Turnbridge JV Lands $381M for Bronx Logistics Project

Bronx Logistics Center. Image courtesy of JLL

The joint venture of Turnbridge Equities and Dune Real Estate Partners has obtained $381 million for the construction of Bronx Logistics Center, a multi-story distribution facility totaling 1.3 million square feet in the Bronx, N.Y. Working on behalf of the borrower, JLL arranged the financing from accounts managed by KKR.

Turnbridge started putting together the five-parcel development site in 2018, in a series of off-market transactions worth $174 million in aggregate. In 2020, the company brought in Dune as equity partner and secured $105 million in pre-development financing from J.P. Morgan, also with the assistance of JLL.

A future last-mile facility

Bronx Logistics Center will take shape on 14.2 acres at 920-980 E. 149th St., in an Opportunity Zone, within the Hunts Point submarket. Designed by ARCO, the last-mile facility is set to comprise a 500,000-square-foot warehouse and an adjacent 500,000-square-foot parking garage, as well as an additional 300,000-square-foot roof parking lot. Completion is estimated for 2022.

The property is less than 5 miles southwest of the borough’s downtown, just south of Interstate 278. Its proximity to the area’s other major transit arteries such as interstates 95 and 87 enables access to more than 17 million people within a 30-minute drive, according to JLL. The site also includes a CSX freight railway spur and is within walking distance of two subway stations.

JLL Senior Managing Director Christopher Peck, Managing Director Peter Rotchford and Associate Madison Warwick led the Capital Markets team that arranged the construction financing.

The largest of its kind

Upon its completion, Bronx Logistics Center will be the largest multistory distribution facility in the New York City region, surpassing the 1 million-square-foot development of Innovo Property Group and Square Mile Capital Management LLC, also located in the Bronx, at 2505 Bruckner Blvd. Last April, the Innovo/Square Mile partnership took out a $305 million loan for the construction of the Bruckner facility.

According to CommercialEdge information, the two developments are the only industrial projects larger than 100,000 square feet that are currently underway in the Bronx. The borough’s inventory accounts for some 17 million square feet of industrial space.