Normandy Real Estate Partners picked up a stake in a Long Island City warehouse it is planning to reposition and expand into a 195,000-square-foot office building, the firm told The Real Deal.
The New Jersey-based investment firm closed earlier this week on the $54 million purchase of a stake in the six-story, 130,000-square-foot industrial property at 43-10 23rd Street. Normandy will now redevelop it with the owner, Leon Kassabian’s Kassabian Realty, into a Class A, loft-style creative office property.
Normandy [TRDataCustom] also secured a $66 million from fund manager AllianceBernstein for the acquisition and redevelopment costs, sources said.
Tenants include baby furniture maker the Baby Sweet and art restoration service Gloria Velandia Art Conservation.
Normandy and Kassabian plan to give the building a full gut rehabilitation, lobby renovation and more outdoor spaces, Normandy said. The Kassabian family’s ownership in the property dates back to at least 1980, property records show.
Dustin Stolly
JLL’s Dustin Stolly and Aaron Niedermayer brokered the debt financing, and CBRE’s Paul Amrich and Neil King were hired to handle office leasing at the property, which has 13-foot ceiling heights.
Kassabian, a longtime investor in Queens, recently sold a 50,000-square-foot warehouse at 30-12 41st Avenue in Long Island City to LargaVista Companies for $27 million.
Normandy has been particularly active lately with acquisitions and office repositionings. The firm took a majority stake in the Dumbo Heights office complex for $100 million and has repositioned 125 West 25th Street and 797-799 Broadway in Greenwich Village.
(To view more of Normandy Real Estate Partners’ commercial sales transactions, click here)