Long Island City Terminal sign.
NEW YORK CITY- JRT Realty Group, a national commercial real estate provider, has brokered three of the ten largest commercial real estate leasing transactions for 2019, more than any other firm listed in the top ten. JRT closed the large leases in the burgeoning Long Island City, which has experienced a surge of new business after Amazon announced it was going to move to the submarket and after the e-commerce behemoth pulled out.
The three large leases included a lease transaction where JRT, DY Realty Group and Cushman & Wakefield represented the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene for new office space spanning 80,340 square feet at The Factory at 30-30 47th Ave., a former Macy's warehouse in Long Island City. JRT, DY and Cushman & Wakefield currently represent half of the City of New York's entire real estate portfolio.
The other JRT transactions include two leases at Court Square Place at 24-01 44th Rd. in Long Island City, representing the landlord United Nations Federal Credit Union on a new lease with The New York Times and representing the tenant Collins Building Services, a major facilities maintenance firm, on a lease renewal and expansion.
The New York Times moved its 350-person digital advertising team from the New York Times Building to a 57,846-square-foot office space on floors 9 to 11. Existing tenant Collins Building Services upgraded to 30,760 square feet across two full floors on 12 and 15.
"These three tenants are indicative of the diversified profile of companies calling Long Island City home," Jodi Pulice, founder and CEO of JRT Realty, said in a prepared statement. "The neighborhood has a great transportation system, new luxury residential buildings, popular restaurants and available waterfront land with fantastic views of the Manhattan skyline, but importantly, the area offers larger and less expensive office space in Class A facilities."
The strong leasing resulted from the significant growth Long Island City experienced in 2019 when Amazon announced its second headquarters move to the submarket, although it later fell through. However, businesses saw the submarket in a new light, gleaming with advantages for new commercial space.
"Amazon pulling out of LIC was a loss at the time," said Pulice. "However, it put LIC and Queens in general on the map in a more significant way. The world, not just New York, now not only knows where LIC is but also has developed a hunger to learn more. We are highly active in Western Queens and we are seeing firsthand that interest has exponentially gone up from Astoria to LIC."
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Mariah Brown
Mariah Brown is the New York Bureau Chief and Real Estate Reporter for GlobeSt.com, covering the New York Metro area, Northeast region and national real estate trends. She is responsible for producing multi-media content, including articles, podcasts and video. Before joining the GlobeSt team, she served as a New York Times fellow, reported for the Associated Press in New York and Philadelphia and several other New York City-based outlets.
