The project, which would have been the retailer’s first store in New York City, faced several challenges due to opposition from community officials, labor unions and grassroots organizations based on concerns about wages, staffing, working conditions and impact on local businesses. The proposed location also hit a snag after controversy broke over the Walmart’s legal troubles regarding alleged bribes it paid out to expedite its retail expansion south of the border. On Friday, a Crain’s article revealed that supermarket chain ShopRite would anchor Gateway II after negotiations between Walmart, Related and the city fizzled out.

But brokerage sources tell GlobeSt.com that the retailer will most likely establish a foothold within one the boroughs in due time. “They are still trying to get as close to Manhattan as possible, but they are going to continue their search,” says Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of retail leasing, marketing and sales at Prudential Douglas Elliman, in an interview with GlobeSt.com. “If they can’t get a dream deal in Manhattan like they try, there are other possibilities that are availing themselves in Brooklyn, but it may not be so central as Related had.”

In addition to Brooklyn, Consolo says that Staten Island would also be viable location for the store based on logistics and demographics. “That would make sense in one way,” she says. “They would get the Brooklyn people, they’d get a lot of people from New Jersey and they have the opportunity for a lot of space,” she says, noting availability of land in the borough is plentiful and affordable. “Staten Island is their profile for sure, but they really want more of a cross section because today, everyone is a cross shopper, whether discount, mid-range and luxury.”

Consolo says Upper Manhattan could also be contender. But overall she says the retailer will be successful whether they land in the city. “They are going to prevail,” she says. “I think we are going to hear something before the end of the year.”

Joanne Podell, executive vice president at Cushman & Wakefield, tells GlobeSt.com that any high-density location with enough space for new development could work. “They will be strategic and they will find a location that obviously will be their prototype and they won’t have to retrofit,” she says. “If that was going to work, they would have done it already. Everyone in New York and every borough is going to shop Walmart. There are exceptions, but almost anywhere they go, there’s a customer for them. It is really about finding a location that they can use that services their requirements.”