REAL ESTATE THE COURIER/Photos by Liam La Guerre National retailers moving to Queens faster than Manhattan and Brooklyn BY LIAM LA GUERRE [email protected]/@LiamLaGuerre Dunkin’ Donuts — like many national retailers — is running on Queens. The consumer market for national retailers is expanding faster in “The World’s Borough” over anywhere else in the city as a new report showed national brands have opened more new locations in Queens during the year. Dunkin’ Donuts, 7-Eleven and T-Mobile were among retailers that added the most new branches in the borough, and the number of national chain retail locations in Queens increased 6.4 percent to 1,770 stores this year from 1,663 in 2013, according to the Center for an Urban Future’s State of the Chains. While Manhattan still has more than 1,000 more national chain locations than Queens, Manhattan only added .4 percent or 10 new locations. Brooklyn, which has 1,593 chain stores, saw a 3.4 percent gain, and the Bronx added 4.2 percent. Staten Island is the only borough that didn’t see an increase. T-Mobile, which had the most new locations in Queens, added 17 new outlets to bring their total in the borough to 55, followed by CVS, which opened 14 new locations to expand to a total of 48 stores. Dunkin’ Donuts, which added seven stores, still tops the list in total locations in Queens with 161 stores. A notable increase from the report is beauty product store L’Occitane en Provence, which had just one store the previous year, but added nine stores in 2014. However, there were some chains that dropped their presence in Queens, including ice cream maker Cold Stone Creamery, which closed four locations, and now has just one remaining Queens outlet. The Corona and Elmhurst zip code of 11373, which includes Queens Center and Queens Place malls, has the highest number of chain stores in the borough. Visit https://nycfuture.org/research/ publications/state-of-the-chains-2014 for the full report. Photo courtesy of Massey Knakal Another Astoria waterfront warehouse for sale, likely to become condos BY LIAM LA GUERRE [email protected]/@LiamLaGuerre The owner of another Astoria waterfront site with potential for a large development could sell the property for four times its last selling price as the neighborhood continues its hot streak. The property at 30-55 Vernon Blvd., which Eastone 26 Ave LLC bought for $8.2 million last year, is now up for sale again and there have been offers of around $35 million, said Stephen Preuss of real estate fi rm Massey Knakal, which is marketing the site. At that price, the property would trade for nearly $230 per buildable square foot, which would rank among the top land prices in Astoria. This would mean that prospective owners would most likely focus on a residential development to cover the purchase price and maximize profi ts, Preuss said. Currently, a warehouse and parking lot occupy the 37,116-square-foot site, enough to erect a structure with 140,665 buildable square feet. If air rights from the adjacent residential properties were purchased or a rezoning occurred, the property could have up to 220,000 buildable square feet, Preuss said. Preuss imagined the best use for the site would be a mixed-use development with ground-fl oor retail, an offi ce or event space on the second fl oor, and condos on the remaining fl oors. “This area is quickly emerging, and the site holds immediate value with its waterfront location along with the benefi t of several local mega-projects underway,” Preuss said. The Astoria waterfront has been scorching hot recently with planned projects like the enormous Astoria Cove, which received the green light from the City Council last month, and the Durst Organization’s Hallets Point project. In addition to those projects, construction is planned next year for a glassy 77-condo building by developer New York Lions Group not far from the waterfront. Also, in October, developer Shibber Khan paid $57 million for a waterfront site at 11-12 30th Dr., which has 460,000 buildable square feet. It is located just a block south of the Eastone 26 Ave LLC property.
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