Superfresh / Key Food — Landlord Representation

Assignment Overview — What It Is

Cornerstone was engaged to re-tenant a 20,000 SF stand-alone retail building at 1434 Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, historically occupied by a single grocery operator and fully vacant at assignment. The mandate required a complete leasing strategy, from positioning through LOI negotiation and execution, to secure a single, credit-worthy operator capable of stabilizing one of the landlord’s largest stand-alone retail assets.

Result: Executed a full-building lease with a regional grocery operator within 150 days, restoring income and eliminating 100% vacancy.

Client Objectives — Why It Mattered

Ownership required:

• A credit tenant with strong financials and low turnover risk
• A long-term lease structure with limited TI exposure
• Rapid stabilization of a non-income-producing asset
• A leasing advisor capable of direct outbound engagement, not passive listing
• Institutional discipline, accountability, and execution speed

Existing internal resources lacked the proactive outreach, market relationships, and negotiating rigor needed to secure qualified operators at scale.

Market Realities — What We Were Solving For

Trade-Area Constraints

• Limited pool of large-format operators
• Fragmented data and inconsistent broker engagement
• Historical single-tenant configuration limiting merchandising optionality

Asset-Level Constraints

• Deep floor plate requiring operationally viable use
• Venting, mechanical, and infrastructure considerations
• High visibility but limited recent market momentum

Risk Profile

• Prolonged vacancy and NOI erosion
• High re-tenanting costs if category selection misaligned
• Operator credit and longevity risk

Advisory Strategy — How We Solved It

We implemented a data-validated, highest-and-best-use analysis grounded in trade-area fundamentals:

• Evaluated 21 comparable retail assets, demographic demand, traffic drivers, and competitive supply
• Modeled achievable rent through OCR-based feasibility and multi-scenario underwriting
• Underwrote multiple uses (F&B, medical, fitness, daily-needs retail) to determine viability
• Identified grocery as the strongest category for rent durability, credit, and daily traffic generation
• Prioritized national, regional, and multi-unit operators with proven balance sheets

Recommendations included rent strategy, merchandising logic, lease structure, and outbound outreach sequencing to compress time-to-lease.

Execution & Management — What We Did

A structured execution program accelerated leasing velocity:

• Launched targeted canvassing and direct outreach to grocery and daily-needs operators
• Activated broker networks and coordinated marketing with engineered collateral
• Conducted tours supported by curated demographic data, test fits, and rent guidance
• Managed LOI versioning, negotiation, and deal cadence to preserve leverage
• Coordinated feasibility items including architectural review, mechanical/venting analysis, and build-out requirements

Weekly reporting maintained ownership visibility, and a single point of contact ensured efficient decision-making.

Results — What Happened

• 20,000 SF full-building lease executed
• Secured a regional multi-unit operator (Superfresh / Key Food) with strong credit and operating history
• Achieved the exact tenant profile prioritized by ownership
• Replaced dormant vacancy with long-term stabilized income
• Improved asset perception and competitive standing within the trade area

Impact — Why It Worked

The lease restored rent-roll stability, enabling ownership to refinance under stronger terms and reposition the asset as a reliable income-producing property within the portfolio.

Key impacts:

• Strengthened tenant credit quality and reduced turnover risk
• Improved neighborhood visibility and foot-traffic generation
• Demonstrated institutional leasing discipline rarely applied in neighborhood retail
• Reinforced Cornerstone’s model of proactive outreach, underwriting rigor, and measurable financial outcomes

The successful execution led to additional assignments and long-term advisory engagement across the landlord’s portfolio.