Minneapolis-based Target Corp. doesn’t open many big box stores these days. The new stores it’s adding are almost exclusively smaller-format stores with less than 50,000 square feet of shopping space.

But Yonkers, New York, will be an exception. Target has signed a 40-year lease for a 132,000-square-foot space that was formerly home to a Sears at the Cross County Center shopping center in Yonkers.

Target’s media department provided a brief statement in response to an inquiry from Twin Cities Business: “Target has plans to open a store at the Cross County Center in Yonkers, New York. We’re excited to bring an easy, safe and convenient shopping experience to new guests in the Yonkers community with this new Target store. Located at 8000 Mall Walk, the store will be approximately 132,000 square feet. As we get closer to opening the store, we’ll have more specific details to share – including how the shopping experience will be tailored to serve local guests and the grand opening date.”

Target has opened 12 new small-format stores in its fiscal 2020 and will open another 18 in late October. Among those 30 stores, only one is a larger, traditional-format store. A new location on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles is approximately 143,000 square feet.

Almost exactly 18 years ago, the New York Times reported that Target was giving up on its efforts to open a store in Yonkers. At that time the issue was a lengthy legal battle between Yonkers and an adjacent city about traffic in the surrounding area. Target decided to walk away rather than wait for a resolution of the protracted skirmish.

Target had a total of 1,868 stores as of February 1. Of those, 91 were smaller-format stores with less than 50,000 square feet of space.

The company is on pace to cross the milestone of more than 1,900 total stores next year. Target’s web site list another 38 locations slated for “future store openings.”