Urban Edge Properties recently lost a legacy brand at Bruckner Commons in the Bronx, but the retail hub will soon count one of the biggest brands today as part of its portfolio.
Target signed a 139,000-square-foot lease at 1948-1998 Bruckner Boulevard, the Commercial Observer reported. The lease accounts for nearly a third of the 510,000-square-foot Bruckner Commons.
The asking rent and length of the lease were not disclosed. Target will open the store in 2025, joining the likes of ShopRite, Marshalls and Five Below.
Scott Auster represented Urban Edge in-house. Ripco Real Estate’s Jeffrey Howard represented the tenant.
The parent company of Sears and Kmart, Transformco, agreed with Urban Edge last September to terminate several Sears leases, including one at Bruckner Commons. Urban Edge paid $20 million to gain control of the three spaces effective mid-October 2021, rather than having the dormant stores linger.
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Urban Edge, which owns 76 properties spanning 17.2 million square feet, has shown some trepidation in the retail sesctor, pivoting some of its malls away from the industry. The company last year revealed plans to add residential space to a mall in Paramus, New Jersey and Yonkers, New York, while also making a move to “de-mall” the interior of Jersey City’s Hudson Mall to add industrial and self-storage space.
Those moves came after the company reported $20 million less in second quarter net income year over year in 2021.
Target has been no stranger to big New York City leases during the pandemic. The retailer last year leased 90,000 square feet at Macerich’s Kings Plaza in Mill Basin, taking over a former three-story J.C. Penney outlet. The retail lease was the largest in Brooklyn for all of 2021.
The company continues to zig as others zag. Ikea, for instance, made the opposite move in an outer borough last week, announcing the end of a 115,000-square-foot lease in Rego Park, Queens, only three years into a 10-year deal.
— Holden Walter-Warner