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Can Staten Island be the New Brooklyn?

New York City’s smallest borough is now poised for a new renaissance as investors and developers pour $1 billion into the North Shore in hopes of striking Brooklyn-style gold.

Staten Island has long been considered the city’s least hip enclave, but these boosters believe it can finally be transformed into the borough’s answer to booming Long Island City or even Jersey City

“Young people want the same types of vertical living as you see in Manhattan and Brooklyn,” said James Prendamano of Casandra Properties, a Staten Island commercial real estate broker. “Not everybody … wants to live in Uncle Joe’s one-bedroom apartment in a semi-detached home in Southeast Annadale.”

Developers are already building…

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Riverside Galleria to open in the Charleston section of Staten Island

Set on 21 acres of waterfront property on Arthur Kill Road adjacent to The Outerbridge Crossing, Riverside Galleria will house a host of retailers, outdoor restaurants, movie theater, an upscale supermarket and wetland preserve.

The 457,000 square foot retail complex is being developed by Melohn Properties, Inc., which has offices in St. George.

Bounded by the Outerbridge Crossing to the north, Arthur Kill Road to the east, Richmond Valley Road and Mill Creek to the south and the Arthur Kill Waterway to the west, the project is expected to break ground in early 2016 and open for business in 2017.

“Staten Island right now doesn’t have sufficient retail to serve the needs of…

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I read with great interest the article about a proposal being pushed by the Staten Island Economic Development Corporation to build a tram system from St. George in Staten Island to lower Manhattan.

At first blush, the idea seemed cool and innovative, but as with all things, the devil is in the details and this idea is no exception.

As someone who has spent his entire life on Staten Island and who has built a career working to resurrect St. George and the North Shore of Staten Island back into the hub of culture, nightlife and liveable housing that it once was, I feel compelled to point out a few things with respect to this proposal.

  1. Does it make sense to spend millions of dollars to study something for which the technology does not yet…

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Staten Island’s Record Commercial Real Estate Sale Completed by Brian McGowan of Casandra Properties

1 Edgewater Plaza, home to North Shore LIJ/Staten Island University Hospital, the New York City Police Department, the city Board of Elections and Community Board 1 was sold to Steven Wu for a record $21.5 million.

LNR Property sold the 268,000 square foot building which sits on a 796,000 square foot lot adjacent to other notable projects such as Ironstate Development’s “Urban Ready Life” project at Navy Pier, a mixed use residential complex comprised of 875 units and 35,000 square feet of retail geared toward young professionals that is expected to open next year which is also represented by Casandra Properties.

“We are pleased to have…

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Jersey Street Sanitation Garage Finally Moving

After Mayor DeBlasio announced that he included funding for the construction of a new District 1 Sanitation Garage at the Fresh Kills Landfill, the Staten Island Advance took a look at their archives to determine how discussions about moving the garage has progressed through the years.

It began in 1990s when residents of Castleton Avenue, Brook and Jersey Streets began complaining about the smell on hot days and began wondering if the refuse that was causing the smell could be toxic. They asked the city to move the garage out of a residential neighborhood.

Later on community activists called for the garage to be moved to the Teleport area which had been pegged as the future home of clean industry.…

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Empire Outlets New York City

BFC Partners will attend the 2015 International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) RECON conference to promote and recruit luxury brands for Empire Outlets. Joseph Ferrara, principal at BFC Partners, hopes to attract retailers that currently do not have a presence in New York at all. With Empire Outlets promised to be a hot spot for tourists and locals, Mr. Ferrara is confident that retailers will…

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900 units of upscale rental housing is quickly rising along Front Street in Stapleton, changing the way the waterfront looks and opening the door to new business opportunities to support thousands of new residents.

Currently the streets along the Stapleton waterfront include businesses such as a can-and-bottle redemption center; auto-body and collision shops; a lighting supply company; a car wash, and Acme Industrial which has been on Front Street since 1979. There’s also a building at 370 Front Street with a sign advertising a Hall for Rent and the Ocean Yacht Club Inc. 50/50 Skatepark is also located on Front Street.

A few For Sale signs on Front Street buildings signal that the area is preparing to undergo change as entrepreneurs hoping to…

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Staten Island Office Space

With all the development projects occurring in the North Shore, it’s not surprise that office space in the vicinity is becoming a hot commodity. John Pitera, our managing director at the St. George based, states “Your most valuable location is the street-front ground floor in a building. But if a company wants some type of visibility, they (business owners) may want the top floor.” The audience in…

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Groundbreaking Ceremony 2015

We’re proud to announce that the Empire Outlets project has created more than 1,800 jobs and brought $285 million in private investment on the North Shore of Staten Island. As members of this successful project, we had the honor to participate in in the ceremony dedicated tot he Empire Outlets project, which took place at Richmond Country Bank Ballpark. You can read more about it by visiting the SI…

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