Related Has Already Found A Tenant To Fill Its Empty 80K SF Toys R Us Store In The Bronx

Related is filling space left empty by Toys R Us at Bronx Terminal Market with a huge grocery store.

Food Bazaar Supermarket is taking 80K SF in the complex at 601 Exterior St., Related and Ripco Real Estate announced this week. Food Bazaar will be the largest grocery store in the borough when it opens next year.

The space was previously occupied by Toys R Us and Babies R Us locations. Asking rents in the long-term lease were not made public.

“In today's day and age of retail, having your project service day-to-day needs of the local community will bring traffic to your development, and that is exactly what Food Bazaar will do for Bronx Terminal Market,” Related Senior Vice President Avi Kollenscher said in a statement. 

Related developed the complex in 2009. It has 1M SF of retail space and has traditional big-box tenants like Target, Home Depot and Bed Bath & Beyond. Ripco’s Brian Schuster and Peter Ripka represented Related in the deal.

“Bronx Terminal Market has a diverse and powerful group of retailers, so with this space, we wanted to target someone who would be additive to the existing mix,” Schuster said.

The Bronx is increasingly viewed as an attractive place to invest, and there are several megaprojects anticipated. Brookfield, for example, has bought the rights to develop 1.3M SF across two development sites in the South Bronx.

Walmart subsidiary Jet.com is also planning a fulfillment center that is due to open this year. BRP Cos. is co-developing La Central, a massive complex set to bring around 1,000 housing units to the South Bronx, alongside Hudson Cos., ELH Management, Kretchmer Cos. and Breaking Ground.

Community members are still wary about gentrification, developers say, and lenders are sometimes reluctant to back projects in the borough. Grocery stores tend to be among the great unifiers in real estate: desired by landlords, other retail tenants and residents.