Formerly a home to factories, Long Island City has grown into a home for a burgeoning number of residents in the past decade. Real estate brokers said they hope to see a retail spurt follow that residential development.
With a prime location in Queens that is one subway stop from Midtown Manhattan, Long Island City seems like a promising location for stores of all types, but some brokers candidly say the location still carries risks.
“There certainly is a demand for retail development, and people here are continuing to discuss it,” said Gary Diana, principal of Long Island City-based commercial brokerage DY Realty Services. “But the question remains: At what point will there be enough people here to support the larger retailers?”
Some retail brokers look at the raw yet potentially lucrative market and hope to capitalize. None other than the prima donna of Manhattan retail, Faith Hope Consolo, chairwoman of the retail leasing and sales division at Prudential Douglas Elliman, has gambled on the area. Long Island City residents often lament that their neighborhood has yet to see a full-service supermarket, and Consolo aims to change that.
“This, to me, is the awakening of a neighborhood,” she said. “It’s all changing. People have done Brooklyn. The prices are high. It’s so charming, Long Island City. It’s the next Soho.”
Consolo is representing about 20,000 square feet of retail space in the base of a new 237-unit condominium complex called Arris Lofts at 27-28 Thomson Avenue in the city’s Court Square area. In a community where retail rents typically hover at $30 to $40 a square foot, Consolo said she intends to lease the space for an average of $50 a square foot.
The 17,484-square-foot corner location has 433 feet of street frontage, an additional 3,058 square feet below ground and 200 on-site parking spaces. It’s across from the subway station located in the Citicorp building. And Jackson Avenue, which has some shops and restaurants along with a smattering of new mixed-use residential developments, cuts through Court Square.
Consolo said she hopes to lease the space to an elegant mix of food purveyors and service retailers. Among possible food merchants are Balducci’s, Dean & Deluca, Grace’s Marketplace, Guido’s Fresh Marketplace, and Stew Leonard’s Farm Fresh Foods.
“Maybe I’ll do a great cafeacute; and food market, and a great wine shop” like a Morrell & Company, Consolo said.
As for service retail, a day spa or veterinarian could work, she said, along with shops to serve the artist enclave that has formed in the neighborhood.
“We’re working with several different retailers related to the art industry, like a Sam Flax store, a Janovic, a Pearl Paint, all looking to get into that market,” she said.
Not all retail brokers pondering Long Island City share Consolo’s upbeat attitude. They point out that the city’s streets are empty once the workday ends. And, although larger stores such as Sleepy’s, the mattress seller, have cropped up along Vernon Boulevard, Jackson Avenue, and Queens Boulevard, scant new retail space has developed.
“It’s still a little scary for some retailers,” said Steve Gillman, a vice president at retail brokerage Northwest Atlantic Partners. “They haven’t yet come to the realization that there’s new residential development, and that there’s going to be a need for everything, even a small supermarket.
“There’s not much in the way of banking services, and there’s no national foods,” he added. “It’s mom-and-pops, and at the moment, there’s not really any place to put anybody.”
Retail experts, like local broker Diana, speculate that Long Island City’s population has not yet reached the critical mass needed to attract larger retailers. Population growth may have to take place at leaps and bounds to register on the retail scale.
“At the end of the day, 237 units, or 500 units, or even 1,000 units is not a lot of people,” Gillman said. “There’s no great attraction there yet for retailers.”
Even with waterfront apartment complexes slated for development in the Hunters Point area by developers Rockrose Associates and AvalonBay Communities — which will add over the years thousands of units to the community — it may not be enough, brokers said. The rumored placement of a Whole Foods Market in the area may be a long shot.
Ironically, some of the neighborhood’s problems in attracting retailers may have to do with its prime location directly across the East River from Manhattan. It’s still too easy to hop on a train to Manhattan, take a water taxi or ferry, drive toll-free across the Queensboro Bridge or cross in the Queens-Midtown Tunnel.
“The area is becoming high-rise luxury apartments that people are trying to be the first ones in, get it for a lower value, and see appreciation,” said Neil Dolgin, executive vice president of Kalmon Dolgin Affiliates, a commercial and industrial real estate brokerage in New York City. “But they still frequently run to Manhattan.”
Even in a developing retail hub like Court Square, workers may easily dart into Manhattan to do their shopping and eating, he said. “People have always gone downstairs in their short sleeves in zero degree weather, hopped on the subway, and then — one stop — they’re in Manhattan,” Dolgin said. “Is that still the mentality of the person working in Long Island City? I believe so.”
Kalmon Dolgin is working to lease retail space in the Falchi building, currently being revamped, in another area of Long Island City near where the Metropolitan Museum of Art had its temporary annex. Units being leased at 31-00 47th Avenue range from 2,500 to 75,000 square feet. The building is located in a retail pocket abutting Queens Boulevard and bound by Van Dam Street, 48th Avenue and 31st Street.
While Long Island City has scattered oases of retail — for instance, on 21st Street at 44th Drive — the community has yet to develop a retail thoroughfare rivaling other shopping boulevards in Queens, such as Steinway Street or Austin Street. A lack of foot traffic may make this difficult.
“Right now, everybody who lives there drives, and that’s the real difference in terms of feeling in the city,” said Robin Abrams, an executive vice president of the Lansco Corporation, a commercial real estate brokerage based in Manhattan.
Still, it would be a mistake to overlook the possibility in Long Island City, she said. “It’s not the next Soho, but that doesn’t mean that there’s not great potential,” Abrams said. “I think it’s going to take a while to understand what’s going to happen.”