Clockwise from upper left: Daniel Shallit, director of Northeast development at the Sports Authority, Dennis Bachman, a senior real estate representative for Wakefern Food, Bronx Terminal Market, Larry Rose, a principal with advisory firm RK Realty Advisors, Patrick Smith, vice president of real estate for BJ’s Wholesale Club, Michael Shanahan, vice president of real estate at Burlington Coat Factory, and developer Ken Narva

Developers have built too much parking garage space in some of the city’s newest mall developments including the Gateway Center at the Bronx Terminal Market, according to real estate professionals speaking at a panel this morning at the International Council of Shopping Centers New York convention.

Parking floors are sitting mostly empty in some projects even as the overall mall might do well, the retail owners and brokers said.

“What that really tells you going forward is that there is a case to be made that you don’t necessarily need as much parking if it is just urban vertical retail,” said Larry Rose, a principal with advisory firm RK Realty Advisors.
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Related President Jeff Blau and the Gateway Center

Gateway Center at Bronx Terminal Market, a 1-million-square-foot, $500 million project, has been awarded LEED Silver certification by the U.S. Green Building Council, making it the second largest project to achieve core and shell LEED certification in the Northeast, according to its developer. Related Companies built the market as the first national retail complex in the Bronx. Gateway Center is 95 percent leased, 91 percent occupied and includes a mix of retailers and restaurants, including BJ’s, Home Depot, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Marshall’s, Raymour & Flanigan, Staples, Best Buy, Toys “R” Us and Applebee’s. The Gateway Center is expected to generate more than $20 million in annual tax and revenue for the city, and the project will create an estimated 2,100 permanent retail jobs and 2,900 union construction jobs in the South Bronx, Related says. TRD

[more]

Related President Jeff Blau and the Gateway Center

Gateway Center at Bronx Terminal Market, a 1-million-square-foot, $500 million project, has been awarded LEED Silver certification by the U.S. Green Building Council, making it the second largest project to achieve core and shell LEED certification in the Northeast, according to its developer. Related Companies built the market as the first national retail complex in the Bronx. Gateway Center is 95 percent leased, 91 percent occupied and includes a mix of retailers and restaurants, including BJ’s, Home Depot, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Marshall’s, Raymour & Flanigan, Staples, Best Buy, Toys “R” Us and Applebee’s. The Gateway Center is expected to generate more than $20 million in annual tax and revenue for the city, and the project will create an estimated 2,100 permanent retail jobs and 2,900 union construction jobs in the South Bronx, Related says. TRD

[more]

From the November issue: While vacancy signs have been proliferating along the avenues of many of the city’s established shopping districts throughout the downturn, major chain stores are moving into massive new malls located in former retail dead zones in places like the South Bronx and East Harlem. These new multilevel malls — many of which are on former industrial sites — are different from the big-box stores that made inroads into many parts of the city in recent years. They boast even larger floor plates, often allowing a store to consolidate all of its operations on one level. That, in turn, has the potential to attract the types of warehouse stores and wholesale outlets typically found in the suburbs and less dense parts of the outer boroughs. Indeed, later this month, Manhattan’s first Costco is set to open at East River Plaza, a new half-million-square-foot mall located between East 116th and 119th streets along the FDR Drive. Next year, a slew of bargain stores will also be opening at the mall, which was developed by the Blumenfeld Development Group and is 90 percent leased out. Tenants will include Best Buy, Marshalls, and Bob’s Discount Furniture.

The Gateway Center, a one million-square-foot LEED silver certified retail mall in the Bronx, has officially opened, according to the New York Post’s Lois Weiss. The mall, built on the site of the former Bronx Terminal Market in the South Bronx, is 90 percent leased and 80 percent open and includes a BJ’s wholesale club, Target, and Marshall’s. Developer Glenn Goldstein, president of Related Retail, said he hopes to keep some of the stores open as late as 11 p.m.

After allegations that the Bronx Overall Economic Development
Corporation mishandled hundreds of thousands of dollars in funds from
the Community Benefits Agreement for the Gateway Center Mall, Bronx
Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. is calling for a complete accounting
of the corporation’s economic activities. Officials from the agency say
the lawsuit is frivolous and deny that they diverted any of the $1.8
million provided by Related Companies, developer of the mall being
constructed on the former Bronx Terminal Market site. Related
contributed the money to promote job training and local hiring at the
mall. The corporation said it expects to be cleared of any wrongdoing when the
economic reports are released. [more]

Rendering of the Gateway Center at Bronx Terminal Market

New York City-based discount department store Conway Stores has taken
18,000 square feet at the Related Companies Gateway Center at Bronx
Terminal Market, located near the new Yankee Stadium, bringing the
approximately 1 million-square-foot mall to 90 percent occupancy.  Abe
Cohen, president of Conway, and Adam Goldschmidt, Conway’s in-house
director of leasing, represented Conway in the deal. Peter Ripka of
Ripco Real Estate brokered the deal on behalf of Related. So far, two
stores have opened at the mall — Home Depot, on April 23, and Staples,
on June 6 — with the next tenant, Target, scheduled to open July 26.
Restaurant chain Applebee’s projects an opening of its location at the
mall at the end of August. [more]