Low-rise shopping centers a hot commodity in outer boroughs

Recovering job market partially responsible for uptick in demand

Utopia shopping center in Queens
Utopia shopping center in Queens

Queens and Brooklyn are seeing an uptick in low-rise shopping centers.

The market for these multi-tenanted retail properties in the outer boroughs is booming, the New York Observer reported. Shopping centers are in high demand and are among the most coveted properties in the boroughs, according to the newspaper.

“There is certainly increased interest and activity here in New York,” David Monahan, an executive vice president at JLL told the Observer. “It’s a market everyone wants to get into and not necessarily a market that everyone wants to get out of.”

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One of the explanations, Monahan told the newspaper, is a recovering job market.

Some recent examples include JSR Capital‘s recent purchase of Solomon Plaza, a two-story retail and office property in Borough Park, for $25 million. In May, Prestige Properties & Development bought a three-story shopping center in Fresh Meadows, Queens for $75 million. [NYO] — Claire Moses