Shake Shack Opening Jackson Heights Outpost
By Mark Hallum September 26, 2023 1:52 pm
reprints
Jackson Heights, Queens, will be getting a new Shake Shack.
The burger chain, which already has three other locations in Queens, signed a 2,727-square-foot lease at 82-11 37th Avenue in the RockFarmer Properties-owned building, also known as Heritage Tower, according to the landlord.
The length of the lease and the asking rent were not disclosed, but a report on the second quarter by Lee & Associates NYC said the average asking retail rent across the five boroughs was about $133.60 per square foot.
Shake Shack — which started out as a food cart in Madison Square Park — has been increasing its location count in New York City since signing a deal to return to Pennsylvania Station in March with a 3,380-square-foot lease with Vornado Realty Trust, which manages the retail spaces owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Shake Shack plans to open the Jackson Heights outpost sometime in 2024.
The landlord was represented in-house by Kostas Koutsothanasis along with Benjamin Weiner and Christopher Walther of Ripco Real Estate. Roberto Rhett, Hank O’Donnell and Carren Coston of GoodSpace NYC negotiated on behalf of the tenant.
“The outer boroughs took a front seat in terms of customer acquisition during the pandemic as more and more people continued to work from home,” Rhett said in a statement. “We were able to secure an amazing corner with great visibility and parking in the building and ensure a prominent position in a vibrant and diverse trade area of Jackson Heights.”
The Ripco brokers declined to comment.
Shake Shack’s other Queens outposts are in the Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst, at Citi Field in Flushing, and at 71-24 Austin Street in Forest Hills.
Located on 37th Avenue between 82nd and 83rd streets, Heritage Tower is a 106,000-square-foot office and retail building constructed in the early 1990s. Tenants include Judlau Contracting, which signed a 14,387-square-foot lease in March while it performs construction work on nearby subway stations for the MTA.
RockFarmer and a joint venture partner, RWN Real Estate Partners, purchased the property for about $55 million in August 2018 with the help of a $42.5 million loan from the estate of the former owner, Commercial Observer reported at the time.
Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.
