The real estate industry is still suffering but there are
opportunities in niche areas, as the overall market starts to recover,
a number of developers said at a panel discussion Wednesday night at
the Young Jewish Professionals Real Estate Network event held at the
Chelsea Pearl.
Henry Justin, CEO of HJ Development, said that while prices are starting to stabilize, it is [more]
East Harlem’s new Costco superstore opened in November after more than 10 years of negotiations with the city. David Blumenfeld, one of the developers of the new East River Plaza on 116th Street, said he believes the densely populated area could make this store ”the number one Costco in the country, easily.” Rents at the new big-box retail space range from about $40 per foot to $150 per square foot, according to Peter Ripka, a partner with Ripco Real Estate and a broker for the East River Plaza. In the segment above, Bradley Gallo on Vimeo chronicles the environment on the store’s opening day.
East Harlem’s new big-box retail shopping center, East River Plaza, officially opened today on FDR Drive, according to a press release, with Costco welcoming customers. The 500,000-square-foot center, developed through a partnership between Forest City Ratner Companies and the Blumenfeld Development group, will include a Target, Best Buy, Marshalls, PetSmart and Old Navy. Costco, which occupies a little over a fifth of the plaza’s total space, is the first tenant to open, bringing 400 new jobs to the area. Leasing at the center largely has been considered a success; according to developer Bruce Ratner, 90 percent of the retail space has been leased out. All told, the East River Plaza will create an estimated 2,000 jobs.TRD
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.
On Nov. 12, East River Plaza, the new big-box shopping center on FDR Drive in East Harlem, will see its first store opening. The 110,000-square-foot Costco wholesale warehouse club will be the first of several big name tenants, including Target, Best Buy and Marshall’s, to welcome customers at the new shopping center. Only 30,000 square feet out of an available 485,000 square feet is left unclaimed. The six-acre shopping site, which stretches from 116th to 119th streets, was developed by David Blumenfeld, a principal with the Blumenfeld Development Group.
