Blake of Pyramid Brokerage handles six retail leases at Village Sq. Mall totaling 7,600 s/f

Guy Blake, CCIM, of Pyramid Brokerage Company, has completed six retail leases totaling 7,600 s/f at the Village Sq. Mall. The 22,000 s/f neighborhood center located at 1191 Rte. 9W was acquired by Marlboro Equity, LLC in September 2005 for $1.4 million. The property was 50% vacant at the time and was in need of some TLC. The owners put new roofs on and painted the whole place. Blake was hired in early 2006 to handle the leasing. "I give the owners a lot of credit," said Blake, "They spent the necessary money to fix the place up and that made my job a little easier." With the facelift and a generous fit up allowance, new tenants started coming on board. The first was Dr. Sherali Khurshid, a dentist from Fishkill who set up shop in a former hair salon. He was followed by Sharen Branch who opened a 2,000 s/f wellness center and offers meditation, massage and detox services. Denise Justo relocated her pet grooming business from a beat up space a few miles to the south and Luisa Reyes opened an Allstate Insurance office in a 1,000 s/f space. Mark Garrison just signed a lease on a 1,600 s/f end cap for a bagel store and Joe Wiles, a Newburgh chiropractor who lives in the town, is taking the last remaining retail space. "It's a perfect fit for me," said Wiles, "It's close to home and I'm thrilled to be located between a dentist and a wellness center." Khurshid is also thrilled. "I get some serious back aches," he said. "It'll be great having a chiropractor next door." There is still 4,000 s/f left to lease, mostly second floor office space that is accessed from the rear of the building. "I'm very happy with the tenant mix we have now," said Blake, "the new people are a great complement to the existing tenants and now they're teaming up and running coupon ads in the local papers trying to bring more traffic to the center. It's a win-win situation."