Cult favorite Wegmans is taking over the lease at the former Bed Bath & Beyond space on the Upper West Side.
Signage appeared this week indicating the change at the storefront at 1932 Broadway, between West 64th and 65th streets, the West Side Rag reported.
It will be the supermarket chain’s third New York City location, after those at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Astor Place.
The long-term lease was signed in February with an asking rent of a blended $3.5 million a year, the New York Post reported at the time.
“The space at 1932 Broadway has been leased by Danny Wegman and is a personal investment,” a Wegmans representative told the outlet. “At this time, we have no immediate plans to open a store at that location.”
Wegmans worked on an uptown location years ago, according to the representative, but switched its plans to the Astor Place spot when the first deal fell through. The Bed Bath property only became available after the Astor Place Wegmans opened.
The new store will likely span 58,874 square feet on the lower levels of Glenwood Management’s luxury apartment building, for whom this will be another tenant perk. A recent study found that popular supermarkets boost rents at the apartments above them.
The neighborhood’s retail properties, however, have been struggling. In September of last year, the West Side Rag found 85 ground-floor storefronts standing empty along Broadway between West 59th and West 110th streets. That works out to 1.6 vacancies per block.
Wegmans’ planting a flag in the heart of that neighborhood may be a harbinger of better times ahead for retail landlords.
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