‘Great Gatsby’

In the 1980s, Castagna concluded Americana could be more successful if it catered to the wealthy residents on Long Island’s North Shore. Increasing numbers of newly affluent professionals and entrepreneurs were moving to Manhasset, Great Neck and other suburbs within driving distance of the mall, and there was an abundance of old wealth in other Gold Coast towns, where the Vanderbilts and Roosevelts built their country mansions and F. Scott Fitzgerald set “The Great Gatsby.”

“I’ve lived in this area for 60 years, so I knew we had customers who wanted luxury products and no one else here was serving them,” Castagna said.

The trick was persuading locals to shop in the area rather than head to Madison Avenue boutiques or jet to Paris. Castagna took heart from Hirshleifers, a family-run store in the mall already doing a brisk business selling Armani and Chanel. As old leases expired, Castagna wooed top-tier retailers and Hirshleifers kept expanding. Renowned architect Peter Marino, the go-to designer for luxury brands, gave Americana a facelift; landscape architects added greenery and created a meadow around the shopping center’s perimeter.

Charity Events

Americana was among the first to link retailing and charity, now a popular practice at many department stores. In 1996, Castagna, a board member of a half dozen Long Island nonprofits, started Champions for Charity, which is held the first week of every December; customers direct 25 percent of the price of their purchases to local causes.

Americana sponsors a charity event almost every month. An Armani fashion show in September benefiting women’s health for the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health Center, drew about 600 women who, after a three-course lunch, bought clothing they’d seen on models. A car show and contest in early October, featuring vintage Porsches, restored Bentleys and other luxury autos, raised more than $40,000 for Sunrise Day Camp, for children with cancer.

Designer Boom

Castagna’s original hunch paid off. A designer boom that began in the Reagan years has continued almost unabated for three decades. In recent years, luxury retailers have benefited from the increasing concentration of income and wealth. The top 1 percent of Americans, who have at least $20 million in assets, held 23.5 percent of all U.S. wealth in 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Americana generates $1,800 in sales per square foot, more than triple the national average, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.

Yet at 86, Castagna still spends part of each workday walking around stores to gauge what’s selling. He and his staff know that unless Americana Manhasset offers a shopping experience customers can’t get anywhere else, they’ll decamp to New York or to online luxury sites such as Net-A-Porter.com.