A scant two blocks along 82nd Street in Jackson Heights, Queens, has become the poster child for a strong neighborhood shopping district that’s filled with both local businesses and credit-worthy national tenants.
The 7 train stop at 82nd and Roosevelt Avenue bisects the stretch; the Queens Library is its northern anchor, while Elmhurst Hospital serves as its southernmost point. A stone’s throw from the hospital, an urban-focused Target outpost signed a lease at a new project at 40-31 82nd St. on the site of a defunct cinema.
“The movie theater was an eyesore for a long time,” says David Alani of Inline Realty, who, with colleague Michael Friedman, represents the developers. “The Target is the very definition of a success story for the area.”
Target’s 23,580-square-foot store on a triangular parcel will consist of a ground-floor lobby and the entire lower level of the building, which is being developed by Sun Equity Partners and the Heskel Group.
Peter Ripka and Jeffrey Howard of Ripco Realty represents Target in this deal, which scored an asking rent of $55 per foot for the lower level.
For the remaining space, Alani expects to see interest in the ground floor from national food chains. A Popeyes is already on the block, as is a McDonald’s north of the elevated 7 train stop.
On the northern block, in the landmarked area between Roosevelt and 37th avenues, there are few shops available. Asking rents for the vacancies are rising, says Dean Rosenzweig, senior vice president of CBRE, and are now about $200 per foot.
One of the new vacancies is a Chase branch on the northeast corner of Roosevelt owned by Jeff Sutton, a prominent retail landlord known for his deals along Fifth Avenue and in Soho.
Other retail on the north block includes another Chase branch, a Gap Factory outpost and a Banana Republic Factory Store. A Skechers just opened, while an Old Navy is heading to the space formerly occupied by jewelry and clothing stores at 37-46 and 37-50 82nd St.
Being in a historic district, however, lengthens the buildout process and makes it difficult for retailers to receive approval for the branding they desire.
That’s why “the fascinating portion is south of Roosevelt Avenue, where the Target has committed,” says Rosenzweig. “This is a landscape-changer.”
Available small stores between Roosevelt and the hospital have asking rents between $150 and $175 a foot. Those higher prices are likely to send the street’s mom-and-pop “farmacias,” acupuncturists and bodegas to cheaper digs under the train tracks.
Cosmetics retailer Ulta Beauty, a national chain, was bumped from the Target site but will likely land another storefront in the area.
“[Target] will be an asset to the neighborhood and better recognition that national tenants are embracing the people there,” says developer Yeheskel Elias, CEO of the Heskel Group. “It really caters to everybody.”
