impacting NY’s real estate market
Green Ivy Organic offers a large variety of produce, fresh flowers, and grocery items. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | NOV. 12 - NOV. 18, 2021 23
break rooms inside where couriers
can sit down rather than
waiting for their next order
outside.
While Gorillas is certainly
well-funded, they do have
a cap on how much they’re
willing to spend on a lease,
he said. Getting started during
the pandemic, when rents
were lower, gave the company
time to get a “good foothold,”
he said, and the company was
getting established before
the boom of quick-commerce
apps. As they’re just looking
for storage, he said, Gorillas
might get a little more “bang
for their buck,” in terms of
what they can fit in each location,
since they don’t need to
build out space for aisles and
different departments for customers
to peruse.
Manhattan landlords were
concerned at first about leasing
space to a brand-new company.
“Most New York landlords
are pretty sophisticated, and
you always have to weigh risk
with any deal you’re looking
at,” he said. “Gorillas, specifically,
is very well capitalized
by strong, strong VC backers.
I think that helped to give
landlords a lot of confidence in
what these guys were doing.”
Some grocery stores are
having the opposite experience,
the Brooklyn-based store
owner said. Finding a large
and welcoming space is “crazy
hard to find,” he said, and the
spaces are pricey.
“Landlords would rather
cut up a large space and
charge more rent than get
an anchor tenant,” he said.
“Supermarkets are, margins
are everything, right? When
you’re paying rent in the millions,
it makes a space look
less attractive and appealing.”
The final installment in
“The Race to Deliver” will examine
labor relations between
the companies behind the grocery
delivery apps and their
workforce.
THE RACE TO DELIVER
JOKR’s micro-warehouse -or “dark store” – in the Financial District. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
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