Newmark Arranges Whole Foods Market Lease at Continental Towers on Manhattan's Upper East Side

Newmark has arranged an 8,121-square-foot retail lease for Whole Foods Market at the base of Continental Towers, a 36-story, 538-unit residential building at 1524 Second Avenue on Manhattan's Upper East Side. The Shopping Center Group represented the tenant, while Newmark represented landlord ConTowers Associates Limited Partnership in the transaction, announced July 29, 2026.

Deal Details and Tenant Plans

Whole Foods Market signed a long-term lease for the ground-floor retail space at the northeast corner of Second Avenue and East 79th Street. The grocer will operate one of its smaller-format neighborhood stores at the location, offering prepared foods, coffee, fresh produce, and everyday essentials designed for convenient, high-frequency shopping in the surrounding neighborhood.

Newmark Vice Chairman Jeffrey D. Roseman and Director Drew Weiss served as exclusive retail leasing agents for the property and represented ConTowers Associates Limited Partnership in the transaction. Chase Wells and Jacqueline Klinger of The Shopping Center Group represented Whole Foods Market.

"This transaction presented a unique opportunity to secure a highly visible corner location in one of Manhattan's most established neighborhood retail corridors," Roseman said. "The combination of the property's location, visibility and surrounding residential density made it an excellent fit for Whole Foods Market's neighborhood store format."

Continental Towers and the Surrounding Retail Block

Continental Towers, built in 1974, contains 538 residential units across 36 stories. The property is located at 1524 Second Avenue, also identified in property records as 301 East 79th Street.

Whole Foods Market will join Chick-fil-A and Goldfish Swim School at the property, both of which signed leases on the block in 2022. Jeffrey Roseman and Drew Weiss of Newmark represented the ownership in all three transactions.

Market Context

The lease reflects continued demand for well-located neighborhood retail in dense Manhattan residential corridors. Manhattan retail vacancy stood at 6.37% in the first quarter of 2026, with average net asking rents of $137.55 per square foot across the borough. At the prime-corridor level, conditions have been tighter: CBRE reported average asking rents of $678 per square foot in the second quarter of 2026, with a taking-rent index of 84.0%, while JLL reported prime-corridor availability at 13.7%, the lowest level since the firm began tracking the metric in 2017.

The Whole Foods lease at 1524 Second Avenue carried an asking rent of approximately $250 per square foot. Whole Foods Market has been expanding its smaller-format neighborhood-store model in dense urban residential trade areas, focusing on prepared foods, coffee, produce, and convenience-oriented staples rather than the full-scale destination grocery format.

About the Brokers

Newmark Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: NMRK) reported revenues of more than $3.4 billion for the twelve months ended March 31, 2026, and operates from over 185 offices with more than 9,600 professionals across four continents. The firm reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $888.4 million, up 17.0% year over year, with leasing and other commissions up 17.2% and leasing fees reaching an all-time second-quarter high.

The Shopping Center Group is a retail real estate services firm that represented Whole Foods Market in the transaction through Chase Wells and Jacqueline Klinger.

Sources: Newmark press release, July 29, 2026