Restaurants, coffee chains make inroads in NY

There is no place like New York City for national and international retailers and a few such food and coffee chains are seizing opportunities to set up shop in the New York metropolitan area.

Texas Buffalo chicken wing franchise Wingstop, which has sold nearly two billion wings, plans to open its first New York restaurant in the spring of 2010, in Astoria or Forest Hills, Queens. The company seeks to open a minimum of 25 locations in the five boroughs as well as restaurants in Fort Lee, Newark, New Brunswick and Trenton, NJ. The 15-year-old company, which has more than 600 restaurants existing or under development in 32 states, has more than 70 restaurants planned for the Northeast.

To add to New Yorkers’ abundance of java shop selections, Stumptown Coffee Roasters’ first official outpost opened this fall within the hip new Ace Hotel at 18 West 29th Street off Broadway. The coffee roaster opened its first location in Southeast Portland in fall 1999, and gained a presence in another Ace Hotel — this one in Portland, Ore., in 2007. Stumptown arrived on the New York scene in 2008, when Duane Sorenson, the company’s owner and founder, opened its roasting plant in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn.

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In the summer, Canada-based doughnut/coffee chain Tim Hortons, with more than 3,200 locations worldwide, including more than 400 in the U.S., took over 13 Dunkin’ Donuts stores in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Michael Stoler is a columnist for The Real Deal and host of real estate programs “The Stoler Report” and “Building New York” on CUNY TV and on WEGTV in East Hampton. His radio show, “The Michael Stoler Real Estate Report,” airs on 1010 WINS on Saturdays and Sundays. Stoler is a director at Madison Realty Capital as well as an adjunct professor at NYU Real Estate Institute, and a former contributing editor and columnist for the New York Sun.