47-37 Austell Place, Long Island City, NY
A partnership of Drake Street Partners, Normandy Real Estate Partners, and GEM Realty Capital has purchased the Long Island City property between Skillman Avenue and 27th Street. The more than 110,000-square-foot former industrial building, which also has addresses of 47-11 and 47-51 Austell Place, has large windows, open-floor plans and a rooftop terrace with views of the Manhattan skyline.
“There was substantial demand for the property as a value-add office redevelopment,” HFF’s Jeff Julien, who represented the seller, Time Equities, with colleagues Eric Anton and David Fowler, said in a prepared statement. “Due to LIC’s attractive loft warehouse building stock, transit infrastructure and access to Midtown, it is an attractive investment profile.”
Newspaper delivery service Mitchell’s NY is the sole tenant in the building. The company signed a seven-year deal last year for roughly 40,000 square feet of space, as CO previously reported. Mitchell’s has delivered various New York City publications since 1946, including The New York Times, Newsday, Observer, Wall Street Journal and Variety, along with bakery items and beverages. The building was once occupied by financial services and pharmaceutical printer Confort & Company, a subsidiary of R.R. Donnelley & Son.
About Drake Street Partners
Drake Street Partners is a private real estate company that utilizes its extensive expertise to invest in commercial real estate assets in the New York metro area. The company creates value for investors by acquiring and improving properties and focusing on repositioning, renovation and intensive asset management.
About Normandy Real Estate Partners
Normandy Real Estate Partners (“Normandy”) is a leading real estate operator and investment manager headquartered in Morristown, New Jersey, with offices in Boston and Washington, D.C. Normandy currently manages a series of discretionary real estate funds totaling approximately $1.5 billion of equity commitments. Normandy’s existing portfolio includes more than 15 million square feet of commercial assets, four hotels and numerous land development sites. Normandy targets value added real estate investments in the gateway markets of Metro New York City, Boston, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. where opportunities exist to enhance value through creative repositioning, financial restructuring, intensive management, and capital improvements. For more information visit www.normandyrealty.com.
About HFF
HFF and HFFS (HFF Securities L.P.) are owned by HFF, Inc. (NYSE: HF). HFF operates out of 22 offices nationwide and is a leading provider of commercial real estate and capital markets services to the U.S. commercial real estate industry. HFF together with its affiliate HFFS offer clients a fully integrated national capital markets platform including debt placement, investment sales, equity placement, advisory services, loan sales and commercial loan servicing. For more information please visit hfflp.com.
About Time Equities Inc.
Founded in 1966, privately-held Time Equities Inc. (TEI) has been in the real estate investment, development and asset & property management business for more than 40 years. With properties in 25 states, four Canadian provinces and Germany, the TEI portfolio consists of approximately 22.1 million square feet of residential, industrial, office and retail property. For more information, please visit http://www.timeequities.com/.