Blackstone’s Flushing Retail Complex Up for Sale, Expected to Fetch $450M

The opportunity to buy a Queens retail complex just presented itself for any investors who are feeling “Flush” with cash. 

Blackstone is officially parting ways with The Shops at Skyview in Flushing, Queens, and the property is being marketed for sale, sources told Commercial Observer. 

The grocery-anchored, 555,000-square-foot, 100 percent-leased retail complex at 40-24 College Point Boulevard is expected to generate a high level of buyer interest due to its commensurate ability to generate high cash-on-cash returns, sources said. 

As such, it’s expected to fetch around $450 million, with interested bidders likely to include a mix of institutional investors, high-net-worth individuals and also some foreign investors. 

Newmark’s Adam Spies, Adam Doneger, Conor Lalor, Marcella Fasulo, Josh King and Ben Lushing are marketing the property. 

Commercial Mortgage Alert first reported news of the potential sale. 

The Shops at Skyview is composed of two three-story buildings and a 2,639-space parking garage. Blackstone purchased the property in 2015 from Toronto-based Onex Real Estate Partners, paying $400 million, according to The Real Deal. The transaction marked Blackstone’s first foray into Flushing at the time. 

In 2021, Blackstone secured a $285 million commercial mortgage-backed securities loan for the property that was securitized in the BX Trust 2021-VIEW deal. The loan retired existing debt on the property, and Blackstone also infused a further $44.8 million of fresh equity into the property at the time of the refinance, according to a Morningstar report. 

The Shops at Skyview is part of a 3 million-square-foot mixed-use development that spans 13.34 acres, and also includes 1,191 apartments and 50,000 square feet of medical space. 

Located in the heart of downtown Flushing, its biggest retail tenants include BJ’s Wholesale Club, Round1 Entertainment, Sky Zone, Marshalls, Sky Foods and Burlington. Other tenants include Sephora, Nike, Uniqlo and Adidas. There’s also a Target onsite that isn’t part of the sale. 

Roughly 184,000 square feet of leases have been executed in the past 18 months alone, sources said, and the center attracts around 12 million visitors annually. 

Flushing is one of the most densely populated and fastest-growing neighborhoods in New York City, and the retail complex sits in a prime location, just a five-minute walk to the Flushing-Main Street subway station and Long Island Rail Road, and adjacent to the Willets Point redevelopment, which will include 2,500 units of 100 percent affordable housing and a new pro soccer stadium. 

Blackstone may be exiting this particular grocery-anchored investment, but it’s certainly not exiting the space altogether. In February, it completed its $4 billion, all-cash acquisition of Retail Opportunity Investments Corporation, whose portfolio comprises 93 shopping centers over 10.5 million square feet. 

Blackstone and Newmark declined to comment.

Cathy Cunningham can be reached at ccunningham@commercialobserver.com