The Kaufman Organization just inked a 99-year ground lease for an industrial building in Long Island City that it plans to convert into office space.
The firm is taking control of 21-01 51st Avenue, a 65,000-square-foot building owned by Martial Enterprises, Crain’s reported. Kaufman will gut renovate the building, install larger windows and replace loading docks. The ground floor will be dedicated to either retail or office space.
The terms of Kaufman’s lease were not immediately clear, but asking rents in the neighborhood top out in the $50s per square foot. The building is near another property Kaufman purchased in 2016 at 24-02 49th Avenue. The company and its partner, Westbrook Partners, paid $195 million for the seven-story, 656,000-square-foot property.
“Both of our properties are a short walk from the G and the 7 trains and you’re a couple of blocks from the Long Island Rail Road stop,” Kaufman’s Michael Kazmierski said. “These are the kinds of buildings where you can have a creative office tenant in Manhattan take an ancillary office space.” [Crain’s] — Kathryn Brenzel