NYC’s tallest industrial building coming to Queens

Vertical warehouse in Astoria will look as tall as 11 stories

Goodman Group's Gregory Goodman with 40-40 Northern Boulevard (Goodman Group, Google Maps, Getty)

Orion Jones

Research by

Jay Young

Jun 21, 2023, 7:00 AM

International industrial developer Goodman Group has filed plans to build New York City’s tallest warehouse on the southeastern edge of Astoria, Queens.

The 880,000-square-foot structure, at 40-40 Northern Boulevard, will stand more than 200 feet tall, well above adjacent property, according to a permit application Goodman filed with the Department of Buildings on Tuesday.

The structure will have five stories and 50 truck bays, according to the application.

Overseas developers such as Goodman have pioneered vertical warehousing in the U.S., which has lagged behind Asian centers of commerce in pushing the height of industrial buildings. At the same time, developers have sought to capitalize on increased demand for last-mile delivery locations by bringing the warehousing industry from New Jersey directly into New York City.

Multi-level warehouses require truck ramps and cost more to build, but can pencil out because of the high demand and limited space for logistics sites in the five boroughs.

The Astoria development is Goodman’s first in New York City and its third in the Northeast, after warehouses in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and near Allentown, Pennsylvania. Goodman, an Australia-based firm with an international portfolio of industrial property and a $39 billion market capitalization, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

No multi-story industrial facilities existed in New York City prior to 2017, according to marketing materials from Newmark, which brokered the sale of the 3.2-acre site for the vertical industrial building in 2021 for $128 million. The Goodman warehouse will rise in place of an old gas station and Lexus dealership.

It is one of nine multi-story projects that total 7.3 million square feet — increasing the city’s industrial inventory by about a 10 percent, according to Newmark.

In May, Innovo and Affinius Capital landed $334 million in loans to build a 1.1-million-square-foot, two-story industrial complex at 2505 Bruckner Boulevard, the Bronx, where Amazon signed on for 569,000 square feet.

Andrew Chung’s Innovo Property Group recently secured funding to build a 180-foot-tall warehouse spanning 680,000 square feet at 28-90 Review Avenue. A year ago, it received $435 million for another Long Island City industrial development, at 23-30 Borden Avenue. The five-story, 842,000-square-foot project is expected to be finished next spring.

Scott Rechler’s RXR Realty and LBA Logistics also developed a 1.1 million-square-foot industrial center at 55-15 Grand Avenue in Flushing, Queens.

New York