On Jamaica Avenue, Prime Retail Space Opens Up

NEW YORK CITY-While Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue holds the title for the world’s most expensive retail streets, as for the city’s busiest block, look no further than Jamaica, Queens. Home to major retailers such as Marshall’s, Home Depot, the Gap and Bally’s Total Fitness, a new opportunity has opened up at 160-08 Jamaica Avenue, says Yosef Katz, senior broker at GFI Realty Services, who has been exclusively retained to sell 57,000 square feet of multi-level retail, along with 100,000 of air rights here. GFI is representing private financial institution Petra Capital in the REO.

Katz tells GlobeSt.com that due to the tremendous foot traffic along the Jamaica Avenue corridor--which is more than 85,000 pedestrians on a total weekday, according to the Jamaica Center BID--interest in the site is running high. “All the retail tenants are looking at it,” he says. “You don’t really see a spot this big available for lease on this type of block. It doesn’t come onto the market that often.”

In Jamaica’s central core, the neighborhood includes 3.8 million square feet of retail space with average rents starting at $44 per square foot, according to the New York City Economic Development Corp. With Gertz Plaza Mall, Jamaica Multiplex Cinemas and the MTA’s Long Island Rail Road hub all within steps of the property, the site was originally slated to become a two-story Conway Department Store, Katz says. But during the downturn, the property was foreclosed upon; now he estimates it will go for around the mid-$20 million mark.

“There is also a residential component possibility here, which is also very interesting,” Katz says, who says mixed-use and multifamily development is next for Jamaica. After the city passed the Jamaica rezoning plan in 2007, the plan protects Southern Queens’ signature low-rise buildings while encouraging a mix of commercial and residential uses across 368 blocks here, the NYCEDC says.

With access to the LIRR, AirTrain to JFK Airport and the E, J, and Z trains, the downtown may also see hotel development in order to handle the high volume of travelers coming in-and-out of the area. “There has been talk before the downturn,” Katz says. “It kind of stopped, but now it’s starting to come back. I think you are starting to hear some rumoring again of the residential components and even hotel components coming back to Jamaica Avenue.”

New projects in Jamaica’s downtown include the inter-modal $55-million Station Plaza, which will realign Archer Avenue to provide a new transfer for bus and rail users; the $196-million renovation of the Queens Family Courthouse into a 346-unit mixed-use development; and the $19-million development of the Sutphin Boulevard Underpass, where 5,500 square feet of retail space across from the AirTrain is available for lease, according to NYCEDC.

Talks about student housing construction at CUNY’s York College campus are also in discussion, Katz says. “With the close proximity to all the trains, it is prime retail,” he says. “Every urban retailer just lines that block.”