The Bronx retail market is asserting itself with several new centers that are expected to attract national retailers to the borough, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Real estate investment trust Equity One, which has a national retail footprint of 144 centers, has begun to Build Broadway Plaza, a 135,000-square-foot shopping center at 171 West 230th Street in the Kingsbridge neighborhood. The $50 million center is slated to open in the fall of 2014 and is expected to command rents of $30 to $50 per square foot, Michael Berfield, Equity One’s executive vice president of development, told the Journal.
A few blocks away, a joint venture between Metropolitan Realty Associates and Angelo Gordon & Co. is building a 162,000-square-foot shopping center on the site of a former cookie factory. The Riverdale Crossing shopping center will likely include BJ’s Wholesale Club as an anchor tenant, along with several smaller shops.
“We think these two projects are going to really bookend the Kingsbridge district, and there will be a lot going on down there,” John DeSio, a spokesman for Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., told the Journal.
Indeed, the two Kingsbridge developments are among several exciting retail projects in the borough. Next year, Prestige Properties will open a 780,000-square-foot mall at Bay Plaza, which will be anchored by Macy’s and JCPenney.
“The Bronx now is being repositioned for a much more dynamic retail environment,” Faith Hope Consolo, head of retail at Douglas Elliman, told the Journal. “It’s not just local shops. It’s now national and international retail.” [WSJ] –Hiten Samtani