PE firm reaches $70M ground lease deal for Staten Island self-storage project

Equator Capital Management to develop 136K sf building

Rendering of a planned self-storage building at 2601 Veterans Road West
Rendering of a planned self-storage building at 2601 Veterans Road West

UPDATED, Aug. 15, 6:08 p.m.: Private equity firm Equator Capital Management signed a 99-year, $70 million ground lease for a development site in Staten Island and plans to build a 136,000-square-foot self-storage building.

The $70 million price tag is the aggregate value of annual rent payments for the entire term of the lease, according to Pure Properties Commercial Division’s Eugene Rivera, who brokered the deal. The landlord of the two-acre property at 2601 Veterans Road West is A. Tranchina Incorporated, a seller of construction materials.

Brooklyn-based Equator, founded by Douglaston Development veteran Mehul Patel, in 2015 acquired a development site at 29-01 Review Avenue in Long Island City, where it developed a 143,000-square-foot self-storage building.

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Self-storage has become a booming business in recent years, as ballooning rents forced more New Yorkers to squeeze into smaller apartments.

Pure Properties, founded in 2016, is the U.S. brokerage arm of the Australian investment management firm Dixon Advisory.

Correction: According to Rivera the $70 million figure refers to the aggregate value of annual rent payments over the full term of the lease, not the net present value as previously reported.