A Carvel ice cream shop that has scooped cones on Beach 116th Street for more than a decade is packing up and moving down the block, but it won't be coming alone. Franchisee Paul Guarneri has signed a 10-year retail lease to relocate his Carvel from 1-89 Beach 116th Street into the ground-floor retail space at One Sixteen, where the ice cream shop will share a single storefront with Cinnabon and Auntie Anne's when it opens in the first quarter of 2027.
The deal was first reported by The Wave, which detailed how broker Jeffrey Lopez of Lee & Associates NYC approached Guarneri about the move and ultimately handled the direct lease transaction. Lopez represents The Marcal Group, the landlord behind One Sixteen, a roughly 130,000-square-foot mixed-use development at 133 Beach 116th Street in Rockaway Park with about 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space beneath its residential condominiums. Guarneri, a local franchisee since 2014, told the outlet that his existing space has been outgrown and that the relocation will better serve the community and expand the customer experience.
“We're excited to bring Carvel, Cinnabon, and Auntie Anne's together in one modern location,” Guarneri said, per the same account, adding that he has operated in the Rockaway area for many years. The combined shop is expected to create a destination for both residents and visitors, welcoming longtime customers alongside new faces drawn to One Sixteen.
Why Three Brands Under One Roof Makes Business Sense
The Rockaway Park move fits into a much larger corporate strategy. Parent company GoTo Foods, the multi-brand platform that formed in February 2024 when Focus Brands rebranded and now oversees more than 6,700 locations worldwide, including Carvel, Cinnabon, and Auntie Anne's, according to GoTo Foods. Carvel itself dates back to 1934 and became the foundational acquisition for private equity firm Roark Capital Group in 2001, the company notes, crediting the chain with pioneering soft-serve ice cream and signature ice cream cakes in the eastern United States.
During 2024 alone, GoTo Foods signed 353 co-branding franchise agreements across 173 locations in 24 states, with nearly half of those deals aimed at streetside real estate rather than traditional mall food courts, according to the company's own reporting on its expansion. Streetside co-branding lets franchisees like Guarneri share real estate costs while capturing multiple dining dayparts — morning cinnamon rolls, afternoon pretzels, and evening soft-serve — all from a single lease. GoTo Foods went further in April 2025 with the launch of Cinnabon Swirl, its first original dual-branded concept merging Cinnabon baked goods with Carvel soft-serve, as reported by Restaurant Dive, which described cross-brand menu items like warm cinnamon roll sundaes topped with soft-serve.
A Growing Retail Anchor Near the Boardwalk
One Sixteen was designed to bring best-in-class operators and everyday conveniences to the Rockaway community, and its ground-floor retail lineup has been building steadily since the eight-story building opened. Developed by The Marcal Group and designed by Fischer + Makooi Architects, the complex includes 86 condominium residences and eight adjoined townhouses, according to New York YIMBY. Completed in 2021, the building sits between Jamaica Bay and the Atlantic Ocean boardwalk and offers residents a 4,600-square-foot roof deck, a fitness center, and a resident lounge, per Blocks & Lots.
Lee & Associates NYC has a track record at the property, having also arranged Orangetheory Fitness's 3,200-square-foot lease at One Sixteen back in October 2019, when broker Jeffrey Lopez and executive managing director Jaime Schultz represented both the landlord and the tenant, according to the Mann Report. The new triple-brand store sits along Beach 116th Street, the neighborhood's primary commercial corridor and one of the three main business districts in Queens Community Board 14, per city planning documents. One Sixteen also offers access to the NYC ferry and the Rockaway beachfront, putting the future storefront within reach of both year-round residents and summer crowds.
Timed to Transit Upgrades and Beach Season
The combination store's 2027 debut follows recent transit investment in the immediate area. In June 2026, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority rolled out new subway cars on the Rockaway Park Shuttle terminating at Beach 116th Street, replacing 1970s-era train sets with updated cars featuring wider doorways built to handle heavy beachgoer traffic. Combined with the ferry access and boardwalk proximity One Sixteen already offers, the site places the new combined store directly in the path of both commuters and summer visitors headed to the beach.
For Guarneri, the move caps more than a decade of running Carvel in Rockaway Park under one banner and marks his entry into a multi-brand format that GoTo Foods has been pushing nationally. Financial disclosures show co-branded Cinnabon and Carvel franchises carry an initial fee of $71,000, with ongoing net sales royalty fees of approximately 6 percent, according to GoTo Foods franchise documentation. Whether that formula pays off at Beach 116th Street will become clearer once the doors open in the first quarter of 2027.
