From top: Winick CEO Jeff Winick, Atlantic COO Michael Stolper and Friedland Realty's Robert Friedland; 3229 Third Avenue (right)

Atlantic Development Group and Winick Realty Group will soon face off in court against a Yonkers, N.Y.-based commercial brokerage that claims they failed to pay half a $250,000 commission for helping lease a Bronx retail space to drugstore chain Duane Reade.

Friedland Realty, which is part of the NAI Global Network and also has a Manhattan office, was allegedly hired by Atlantic to secure a retail tenant for the ground-floor of 3229 Third Avenue, a condominium building that is part of Boricua Village, a 452-unit affordable housing project in Melrose. [more]

Drugstore giant Duane Reade has inked a deal to take 54,500 square feet of office space at Trump’s 40 Wall Street, the building that alsohouses its retail flagship, the New York Observer reported.

The pharmacy chain, named for Duane and Reade streets in Lower Manhattan, where the firm had its first store, will take the 21st and 22nd floors at the 72-story tower. Its lease at 440 Ninth Avenue had recently expired. The 15-year deal at 40 Wall had asking rents in the mid $30s-per-square-foot, brokers said. [more]

Walgreens has signed a deal for 22,000 feet of retail space at 100 Broadway for an annual rent of $2 million, the New York Observer reported. The Lower Manhattan space, just blocks from Zuccotti Park, had been conspicuously vacant following the departure of Borders, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. The new store could become a Walgreens or a Duane Reade — the rival drugstore chain that Walgreens purchased last year. Not everyone was pleased about the space going to the parent company of one of New York City’s most ubiquitous tenants.
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Real estate investment trust American Realty Capital New York Recovery REIT entered into contract on two New York City properties for $36.5 million, the trust announced today.

The first acquisition is a portfolio of four retail condominiums at the base of One Jackson Square, the 30-unit luxury condo at 122 Greenwich Avenue at the intersection of Eighth Avenue. Two of the units are leased to a TD Bank, one to a Starbucks and the final space is vacant. In total they comprise 7,080 square feet of rentable space. The acquisition is expected to close in November. – Adam Fusfeld [more]

With opposition heating up against the rumored arrival of Walmart at a Related Companies site in East New York, some wonder what all the fuss is about. After all, Duane Reade, another “retail villain,” is expanding all over New York, the New York Observer said. There are multiple similarities between Walmart and Duane Read, the Observer argued: corporate ownership, rapid expansion and an ambition to drive out competition. Duane Reade is the largest drugstore chain in the city, beating out Rite Aid by 60 stores and CVS by 138 stores. From having only 37 stores in 1992, Duane Reade has a total of 257 today, and more will follow, according to a company spokesperson. [more]

From left: Andrew Cuomo, Cory Zelnick, Jeff Winick and the Dexter House

The Real Deal has already revealed its picks for the Best of New York City Real Estate
2010 and a list of our top 10 hottest real estate topics of the year is on the way, but first, here’s what you thought. After the jump, there is a list of the 10 most popular Web stories
from TheRealDeal.com in 2010, ranked by number of page views between Jan. 1 and Dec. 26. Also be sure to check out our December issue for the year’s most popular stories
from the print magazine. [more]

For the third year in a row, Dunkin’ Donuts has come out on top amongst national retailers in New York City, with 466 store locations across the five boroughs, up from 429 last year and 341 in 2008, according to a new ranking from the Center for an Urban Future, out today. Subway came in second with 389 stores and Starbucks came in a distant third, with 256. (Starbucks still beats Dunkin’ Donuts in Manhattan, though, with 194 to its 115 stores). On the whole, the survey found that national retailers have increased their presence in New York City this year in spite of still-sluggish consumer spending; they have an average of 4.1 percent more stores here now than they did a year ago. For more survey results and rankings of the top national retailers in New York City by borough and zip code, click here. TRD [more]

There are more than 1,000 retail medical clinics in the United States, and they are proliferating in New York City.

Duane Reade is leading the charge in the Big Apple with their walk-in medical clinics. The company will be opening clinics in its two new mega-stores, one in Chelsea and one in Union Square.

And the company plans to open two new centers in Brooklyn and more than 35 throughout the city within the next two years.

There are seven in Manhattan alone. [more]

New York City’s local supermarket chains have new competition: the local drug store.
There was once a time when your neighborhood pharmacy was just a place to fill a prescription, buy and develop photography film, and purchase health and beauty aids, snacks, cigarettes and candy, and in certain locations, even a lottery ticket.
Fast-forward to today, when these have been replaced by the mixed-use mega-convenience store, great for people who live far from a supermarket, or need to get to the store at non-traditional hours. [more]

From the July issue: “Is Mr. Green coming to the closing?” Years ago, a young lawyer in New York heard that question from a veteran attorney and didn’t know what to make of it. Was he asking about another lawyer, perhaps an investor? It turns out the fellow was talking about a potentially illegal participant in a real estate transaction: cash. While it is by no means against the law to use cash in transactions to pay brokers’ fees or even to buy buildings, it is illegal to pay cash and not report the transaction for income taxes or property transfer taxes.

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