(Mark Your Calendars: RealShare New Jersey 2011, September 13 in New Brunswick. RealShare New York takes place Oct. 12 at the Marriott Marquis.)

PARAMUS, NJ-The Goldstein Group has brokered the sale of two retail properties for a total of nearly $5 million, the company unveiled. The 6,800-square-foot former Shiki Restaurant at 1735 Route 35 in Middletown has been sold for $2.3 million by Shiki Realty to D&D Management, which will convert the site into a funeral home. Zorm 2009 has sold the former Ramsey Chevrolet dealership, with 17,000 square feet at 145 Route 17 in Upper Saddle River, to Markland 145 for $2.65 million. That site will be redeveloped for a single-use tenant, perhaps a restaurant, says Chuck Lanyard, president of the Goldstein Group.

“For Jersey, retail is still pretty strong,” Lanyard tells GlobeSt.com. “New Jersey has some of the best demographics in the country, and for the past two years we’ve been closing vacancies.”

Goldstein’s current survey of retail vacancies puts the state at only 8.2% over 92 million square feet, a contrast with the 12% to 15% found in other areas, he adds. “Consumer confidence is low, but at the end of the day, rents are down considerably, and it’s very active,” Lanyard says. “There’s a lot of activity with that real entrepreneurial spirit, seeing locations they couldn’t afford before.”

Mark Handwerker, a Goldstein sales associate and Lanyard represented both the seller and the buyer in the Shiki transaction. Lew Finkelstein, a Goldstein VP, represented the seller in the Ramsey deal.