East End Capital bets on Sunnyside industrial

Firm acquired renovated Queens warehouse for $42M

Jonathon Yormak,founder, managing principal, East End Capital; and map of 48-02 48th Avenue in Sunnyside Queens (East End Capital, Google Maps)
Jonathon Yormak,founder, managing principal, East End Capital; and map of 48-02 48th Avenue in Sunnyside Queens (East End Capital, Google Maps)

East End Capital has reportedly taken a bite out of Queens’ busy industrial market, acquiring a renovated industrial property in Sunnyside.

The firm paid $41.7 million for the warehouse at 48-02 48th Avenue, according to the Commercial Observer. Empire Office was the seller of the 140,000-square-foot property.

The facility sits on more than two-and-a-half acres of land. The complex is three stories tall, including a 10,500-square-foot parking lot. In the last three years, Empire Office contributed $2 million to improvements for the property, including a partial new roof, upgraded electrical and the addition of two loading docks.

A Meridian Capital Group including David Schechtman and Lipa Lieberman helped negotiate the transaction.

Calmwater Capital financed East End’s acquisition with a floating rate, non-recourse $34 million loan, according to the Observer. Meridian’s Ronnie Levine and Ben Jacobs negotiated the loan on behalf of the buyer.

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The industrial sector has been hot during the pandemic as consumers turned to online shopping retailers snapped up last-mile distribution centers to get goods to customers more quickly.

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In another outer-borough industrial deal, Sitex Group recently acquired 98,000 square feet of industrial property in Greenpoint, Brooklyn for $30 million. The New Jersey-based investor took hold of 360 Kingsland Avenue via an off-market deal. The property is near Newtown Creek and a short distance from the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

This is at least the second major industrial purchase to happen in Sunnyside in recent months. In November, Maryland-based Realterm Logistics bought a 21,000-square-foot warehouse at 34-52 Laurel Hill Boulevard for $25 million. The seller was American Compressed Gases, Inc.

In October, East End teamed up with King Street, Alberta Investment Management Corporation and an unnamed sovereign wealth fund to acquire and develop up to 750,000 square feet of production space in Los Angeles.

[CO] — Holden Walter-Warner