NEW YORK CITY-The cleanup from Sandy continues here and FEMA looks to be around for a while; the federal organization signed a short-term lease in Forest Hills, Queens for the next several months. The building will serve as FEMA’s New York City headquarters and will provide administrative offices.  FEMA will be housed in a class-A office property located at 118-35 Queens Boulevard. Muss Development signed the tenant with an extremely quick turnaround of 48 hours.

“It was all hands on deck between our company,  JLL, CBRE and FEMA – it was really one of the quickest deals we’ve ever done,” Jason Muss principal of Muss Development explains.  Ken Siegel, of Jones Lang LaSalle, represented Muss Development and the United States General Services Administration — acting on behalf of FEMA — was represented by Mark Greenspan of the CBRE Group.

As to why FEMA chose this building in particular, Muss adds, “I think the combo of proximity to all major -unfortunately -  hard hit areas – Staten Island to the Rockaways, Coney Island, Long Beach and other areas of the  south shore of Long Island, you can get to all these places at a reasonable time.And also we were able to offer them a tremendous amount of parking.

He adds that access to infrastructure including the city’s major airports and subway system were also assets to FEMA who “very quickly identified our building, honed in on it and sealed the deal,” according to Muss.  

“We just wanted to do whatever we could to make the process as easy as possible for them.”

Not only has Muss development secured space for FEMA but it has also opened up approximately 40,000 square feet of space across its local portfolio. The available office properties are intended for displaced companies who need short-term leasing options in order to continue operations. They cover 20 locations, and Muss says, the initiative is “still developing.” Who will take the space depends on “the individual tenant and what they need to do,” he adds.