By Anjali Athavaley
- Daniella Zalcman for The Wall Street Journal
- Newer shops on Nostrand Avenue mix with older businesses. The latest to join the commercial corridor: Walgreen Co. , which bought a large building nearby.
Retail is beginning to flourish in Bedford-Stuyvesant as the Brooklyn neighborhood becomes hot for homebuyers being priced out of places such as Park Slope and Williamsburg.
The first to show up were small businesses like the My Arena lounge; the Busy Bee Bagel Cafe; and Alice’s Arbor, a new restaurant. Big chains are also beginning to scout out the area.
The latest big tenant to show up: Walgreen Co. has signed a 20-year lease on a 20,000-square-foot building at Fulton Street and Nostrand Avenue, a busy shopping strip that also includes a Sprint store, a McDonald's and a Checkers fast-food joint.
Walgreens says the store will have a 6,600-square-foot sales floor—smaller than its usual 10,000 square feet.The rest of the space will be used for such things as storage.
“We’ve tried to become more flexible in recent years, going into urban areas with a more flexible store format,” says Walgreens spokesman Michael Polzin.
Domenick Disaverio, the owner of Bleecker Pastry in Queens, bought the building in December for $7.5 million from Joseph Ashkenazi of Ash Management Realty, a developer. Mr. Ashkenazi says Walgreens is paying $45 a square foot in rent.
Mr. Disaverio says part of the appeal of the building was that he wouldn’t have to seek tenants. “It’s all ready to go as long as they open up,” he says. “We’re just holding our breath and finishing renovation.”
The rent Walgreens is paying is on the high side in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where average asking rents are in the $20-a-square-foot range, according to Douglas Elliman Real Estate. That compares to $75 in Williamsburg and Park Slope, the firm says.
Read more on commercial real-estate in WSJ’s What’s the Deal feature, plus read a how developer Michael Stern is trying to come out of nowhere and amass a mighty Manhattan property empire.