Multistory Industrial Project Lands $50M in Queens

The multistory facility will rise at 30-02 Whitestone Expressway. Image courtesy of JLL Capital Markets

Triangle Equities, a New York-based owner, operator and developer of commercial, mixed-use and residential real estate, has secured $50 million in predevelopment financing for the construction of a 425,000-square-foot multistory logistics facility in the College Point section of Queens, N.Y. JLL arranged the loan.

Centennial Bank provided the first mortgage financing that replaces existing debt and funds the predevelopment and design of the facility at 30-02 Whitestone Expressway. The property had become subject to a $44 million loan provided by Flushing Bank in 2015, according to CommercialEdge information.

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The multistory building will rise on a 9.8-acre lot located in one of the most well-connected distribution sites in New York City, providing easy access to the Grand Central Parkway, Whitestone Bridge and the surrounding boroughs of Manhattan, Bronx and Brooklyn, as well as Long Island and Westchester County. The property is also close to LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The JLL Capital Markets team which worked on behalf of the borrower was led by Geoff Goldstein, Rob Hinckley and Tyler Peck. Goldstein said, in a prepared statement, the financing presented the bank with the opportunity to lend against an as-of-right industrial development site with access to all major roadways in the area.

Also in Queens, earlier this year Triangle Equities and Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s Urban Investment Group obtained a $136 million recapitalization of a two-story industrial condominium project in Jamaica, N.Y. The same JLL brokers were instrumental in that financing deal as well.

Growth of multistory industrial facilities

Multistory warehouses are an emerging industrial subset that originated in Asia and Europe and has been growing in the U.S. as developers try to find locations to serve the expanding last-mile logistics market. The trend started in Seattle, but New York City now has at least five multistory warehouse properties and five under construction as of October.

In May, Innovo Property Group and Affinius Capital completed a $334 million recapitalization of a 1 million-square-foot, multistory industrial building in the Bronx that came online in 2022. Bank OZK provided a $250 million senior mortgage and PIMCO loaned $84 million in mezzanine financing.

Also in New York City, IPG topped out its latest multistory industrial project in Queens’ Long Island City neighborhood. Construction is slated for completion in 2024.