Bawabeh Realty Holdings is developing a three-building, 250,000-square-foot outlet mall called Linden Center in the southwestern Queens neighborhood of Howard Beach.
The complex, located at 135-25 79th Street and 78-01 Linden Boulevard, is expected to open by the close of 2015, according to sources familiar with the project. Two buildings will rise two stories, while the third building will be one story.
Anchor tenant LA Fitness is set to occupy 45,000 square feet of a two-story, 70,000-square-foot building on the site. Other retail tenants include Pet Supplies Plus, Deals and AutoZone. So far, more than 18 retail leases have been signed and the commercial complex is roughly 70 percent leased.
Asking rents range from $35 to $65 per square foot, considered market-rate for the neighborhood.
Foodtown is among the tenants in talks to lease a space designated for a supermarket at the complex, sources said. Bawabeh is handling leasing in-house.
Linden Center will also hold a small office component in the flagship building, and a 300-spot underground parking garage spanning 110,000 square feet.
In 2011, Bawabeh Realty, a Prospect-Lefferts Gardens-based development firm led by the Bawabeh family, paid $4.5 million for the vacant lot. The Department of Buildings approved the plans in 2013.
The complex is technically in Lindenwood, a section of Howard Beach and northwest of John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Bawabeh is also working to convert a Fulton Street retail strip in Bedford-Stuyvesant into upscale restaurant spaces, as previously reported. Last year, the firm sold a 428,550-square-foot site in East New York that is now being developed into a FedEx distribution center and is in contract to be sold again, for a whopping $190 million.