King Polo Starts Citywide Push With Queens Retail Lease
By Tom Acitelli September 29, 2009 11:58 am
reprintsOn the heels of this week’s City Council push for more grocery stores in areas of fresh-produce scarcity, a new supermarket with plans for citywide expansion laid the groundwork for a first store in Jamaica, Queens. King Polo signed a 30-year lease for 13,400 square feet at 89-14 Parsons Boulevard.
To spur the development of more grocery stores, the City Planning Commission passed a resolution, awaiting council review, that includes both zoning and financial incentives for developers. Circumventing existing zoning laws, developers would be allowed to build larger spaces, and supermarkets that devote a certain amount of space to fresh produce, meat and dairy would be eligible for tax incentives. Areas targeted in the resolution include central Brooklyn, the South Bronx, northern Manhattan and Jamaica, Queens.
King Polo owner Anibal Rodriguez, a grocer with stores in Brooklyn and Queens, plans to expand the concept at a rate of two supermarkets a year throughout the five boroughs. His sights are set on Harlem as the next King Polo site.
The asking rent for the Jamaica space was roughly $30 a square foot, according to Crain’s. Besen Retail brokered the transaction, representing both parties. Adam Caplan represented King Polo; Elliott Dweck and Matt Mager repped landlord the Dermot Co.
