Criterion’s next self-storage site will be in Upper Manhattan

The site was to be home to a Western Beef supermarket

Shibber Khan’s Criterion Group is continuing its self-storage development, with plans now to bring a three-story warehouse to Upper Manhattan.

The Queens-based company, through a limited liability company, pre-filed an application with the Department of Buildings for a self-storage facility at 2924 Eighth Avenue. The building will measure almost 110,000 square feet, according to the application.

Khan did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Criterion is in the market for a construction loan in the area of $60 million with a Newmark Knight Frank team of Dustin Stolly, Jordan Roeschlaub and Daniel Fromm assigned to secure the financing.

The site of the new development, between West 154th and 155th Streets, is near the Harlem River Drive and appears to be a parking lot.

Criterion appears to be building the development with Western Beef’s Peter Castellana III. The LLC through which Khan filed the application, 280 W. 155 St. Owner LLC, owns the three parcels where the development will be built. Property records link that LLC to Castellana, who could not be reached for comment.

In 2011 Castellana filed plans for a three-story building at the site. It would have had an address of 280 West 155th Street and included a supermarket and offices.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Criterion had been primarily known for its work developing multifamily properties in Queens. But earlier this year, the company appeared to shift from that strategy.

Instead of planning to sell a Long Island City development site, the developer filed plans to construct a nine-story self-storage property at the location, 31-08 Northern Boulevard. The project will be among the largest self-storage facilities in the city.

Self-storage construction has been growing in the New York metro area, which is facing an undersupply of the asset type.

In New York, where self-storage per capita is less than half of the national average, 17.7 percent of the metro area’s self-storage development is under construction or in the planning stages, according to data firm Yardi Matrix. That’s among the highest percentages in the country. As of Yardi’s October report, 52 self-storage properties are being built in the New York region and an additional 100 are planned.

Some planning advocates have called for policies limiting the expansion of self-storage facilities in the city, reasoning that it provides low-paying jobs and not much employment relative to the amount of space it uses, especially in manufacturing districts. The industry has rebutted those calls, but last year the City Council and de Blasio administration moved to require self-storage projects in industrial business zones get a special permit.