By James Prendamano

Last week I spoke with the Staten Island Advance business reporter, Tracey Porpora about why developers are constructing new Staten Island retail centers when the National trend is to reduce the number of brick and mortar stores.

Currently, Staten Island residents spend upwards of $1.2 billion shopping off Island. The main reason for this is the lack of quality retail options coupled with the absence of dynacmic overall shopping experiences. Contrary to what some people might think, there simply isn’t enough quality retail in our borough as evidenced by the vast amount of money spend shopping off Staten Island each year.

As a borough, Staten Island has the second highest median family income in New York City and a population of nearly 500,000 residents. When you combine those factors, we become very attractive to retailers which is why developers are willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars constructing and expanding shopping centers in our borough.

However, building a center for retail alone isn’t enough.  Today’s shoppers are looking for experiential retail, engaging dining options, lifestyle components and “adventuretainment”.  They want an “Instagram” worthy experience and they want it all in a clean, aesthetically engaging center where they can spend as much or as little time as they want.

I’m proud to be the exclusive leasing agent for the two new Staten Island retail centers being constructed on our waterfront.  Both Empire Outlets and Riverside Galleria offer shoppers exciting experiences that are uniquely different from one another and any other center on Staten Island.

At Casandra Properties, we take great pride in delivering category defining shopping experiences and access to quality retail options previously denied our beloved borough.