As e-commerce and grocery delivery services boom, Turnbridge Equities scooped up a South Bronx industrial site that could hold up to 890,000 square feet of warehouse space.
The firm paid $56.2 million for the 10-acre industrial development site at 980 East 149th Street, Crain’s reported. ACORE Capital financed the acquisition with a mortgage and mezzanine loan totaling $43.6 million.
A recycling business currently leases the South Bronx lot, but Ryan Nelson, a managing principal at Turnbridge, told Crain’s the company will develop a large warehouse on the site to attract food-distribution and wholesale businesses that supply nearby Hunts Point Market. He did not say when the development would begin, but said the acquisition was a long-term investment.
As e-commerce services like Amazon and Jet fuel demand, industrial buildings that would have languished a few years ago are now highly sought after for “last mile” delivery. Nelson told Crain’s the South Bronx provided quicker access to Manhattan than Brooklyn and Queens, and tenants could avoid bridge tolls.
The latest deal marks Turnbridge’s third biggest acquisition of industrial space since the start of 2018. Last year, the company bought a 90,000-square-foot warehouse in East New York, and spent $60 million on 550,000-square-foot warehouse in Parsippany, New Jersey. [Crain’s] —Decca Muldowney