Macklowe’s Park Slope project lands CVS as second retail tenant

Pharmacy chain joins anchor tenant Lidl to occupy more 10K sf

Billy Macklowe and 120 Fifth Avenue in Park Slope (Getty Images, CVS Health)
Billy Macklowe and 120 Fifth Avenue in Park Slope (Getty Images, CVS Health)

Billy Macklowe’s first Brooklyn development is taking shape with a sizable retail footprint.

The William Macklowe Company and Senlac Partners signed CVS Pharmacy to a long-term lease at 120 Fifth Avenue in Park Slope. The retailer will occupy more than 10,000 square feet on the ground floor of one of the two mixed-use buildings under development.

CVS joins Lidl at the burgeoning site. The Brooklyn Eagle reported earlier this month the discount grocer signed a lease with the co-developers to become the anchor tenant at the other building.

The two leases leave approximately 30,000 square feet of available space for other retail tenants.

A Newmark team including Jason Pruger and Harrison Abramowitz represented CVS in the lease negotiations. Terms of the lease were not disclosed.

Macklowe and Senlac Ridge, a private equity firm formed by David Welsh, closed on the site weeks into the pandemic for $59 million. Avery Hall Investments was the seller of the property, the home to a Key Food grocery store mere blocks from the Barclays Center.

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The development site is believed to be one of the largest in Park Slope, bound by Gregory Place, Baltic Street and Fifth Avenue.

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Avery Hall acquired the site from PickQuick Foods in 2017 for $45.7 million.

Macklowe’s plans for the site call for two buildings with 180 residential units, 25 percent of which will be affordable. There will also be 67,000 square feet of retail space, a parking garage, shared outdoor space and a fitness center.

The development plans from Avery Hall previously sparked community concern regarding the displacement of an affordable grocery store. The developer made concessions to appease the community, but ultimately sold the site a few years later.

Lidl is often considered to be a discount grocer, which may assuage community concern regarding grocery affordability; Lidl’s lease is said to adhere to the guidelines agreed to with the community. The retailer, which is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, signed a 35,000-square-foot lease at the Queens Place Mall in Elmhurst last month.

— Holden Walter-Warner