RE Business: Backfilling, Repurposing Spaces Can Alleviate Pressure on Greater New York City Retail Market

“Long Island has nearly 3 million people, and we don’t have nearly enough retail space in our major markets,” says Justin Breslin, vice president of owner-operator Breslin Realty Development Corp. “So we’re seeing major pushes from national grocers, as well as both national and discount fitness concepts, to get into spaces that have been vacated by junior box tenants.”

One such deal that Breslin is particularly excited about involves the conversion of a former Babies ‘R’ Us store at Sayville Plaza in Bohemia into an Uncle Giuseppe’s Marketplace. That project, which is expected to be complete this summer, represents a more extreme end of the spectrum in terms of the challenges of backfilling and repurposing space (more on that later).

And those are just examples of big boxes whose previous occupants cracked the mainstream news cycle. Long Island is dotted with smaller, high-quality retail spaces that are being eyed by competent operators who just need to figure out how to rightsize their formats for the spaces in question.

“We recently backfilled a former Boston Market restaurant space with Wild Fork, a South American company that sells frozen meat products,” Breslin says. “That deal is a great example of a group coming out of the woodwork and taking advantage of great retail spaces in which they can maximize their use.”

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