Vanbarton buys new Bronx shopping center for $133M

BJ's to anchor the two-building Riverdale Crossing in Kingsbridge

Rendering of Riverdale Crossing in the Bronx (inset: Vanbarton Group’s Seble Williams)
Rendering of Riverdale Crossing in the Bronx (inset: Vanbarton Group’s Seble Williams)

The Vanbarton Group picked up Riverdale Crossing, a new shopping center in the northwest Bronx, for $133 million, just days after construction wrapped.

BJ’s Wholesale Club is set to anchor the two-building, 159,000-square-foot complex along West 237th Street when it opens in January. All other businesses that have inked leases already moved in, starting in December 2014.

Joseph Farkas’ Jericho-based Metropolitan Realty Associates, in partnership with Midtown-based investment manager Angelo, Gordon & Co., developed the shopping center with plans to sell it after finishing construction.

BJ's

BJ’s at Riverdale Crossing in the Bronx

Riverdale Crossing is now 98 percent leased. Other tenants include Petco, Smashburger, Buffalo Wild Wings, CityMD and Chipotle.

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The complex’s developers paid $18.6 million for the site, formerly the home of the Stella D’Oro factory, in 2011, records show. The site is located between Broadway and Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx’s Kingsbridge neighborhood.

Vanbarton, formerly known as Emmes Asset Management, plans to continue leasing up the complex.

“The outer boroughs are under-retailed,” Vanbarton’s Seble Williams said in a statement. “Riverdale Crossing responds to the significant unmet consumer demand in the Bronx.”

Eastdil Secured’s Adam Spies, Douglas Harmon and Adam Doneger represented the seller in the deal.

Vanbarton entered contract in July to buy the ground lease at 31 Penn Plaza from Savanna for $270 million.