The Northeast has seen a busy couple of months on the retail leasing front with grocers, gyms, entertainment venues and other retailers swooping up spots. Many of these markets, especially New York City, experienced a slowdown during the pandemic but things are heating back up with retailers looking toward the major metros, as well as the suburbs, to expand.
Nothing Bundt Cakes, the nation’s largest specialty cake company, is set to join Flemington Marketplace in Flemington, N.J. The popular bakery brand will occupy 1,750 s.f. at the 239,000-s.f. community shopping center located at 325 Route 202, just off the Flemington Circle. Levin Management Corporation (LMC) was the exclusive leasing and managing agent for the property.
Breslin Realty announced the signing of a long-term lease with J.Crew at the Smith Haven Plaza shopping center in Lake Grove, N.Y. Smith Haven Plaza is co-owned by Breslin Realty and Colin Development. J.Crew will occupy approximately 6,000 s.f. at Smith Haven Plaza, which is located on NY State Route 347, joining a new Nordstrom Rack coming to the center in the fall. Additional Smith Haven Plaza retailers include Trader Joe’s, Old Navy, Athleta, Ulta Beauty, Men’s Wearhouse, Shake Shack, Chipotle Mexican Grill, GoHealth Urgent Care, Wild Fork Foods, The Paper Store, Capital One Bank, Charles Schwab and AT&T.
Children’s fitness concept My Gym will open a 3,000-s.f. facility in the Long Island, N.Y., community of Commack. The facility will be located next to Planet Fitness within the 222,000-s.f. Mayfair Shopping Center. Levin Management represented the landlord in the lease negotiations and RIPCO Real Estate represented My Gym.
Life Time will open a 52,000-s.f. fitness club at 10 Bryant, a 30-story office building located in Midtown Manhattan. The facility will feature a cold plunge pool and a steam room, a spa with red light therapy service, coworking and library spaces, barre and yoga studios and personal training space. JLL represented the landlord, Property & Building Corp., in the lease negotiations.
Whole Foods Market opened an 8,500-s.f. store in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood last month. The small-format store will offer a bakery and a prepared foods section. This new location follows the recent opening of a 10,000-s.f. store in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan. This small-format store is located within the StuyTown development.
Whole Foods Market will also open a new 46,711-s.f. grocery store in Reston, Va., next month. The new store will be adjacent to Reston Town Center and is a relocation of an existing Whole Foods store at 11660 Plaza America Drive. The new store is nearly double the square footage of the original location and will feature expanded café seating and a full-service coffee bar. The new Whole Foods is backfilling a former Best Buy that closed in 2020 within Spectrum at Reston Town Center. Lerner Enterprises owns and manages the 270,000-s.f. shopping center, whose tenants also include Harris Teeter, The Container Store, Barnes & Noble and CAVA.
Dick’s Sporting Goods plans a new 120,000-s.f. location under its “House of Sport” brand at Cherry Hill Mall in metro Philadelphia. The opening is slated for some time next year and replaces a former office building site. The store will feature a climbing wall, multiple golf bays with TrackMan simulators, an outdoor track and field and a multi-sport cage that can be used for baseball, softball, lacrosse and soccer. Cherry Hill Mall owner PREIT also notes several other new stores to open by the end of the year, including Coach, Dr. Martens, activewear brand Offline by Aerie and toy company Pop Mart.
Fashion retailer Zara has opened a 44,000-s.f. store in CambridgeSide, an approximately one million-s.f. mixed-use development located across the Charles River from Boston in Cambridge, Mass. The two-level store includes an online order pickup silo and an assisted self-checkout area. New England Development owns CambridgeSide, which originally opened as a regional mall in 1990 and recently launched a food hall.
The Picklr, an entertainment concept centered on pickleball, will open a 36,192-s.f. venue in Danvers, Mass., a northern suburb of Boston. The space is located within a former Bed Bath & Beyond store at Endicott Square, a 56,275-s.f. shopping center that is also home to tenants such as Quest Diagnostics, Salem Five Bank and Advance Auto Parts. Local brokerage firm KeyPoint Partners represented the undisclosed landlord in the lease negotiations. The venue is expected to open before the end of the year.
