Developer Atlas Capital Group bought FreshDirect's Long Island City for $48 million, recent report says.
Situated in a manufacturing zone, Long Island City's asking price is the second highest paid industrial property in Queens, where residences can't be developed, Realty Today has learned via Real Capital Analytics.
The 276,705-square-foot warehouse at 23-30 Borden Avenue was placed by the online grocer on the market last February for FreshDirect to prepare itself to move to the South Bronx. The Long Island City warehouse has a manufacturing and storage space. It also has an additional unused development rights of 129,847 square feet, which can be used for a different building project, The Real Deal reports.
FreshDirect, who also leased 20,000 square feet in East Williamsburg in October, will lease the Long Island City until its new branch in South Bronx's completion, of which they broke ground in December last year. It had been reported by the Queens Courier that FreshDirect aimed to sell the property to a buyer who's willing to lease it back to them for one year while they transfer to the South Bronx.
TRD also reveals that Long Island City has attracted creative and TAMI tenants and drawn investors, including Daniel Loeb, hedge funder, who bought a stake in a 150,000-square-foot former warehouse back in 2014. RXR Realty have also eyed shaping office properties in the area.
According to Bob Knakal, chair of NY investment sales for Cushman & Wakefield, Long Island City's space is in high demand right now.
"In recent years, the progression of the New York City real estate market has exerted upward pressure on the value of repositioning the city's once-thriving industrial, warehouse and manufacturing properties. As a result, the demand for this product type has never been greater and continues to attract the attention of a rapidly transforming distribution industry," Knakal told the Queens Courier.
Moreover, Atlas is already a property owner in the Long Island City neighborhood since 2014, such as the factory at 30-30 47th Avenue, of which Atlas and its partners Invesco Real Estate and Square Mile Capital Management have extensively renovated through the years. Even just this January, Polo Ralph Lauren leased 19,000 square feet at the renovated warehouse.
