to "Expand the storefront width and shift the entry door location," add doors specific to Tatte, and paint the exterior brick. According to a Citizen Portal summary of the September 24 meeting, the board approved the storefront opening, doors and masonry painting, subject to the earlier planning conditions.

A wider storefront and a moved door are details a bakery works out when it plans to open. They don't come with an opening date, though, and no date has been announced. The October 22, 2026 Planning Board agenda had no item for 750 White Plains Road.

Where each name stands this week

On Equinox: the Equinox Scarsdale club page still lists 800 White Plains Road, the club's existing location just up the road. Equinox's Jan. 22 permit amendment wasn't part of the May reissue request. The public record doesn't yet say how the 750 space fits with the existing club.

The clock the owner set

Twelve months from the May 5, 2026 letter is early May 2027. That's the owner's own estimate for finishing the CAVA, Tatte and Williams Sonoma fit-outs. It's a projection the owner put on file, and none of the three companies has announced an opening date. As of this week, the only work approved since the sale is Tatte's storefront: a wider front, a moved door and painted brick on the White Plains Road façade. When construction shows up on that frontage, the building is following the plan Eastchester approved back in 2025.

I've lived in Eastchester for more almost 15 years, and I keep track of what's happening along Route 22 the same way I track the market, because both affect how my clients live here. If you're thinking about how this corner might change your errands or your street, or you just want to talk through what's coming to the neighborhood, reach out to Lori De La Parra. Let's Connect.