Barone Management plans a warehouse for the little guys

Developer will charge in the $40s psf for small, partitioned warehouse space in LIC

Rendering of 9-03 44th Road
Rendering of 9-03 44th Road (Credit: Barone Management)

One developer plans to build a warehouse in Long Island City for small businesses that have been squeezed out by e-commerce and logistics tenants who are gobbling up the city’s “last-mile” space.

Barone Management plans to build a three-story, 88,000 commercial building at 9-03 44th Road, and will partition warehouse space into units between 2,000 and 3,000 square feet.

“I think at least half of my warehouse tenants will be contractors that service New York City,” president Scott Barone told Crain’s. “Plumbers, electricians, businesses that install sprinkler systems. These are tenants that traditionally were in Long Island City but have gotten pushed out.”

The developer is spending $30 million on the ground-up development and thinks that tradesman and contractors will pay a premium for the confines.

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Asking rents for the warehouse space will range up to the $40s per square foot, more than double the current market rate for warehouse space.

The upper two floors will comprise of 44,000 square feet of office space, and Scott Barone told Crain’s they’re targeting office tenants. It will also allow warehouse tenants to lease offices on the upper floors.

“Usually industrial tenants have a crappy office in their warehouse, with low slung ceilings and maybe even no windows,” Barone said. “This is a chance for a warehouse user to have a first-class office.”

The developer had initially planned a 199-key Dream Hotel at the site, but last year filed plans for a three-story commercial facility. [Crain’s]James Kleimann