Bossert Hotel opening could boost area retail rents

The Bossert Hotel, located at 98 Montague Street in Brooklyn, could be a game-changer For The Street’s retail corridor when the property relaunches, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported. Not only will local merchants benefit from the increased business from hotel guests, but demand for space and store rents will also climb, brokers told the paper.

“The Bossert Will Change The Energy And Create Magic On Montague Street,” Cushman & Wakefield broker Glenn Markman told the paper.

Investors David Bistricer and Joseph Chetrit bought the 14-story hotel property in August from the Jehovah’s Witnesses for $81 million, as The Real Deal reported. The 280-room property is slated to open in 12 months, a spokesperson told the Eagle.

Following the opening, hotel guests are expected to spend money in the already popular retail area, which stretches four blocks and includes clothing stores, restaurants and pharmacies. That, in turn, will increase demand from retail tenants, brokers predicted. Rents could go up by 25 percent or more “extremely quickly,” Bill Ross of Halstead Property Development Marketing told the Eagle.

Sidewalk-level retail spaces command $100 per square foot for mid-block spots and $125 or $135 for corner presence. Meanwhile, spaces below or slightly above street level — a function of the structure of neighborhood brownstones — fetch 20 to 25 percent less, according to Ross.

Nationwide, the opening of a hotel can spike retail sales by 20 to 40 percent, retail maven Faith Hope Consolo of Douglas Elliman told the Daily Eagle. [Brooklyn Daily Eagle] —Zachary Kussin